"To eliminate TMS symptoms, the sufferer needs to become aware of the very feelings he's trying to avoid. And he needs to know--deep down in his gut, not just intellectually--that it's completely OK to experience those feelings. "
I have always thought that it was feelings of anxiety that I would try to avoid. That I would avoid certain people and places because I knew it would create anxiety.
But after wrapping my head around things I have learnt over the last 3 days, I am starting to realise that the anxiety I feel leading up to or during a situation is just another distraction to stop me thinking about what I'm really feeling.
It's can be a viscous circle for me, the days or hours leading up to a stressful event or something I'm nervous about, I will start to feel anxious, as I fight that anxiety and get closer to the event, I start to feel more physical symptoms, sudden headaches or gastro issues and then the anxiety and the physical symptoms feed off eachother, until that fight or flight response happens. It has been this way since I was a child and I have battled it for a long time, for periods I have been quite successful at fighting rather than flighting and the symptoms sometimes disappear.
Now that I really think about it, the chronic "illnesses" I have experienced through my life have really started to become more debilitating and more painful in the past 3 or 4 years, right about the time I started consciously being aware and fighting/hiding these feelings leading up to stressful events.
5 chapters into the mindbody prescription and 2 days into SEP, I feel like i have already addressed issues within myself that I have never before. Having a place to write these thoughts and feelings down really helps, even if nobody reads it, it helps me to understand my thoughts alot better and gives me a chance to better analyse what I'm feeling.
Have made a promise to myself to get back to work tomorrow after being off for the past few weeks, regardless of any pain or pain anxiety I'm feeling.
I have always thought that it was feelings of anxiety that I would try to avoid. That I would avoid certain people and places because I knew it would create anxiety.
But after wrapping my head around things I have learnt over the last 3 days, I am starting to realise that the anxiety I feel leading up to or during a situation is just another distraction to stop me thinking about what I'm really feeling.
It's can be a viscous circle for me, the days or hours leading up to a stressful event or something I'm nervous about, I will start to feel anxious, as I fight that anxiety and get closer to the event, I start to feel more physical symptoms, sudden headaches or gastro issues and then the anxiety and the physical symptoms feed off eachother, until that fight or flight response happens. It has been this way since I was a child and I have battled it for a long time, for periods I have been quite successful at fighting rather than flighting and the symptoms sometimes disappear.
Now that I really think about it, the chronic "illnesses" I have experienced through my life have really started to become more debilitating and more painful in the past 3 or 4 years, right about the time I started consciously being aware and fighting/hiding these feelings leading up to stressful events.
5 chapters into the mindbody prescription and 2 days into SEP, I feel like i have already addressed issues within myself that I have never before. Having a place to write these thoughts and feelings down really helps, even if nobody reads it, it helps me to understand my thoughts alot better and gives me a chance to better analyse what I'm feeling.
Have made a promise to myself to get back to work tomorrow after being off for the past few weeks, regardless of any pain or pain anxiety I'm feeling.
