I've done the six week program, spoke with a therapist at the center that runs this site, and have had years of counselling; I still have TMS.
I would (and still do) constantly "injure" myself. I would try to tease out whether the injury was legitimate (and therefore need babying, be an appropriate cause to feel worried/depressed) or just pain associated with TMS (and be pushed through while exercising, not get worried about, etc.). The TMS therapist with whom I spoke wisely told me of my erroneous way of looking at the problem. He said that it was impossible to know which individual pain might be the result of an injury, and which pain might just be TMS. He said that I needed the change my attitude toward all pain, and not worry about it, which I've been trying to do.
I read an account of a Buddhist monk that cured his TMS which spoke to my experience. He tried mindfulness meditation as well as Chi Gong (the practice of moving positive "energy" around the body, and to areas in pain). None of this worked. What did work for him was focusing on his pain, while not getting emotionally drawn into it. He would focus on his painful area with a neutral/positive disposition, not feeling anxiety, catastrophizing, etc. Along with relaxation exercises and mindfulness meditation to calm myself and make myself healthier in a general sense, I've been trying the monk's techniques of graded exposure.
My problem is my anxiety, and my anxiety as it relates to pain. As a result of TMS, I often wake at 4:00 am. Lately, upon waking, I'll be experiencing a moderate amount of anxiety. In and of itself, it isn't that problematic. What is problematic is my anxiety as it relates to my pain. If I stub my toe, roll my ankle, or injure myself in some other way, anxiety takes over. At the time of the injury, anxiety will wash over me. It feels separate in some ways from the rest of my mind. In some ways, I feel very calm, yet this anxiety storm is happening almost along side my normal thoughts. I will feel my chest tense and start to hurt. I try to calm myself. I try even to tell myself that these anxiety attacks aren't worth paying much attention to, as doing so will only reinforce them. Yet they still happen. As I'm typing this, I'm thinking about having rolled my ankle a few days ago. Frankly, I don't know if the ankle injury is real or TMS, and I can never know. It wouldn't surprise me if it were either. This is causing anxiety, though. Intellectually, I realize that divorcing the anxiety from pain and "injurious" events is the key to overcoming TMS.
Is there anything that I should do differently, or am I handling things about as well as they can be handled? Should I just accept that I'll have an interplay/relationship between anxiety and pain for perhaps the next few months, and just accept this, and trust that it will eventually go away? thanks.
I would (and still do) constantly "injure" myself. I would try to tease out whether the injury was legitimate (and therefore need babying, be an appropriate cause to feel worried/depressed) or just pain associated with TMS (and be pushed through while exercising, not get worried about, etc.). The TMS therapist with whom I spoke wisely told me of my erroneous way of looking at the problem. He said that it was impossible to know which individual pain might be the result of an injury, and which pain might just be TMS. He said that I needed the change my attitude toward all pain, and not worry about it, which I've been trying to do.
I read an account of a Buddhist monk that cured his TMS which spoke to my experience. He tried mindfulness meditation as well as Chi Gong (the practice of moving positive "energy" around the body, and to areas in pain). None of this worked. What did work for him was focusing on his pain, while not getting emotionally drawn into it. He would focus on his painful area with a neutral/positive disposition, not feeling anxiety, catastrophizing, etc. Along with relaxation exercises and mindfulness meditation to calm myself and make myself healthier in a general sense, I've been trying the monk's techniques of graded exposure.
My problem is my anxiety, and my anxiety as it relates to pain. As a result of TMS, I often wake at 4:00 am. Lately, upon waking, I'll be experiencing a moderate amount of anxiety. In and of itself, it isn't that problematic. What is problematic is my anxiety as it relates to my pain. If I stub my toe, roll my ankle, or injure myself in some other way, anxiety takes over. At the time of the injury, anxiety will wash over me. It feels separate in some ways from the rest of my mind. In some ways, I feel very calm, yet this anxiety storm is happening almost along side my normal thoughts. I will feel my chest tense and start to hurt. I try to calm myself. I try even to tell myself that these anxiety attacks aren't worth paying much attention to, as doing so will only reinforce them. Yet they still happen. As I'm typing this, I'm thinking about having rolled my ankle a few days ago. Frankly, I don't know if the ankle injury is real or TMS, and I can never know. It wouldn't surprise me if it were either. This is causing anxiety, though. Intellectually, I realize that divorcing the anxiety from pain and "injurious" events is the key to overcoming TMS.
Is there anything that I should do differently, or am I handling things about as well as they can be handled? Should I just accept that I'll have an interplay/relationship between anxiety and pain for perhaps the next few months, and just accept this, and trust that it will eventually go away? thanks.
