No Success With Any Treatment

N

NIClubber

Peer Supporter
I am having no success with any of the treatments suggested for TMS Recovery .... reading about the condition didn't help, watching videos on YouTube didn't help, writing about the stressful experiences and the emotions I have repressed didn't help, talking to anyone that will listen didn't help. What else am I to try??

I am seriously losing the will to live .......

Help.
 
NIClubber, Yes, what Boston Redsox said! If you're feel despair to the point of losing your will to live…PLEASE! Stop everything and talk to someone. The "Ask a Therapist" feature here is great but sometimes a person needs to talk to someone *yesterday*!

How long have you been working at TMS healing? Please keep in mind that the instantly-better-after-reading-the-book people are a very small minority. It's easy to think about that and feel like you've missed the party.

Please stay in touch here and let us know how you're doing. We care!
 
I initially 'discovered' TMS by accident really back in the first half of February. I have been journalling most weeks since the start of March, putting around 1/3rd of them on a blog I created. Not only do TMS symptoms match all the symptoms I have, but also I do recognise that I do repress emotions *most* of the time.

Don't get me wrong, I probably haven't had a terrible life, but it's definitely not been the best, certainly.

I have two main symptoms at the moment - dizziness and excruciating back, hip and rib pain.

I recall the dizziness starting the week of my birthday back in March 2009. I didn't do too much that week as far as I remember, apart from going to a Lionel Ritchie concert on my own. Nothing stragne or startling about that, other than the previous time I'd been to see him in concert at the very same venue with a date.

The back, hip and rib pain has started at a time when I was not only beginnning to have finance problems, but also when I was seeking medical help for the dizziness two years after it had started. The discovery of TMS came nearly exactly three years after I'd began to seek medical help for the dizziness.

I have written about and talked about all the emotions I can think of that MIGHT be repressed inside my head, but the pains in my back, hips and ribs are only getting worse.

I keep planning ahead and booking things to go and see and do because I think that by that time, my back pain would have significantly reduced as will my dizziness.

Since all this started, I have been a volunteer at London 2012, the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and a little known event in Belfast (my home city) called the World Police and Fire Games.
 
NIClubber,

It certainly sounds like you are doing a lot of the right things. I'm very sorry that you haven't gotten better! I can promise you that it has worked very, very well for me (on back pain/sciatica, tennis elbow, chronic fatigue, as well as a myriad of other minor problems).

I don't have a lot of great wisdom to impart. Continue doing the things your doing and maybe reevalute whether you're really doing all the things that Dr. Sarno suggests. Seeking out a TMS therapist or doctor is very good advice (even if you have to do it long distance). Get Steve Ozanich’s book, The Great Pain Deception, if you haven't already. He went through a lot of difficult times. I've found it helpful and motivating.

Best of luck to you, my friend!!
 
Hi NIClubber,

I just wanted to let you now you're not alone. Sounds like you're in the UK; me too. I have known about TMS for a similar time frame and have also been working on trying the treatment ideas. I have had some great success with reducing my pain levels but have only come kind of close to eliminating them. I take Co-codamol and have been for around 14 months now - I went through a specialist surgeon who offered me fusion surgery on my L5-S1 degenerated disc but I opted to decline this as my pain levels were reducing.

I am currently going through quite a flare up. Its my son's 2nd birthday tomorrow and I am feeling equally terrible and terrified that I might have a bad pain day. We are having a big party for him with 20 family and I've got to put on food and other things, so I guess that's quite a lot of pressure.

Anyway, I'm rambling.... Its easy to do when you're used to journalling to just let your fingers type...! I am going to keep up every single approach I have tried, but more than ever, I need to look at Alan Gordon's advice on outcome independence over and over again. I know that my fear of the pain is the worst thing and you sound similar to me. I am admittedly terrified of this pain never leaving and affecting my families finances and ability to do things. I am terrified of the pain on a daily basis and it is still the first thing I think of when I wake up and the last thing I think of when I go to sleep. I am terrified of the Co-Codamol losing its effectiveness as a pain killer and being forced into needing something stronger just so I can continue to work and do my job (I'm a teacher so a very pressured job). I am also terrified of this TMS approach not working. I have been trying it for so long and am convinced that it is what is wrong, but I am a feeling let down by this flare up. I KNOW that it is the exact reaction I'm having that is increasing my anxiety levels and most likely my pain levels, but it's clear that I still am no where near having the tools to achieve this outcome independence that I so desperately need.

This is the hardest battle of my life and you are not alone. It is lonely for certain though. I made a decision last night to make sure I discuss this with my wife more. I think that even though I have discussed some of the principles with her before, I still feel 'embarrassed' that I'm trying such a 'new age' approach to this, even though I don't consider it to be new age. Or do I? Maybe that is the reason that I haven't discussed it with her more and I'm embarrassed - deep down I am STILL having difficulty believing!!!

Wow this has turned into a little rant. I hope it also doubles as a bit of support though - you are not alone and there are others who are having as much of a difficult time. What needs to stay reassuring is that there are many, many people who I'm sure have been (past tense!!!!!!!! woohoo!!) through similarly dark and difficult times and have come through the other side. We need patience and perseverance. Like I said, the hardest thing, by a huge margin, that I've ever done.
 
NIClubber, SO glad you're going to take advantage of the Ask a Therapist. What's so cool is so many others can benefit from your questions and therapists' replies. What a gift.

And yes, Cap'n Spanky had a great suggestion. Get Steve Ozanich's book. It continues to bring encouragement and hope to me. I too have been in a pretty tough spell. Reading about SteveO's persistence in overcoming his TMS completely has kept me going on the dark days.
 
