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Options for a TMS Therapy Session and Why?

N

NIClubber

Peer Supporter
I am still struggling very much with TMS. Anything I try to do to significantly reduce the excrutiating back pain only seems to make it worse, not better. I have been journaling from the start of March, and then been talking to various people since the start of September, but none of it helps reduce either the pains in my back or the dizziness I'm suffering.

I am seriously thinking of having another TMS therapy session, and live in Northern Ireland, where the nearest therapist is in Dublin. I have had one and a half hours of TMS therapy via Skype from a therapist near Birmingham in the UK, but that doesn't seem to have helped.

Bearing in mind that Dublin is still at least a two hour train journey each way and flights and other transport is going to be at least that, what would be the benefits of seeing a TMS therapist in person rather than on a phone call or on Skype??
 
Hey NIClubber, you say you are journaling, when you journal are you releasing any feelings? Do you dig until you find a feeling and then write about that? Do you feel any different emotionally before you journal vs after you journal? That's usually my goal. To dig until I find something and then let it out in all of its glory, crying, anger, etc., and then I feel a little more relaxed after, like falling into a ball on the bed.

Just wondering . . .
 
One therapist said I didn't need to experience the emotion and another one did. Could there be a clue as to where I'm going wrong???????
 
I don't think you need to torture yourself with excess emotions, perhaps making up things that don't exist. But if you try to do something and you can't, you are frustrated right? I also had the sore back and hip, when I tried to stand and cook I could feel the pain and difficulty coming on. So I would stand there until the flash came, then I would go to my room and journal, or just express my frustration, then I would go out again and try. It got a little longer the 2nd time before I would get the flash of frustration at the difficulty I was having. (I saw another thread on this process this week, but I can't remember who?) It takes time.

Not all therapists are created equally, you have to find one you like, that makes sense to you. I think at some point you will have to dig, go back, remember a few things you would like to forget, it seems to me that it's those old moments that cause trouble in the present time. Of course, if we were really good, we would just express our feelings in the present moment and wouldn't need to go back.
 
Every time I come up with a new theory of how to beat the pain, the 'fix' doesn't make a blind bit of difference. It gets more and more frustrating.

Sometimes my mind goes to very dark places, but that is actually becoming less and less over the last 3-4 weeks thankfully.

I can't believe that the emotions that I have been repressing from when the pain/dizziness started MIGHT not be the ones I need to get out of my system.

I have to say I had been suffering from symptoms of RSI in the last few weeks, but they seem to be easing off in recent days.
 
Sounds like you are thinking a lot. It's really a good thing that you are making small steps forward. As far as therapy goes, when I was down and out, driving or taking transportation for hours would have been out of the question for me. Skype sounds like a wonderful option if you find the right person.
 
I am going to try exercise as that may have been what fixed the dizziness the last two times, and I'm hoping it'll fix the dizziness this time. If it does, it MIGHT fix the back pains and buy me a little more time and space to discover what the repressed emotions actually are ......
 
You don't need to do psycho-archeology in an attempt to discover THE incident that caused your TMS pain. You don't need to come up with a theory of what's causing your symptoms, Dr. Sarno has already done this for us and will hopefully win a Noble Prize for it someday. All you need to do is understand the Good Doctor's theory: If your symptom is due to TMS it's cause is psychosomatic. Your subconscious is creating pain as a defense mechanism, attempting to protect you from what it perceives as even more painful emotional issues. You just need to understand that.

* Have you read any TMS books from cover to cover?

* Do you feel you understand the theory?

* Have you done a search here and at the TMS Help Forum for the experiences of others who have your symptoms and have had success overcoming them with TMS methods?

* Have you looked at the Rahe-Holmes list of stressful life events that create psychosomatc/TMS symptoms? Have you experienced any of these events in the past year?

* Given the desperation in your posts, one or two sessions with a TMS therapist may not be sufficient.

Good luck to you.
 
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I have read the first dozen or so pages of one of Sarno's books. I may need to read more.

I understand some of the science behind the pain, but very little else.

I have looked a the Rahe-Holmes list, but it suggested I don't have much stress in my life. I think I'm the least stressed I've been in eight or ten years, which is why I can't understand why I'm having so much pain.

My only possible current stressors are financial (still having five to six thousand credit card debts), current lack of job security (as I work for the Civil Service in Northern Ireland and there is a chance of being made redundant possibly next year or the year after), lack of people wanting to spend time with me ..... As for previous stressors, only possible would be bullying for nearly constantly for five years from age 11 to 16. Much else, I wouldn't remember, to be honest.
 
From the sounds of it you have the TMS personality, created in your past and present. IMHO there's not much use in pleading for help here, until you minimally read a TMS book since you are not getting better. Some people may get an instant gratification TMS cure but that hasn't happened for you. Ass, gas, or grass, but no one gets better without acquiring a minimum TMS KNOWLEDGE PENICILLIN by reading one of the numerous TMS books and some soul searching. Your TMS personality was created over a long period of time, perhaps going back to the womb. You aren't going to get better by reading a few posts at a message board and one session with a therapist. Hit the books and do some searching at the forums of success stories by TMS'ers who have overcome your symptoms.

G'luck!
 
NIclubber, I think Tennis Tom is right in suggesting you read some TMS books.
The best those of us on the forums have found so far are:
Healing Back Pain by Dr. John Sarno
The Great Pain Deception by Steve Ozanich.
I also wrote one with Eric Watson called God Does Not Want You to Be in Pain
which adds the faith and spiritual element, which you can add or not as you wish.

TMS pain is best and fastest relieved by journaling into your repressed emotions
which could well go back to your childhood.
 
Computer have a way of ending messages before we want, and mine just did that.
I HATE COMPUTERS but they have become a necessary tool of living.

We may not think our childhood was stressful, but that may well be because we have repressed anger or other emotions
involving our parents or siblings or we may just have put too much pressure on ourselves.

If you read the subforums, especially the one on success stories, you will probably see yourself and get some idea
about your early years that were stressful.
 
I have the book by Sarno called 'The MindBody Prescription' and read the first 15 or so pages. I'm not the greatest of readers.

I've kinda ruled out a current stressor being the cause of the pain, as I've journalled all about them, and also talked to various people about them. I wonder if it could be the bullying I suffered for the five years at school between 11 and 16.

I've been advised to try writing an unsent letter to the bullies.
 
I recall very little of the detail of my childhood much before I was 11 or 12, so I can only write or talk about a certain amount of things.
 
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