Hi Emre,
This is my take on your question: Forum members could answer your question above and say "yes", "no", "maybe". But this will not be beneficial for your TMS healing. I think we need to make the connections between our experiences and our TMS symptoms ourselves for it to aid our healing. It is the process of "connecting the dots" that is healing, as in doing so we are laying down new neural pathways in our brain. Then we strengthen those new neural pathways until they become our "go to" pathways and replace our old, dysfunctional ones.
That's why I think journaling is such an effective tool, because it forces us to slow down our thinking and really examine it where we can begin to question it given our new knowledge about TMS. My journaling started out fairly superficial as I wrote about this or that situation in my life causing me stress and unhappiness. But then I began to dig deeper and asked myself why it was that others had similar situations or worse, yet they weren't disabled by pain and fatigue. Then I looked at how these current events may be triggering old emotional pain from childhood. Then I had to get really honest with myself and look at how my personality, my way of 'being' in the world contributed to my TMS. Through this process of connecting these factors to my TMS, my entire 'worldview' started to change. This is the process of thinking psychologically and not physically--and I would add, not thinking externally--not looking for the cause of our pain as outside ourselves. But it takes practice. And I think using a program to help us practice these new ways of thinking is necessary for most of us (e.g. the SEP) or otherwise we will just revert to our old, established ways of thinking while journaling.
And the way we strengthen these new neural pathways so they become our "go to" pathways is by taking in information that reinforces our new ways of thinking. Exploring and using this tmswiki is a great way to do this. We can access information about TMS theory or others' experiences with TMS healing by reading, listening, watching, and then test our understanding by actually trying to explain it to someone else. It's an amazing multimedia learning tool! And then we begin to notice that our behavior, thoughts, and feelings change in subtle ways. [There is a beautiful post by North Star ("Old Cow Paths") that illustrates this wonderfully.] And then these subtle changes multiply until we notice that we are truly different, and in the process our pain has decreased or left us entirely.
So my suggestion, Emre, is to grab a pen and paper and begin to work on the question you have posed above. And then, if you feel so inclined, share what you've figured out with us. It is within the process of doing this that you will find healing.