Yes, I am in the UK. I kinda thought the first two letters of my user name might be a clue to those interested ....

I started having dizzy spells around ten years ago, and the doctors put it down to doing too much overtime (I was doing sixty hours per week plus whatever I was doing on Saturdays). I significantly reduced the overtime I was doing, but also started cycling at the weekends. All of a sudden, I woke up one morning and the dizziness had gone as quickly as it had started.

The same problem happened in 2006/07, and again it was put down to too much overtime, so that was cut down, as well as more cycling at the weekend.

I have had the dizziness this time since the week of my birthday in March 2009 (see above for details), and the back, hip and rib pains since May/June of 2011.
 
On the rare occasions I feel dizzy, I take what my doctor prescribed...
Meclizine, 25 mg, an over-the-counter medication also used for travel sickness.
I'm not a doctor so I'm not prescribing it, but it works for me.

Dizziness is another symptom of TMS from repressed emotions.
 
I wanna try and avoid all medications if at all possible. I think, certainly for me, most of them don't seem to do much good. I'm not totally against them, but if I can, I'd like to stay away from them.
 
I have had severe vertigo from TMS, I could not walk for more than 15 minutes without having to sit, hold my head or else I would throw up, it was diagnosed as benign positional vertigo at the ER, it was horrendous and lasted 10 Days after realizing it could be TMS related, I have had success reducing my back, both hips, legs sciatica type pain symptoms, my left hip felt like I had a knife stuck in it and I would limp from the pain, I also have nerve pain in arms which reduces and completely goes away at times with dr sarnos healing. I have also felt a pinch of pain in my rib, left sided stabbing chest pain, and tons of other symptoms. To anyone reading this DONT GIVE UP...
 
Your vertigo and pain in several places is all from TMS repressed emotions.
When you discover what they are, probably back to childhood, the pain will go away and so will the vertigo.

If vertigo persists see a doctor, but my doctor prescribed something mild and it worked...
It's sold over the counter without a prescription... Meclizine. Drug stores sell what I bought...
it's called Travel Sickness, sold by Rugby. You get 100 capsules for about $5.

But the vertigo and pain are both symptoms of TMS, so go to the Structured Education Program that is free
in one of the subforums of this web site. It will help lead you to discovering your repressed emotions
and/or personality traits that cause TMS such as perfectionism and trying to be the perfect mother.
 
NIClubber and UkAdR, what is your lifestyle and nutrition like? My parents cured their back pain with a combination of nutrition and exercise+walking every day. Also, do you maybe live in indoor or outdoor polluted area? Things to consider...

I do believe in TMS causing problems too, sometimes it can be a combination of different things. (My dad still gets occasional joint pain after holidays with 'good food' and wine, coffee, sweets, a lot of meat,... Even vitamin C or citrus fruit can cause him problems. An iridiologist told him he had rheumatism, though 'official' tests showed nothing and doctors just prescribed pills to him. He was helped a great deal by this book:
A Doctor's Home Cure for Arthritis By Giraud W Campbell though he later tweaked nutrition into more 'vegetarian/macrobiotic' way (he ate A LOT of meat before!) - we now eat meat maybe 2x a week, he can eat more if working physically. He seems now healthier than the rest of us, in most ways!)
I was told tomatoes or wheat or other foods can trigger pain in some people, it might be worth keeping a food/pain journal?
 
I have tried writing about, and more recently, talking about the emotions I believe I have been repressing for a number of years. All of the work I have done, although very cathartic, is making no impact on the levels of pain in my torso.

I believe that 90-95% of ALL my symptoms at the moment are either caused by TMS or are TMS-related.

I have been diagnosed as being stressed twice in the last 18 months or so, but I feel the least stressed as I have ever done in the last 6-7 years, but yet still have a significant amount of pain.

I am at a loss as to where to go and who to speak to next. Nothing seems to be working for me, even though I'm doing what all the books and websites are telling me to do - writing about/speaking about my emotions.

The light at the end of the tunnel that came back into sight when I discovered TMS seems to be getting further and further away.
 
You can try the Ask a TMS Therapist feature at this site or phone or skype one, their contact info is here at the site in a sidebar about finding TMS doctors and practitioners.
 
Have tried Ask a Therapist, but it says I don't have high enough priviledges or something like that.

I have set-up a telephone consultation with Georgie Oldfield of SIRPA UK for tomorrow afternoon, who I am hoping can suggest something new for me to write about or do instead.
 
NIClubber said:
Have tried Ask a Therapist, but it says I don't have high enough priviledges or something like that.

I have set-up a telephone consultation with Georgie Oldfield of SIRPA UK for tomorrow afternoon, who I am hoping can suggest something new for me to write about or do instead.
Click to expand...

Good! I've heard great things about her at both TMS sites. As far as not having "enough privliges" to post at "ASK A THERAPIST" I don't get that, I'll try giving Forest a call about that.

G'luck, as long as you show up and try there is hope and there will be success.
tt
 
I have been struggling to rid myself of MBS for almost a year now. I am following Dr. Schubiner's "Unlearn Your Pain" guide and its really helping me! It's a little more structured, and that's what I needed. I journal, meditate, read (knowledge therapy), and follow the writing exercises each week. This week I am doing unsent letters, and really loving how much better I am feeling. The book has really taught me how to talk to myself about my symptoms. Before if I had a twinge I would panic, which of course initiates TMS. But now I know what to say to myself to calm down and assure myself I am fine, completely stopping the pain. Good luck on your recovery!
 
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