Pain does not present when I think it would

I just don't get TMS...I have feet pain when I stand. I've been seeing improvements in the pain for the first time ever! But when I think ill be in pain at x,y,z activity, my pain is less. But I don't think I will be in pain or am not really thinking about it too much, the pain is more. Shouldn't it be the opposite???

I had to stand at a charity garage sale for 2 hours and going into it I thought 'this will likely hurt but if it does, I'll sit, I'll be okay. Don't stress about it. I found myself standing and standing with far far less pain than normal. Shouldn't it be more b/c I anticipated pain?

Then I go do an activity that is familiar to me and I don't think much about if pain will be there or not and then there is pain.

Aaahhhhh!!!!!!

 

Usually your symptoms get worst not due to your activity but due to your state of mind, your emotion, and most of all, your fear level. If you anticipate pain and not fearing it, it won't come. If you fear it would come, it will come. Tms symptoms are part conditioning, and part chronic Fight or Flight response.

 

But that's kind of what I'm saying. In my daily activities, is when I feel like I'm not fearing it but when I'm out at a special event is when I feel I am fearing it (even if it's subconscious). But it doesn't seem to be the case.

 

Hi, WantToBelieve.

I think you felt little or no pain while standing at that garage sale because you were so busy and your mind was on the sale and not any pain or anything else. I think keeping busy is a great way to feel good. It's the same with distractions. Try to distract your mind with pleasant activities and thoughts, visualizations.

Maybe you feel pain at times because you "want to believe" in TMS but have not quite accepted that the pain is emotional from TMS and is not structural. It's hard for many of us to accept that 100 percent, but it is essential. I suggest you take a new look at Dr. Sarno's 12 Daily Reminders, especially the extended version written by a fellow TMSer, Eric Watson. It is very important to follow them all the time:

Herbie’s Extended Version of Dr. Sarno’s 12 DAILY REMINDERS

1. The pain is due to TMS. This is real pain or anxiety but its caused by subconscious tensions and triggers, stressors and traits to your reactions and fears and also when at boiling point your conscious tension can and does cause real pain too.
2. The main reason for the pain is mild oxygen deprivation. This means that when you get in pain or in anxiety then the the blood is restricted from going to your lower back for instance. The blood being restricted causes oxygen deprivation which causes the pain - remember, where theirs no oxygen then there is pain in the body. Also, The pain stays because of fear and focus to physical organic symptoms and repressions.
3. TMS is a harmless condition caused by my REPRESSED EMOTIONS so even though you think you can harm yourself from the years of pain you have felt and how you feel in general -- so far no reports have been heard from tms healing knowledge causing damage to anyone, it only helps.
4. The principle emotion is your repressed ANGER -- this means under your consciousness lies something that happens automatically to everyone. Tmsers have repressions that are stored because of our personality traits,traumas, stressors, fears, strain, etc... When these stored repressions build and build then eventually they cause the brain to send pain into your body to keep you from having an emotional crises. The mind-body thinks its helping you.
5. TMS exists to DISTRACT your attentions from the emotions, stressors, tensions and strains of your personality traits because if you can get distraction then you wont have to be in emotional turmoil. When you don't face and feel your emotions and they get repressed cause you didn't want to deal with something -- they are just adding up in this beaker, ready to pour over and create real pain and anxiety in your body.
6. Since my body is perfectly normal, there is nothing to fear. So in reality when I fear the pain or anxiety I just cause myself undo strain and tension adding to the beaker of pain. If I fear then I feed the pain, If I fear Its impossible to recondition. Fear keeps the pain and anxiety alive in the body through focus.
7. Therefore, physical activity is harmless.If I want to work against the pain I could but its better to lose some of the pain so when I start my life over I=t have to be in pain trying to heal cause facing the repressions and all the other activities that cause the pain and reversing my fear and focus to them then I can heal.
8. I am resuming all normal physical activity. I don't fear moving anymore. I believe in my bodies ability to heal now. I can move how I want. I will not fear moving with a bent back anymore. I will also practice going out and acting normal again, not in fear of what pain might do to me.
9. The pain is unimportant and powerless. Its only power is how its hidden -- its illusion, Its fear.
10. I will keep my attention on the emotional issues. I will think about my emotions and feel my emotions throughout the day. I will not judge, criticize or fear my emotions. I will not run from my emotional issues but face everyone of them. I will feel my emotions fully and cry if I need to. Then I will release the emotion and get my mind and thoughts back to my life and living in the present, in flow.
11. I am in control of all of this. This is how I recover.
12. I will be thinking PSYCHOLOGICALLY AT ALL TIMES. This means I will keep my thoughts on psychological issues like happiness, fear and anger -- traits and triggers, conditioning and journaling. The science behind mind-body/tms healing, etc.... This way I will not feed my thoughts to the body -- that is a trick of tms. Tms will always try to get me to focus on the body caused by the pain until I break its show and flair. When I get my attention off psychical symptoms and on emotional issues and psychological issues then I will not feed the fear of the physical issues anymore thus making the tms of no effect. This will in return, give us the cure.

 

WTB, you have to remember that you are dealing with the human brain here. An incredibly complicated, amazingly flexible organ, which can adapt instantly to changing circumstances. To fight it, you also need to be flexible in your thinking. Hard for the perfectionist personality, I know...

Anyway, I agree with both Balto and Walt (I want to say Walto, LOL).

As Balto said, it is all about the fear messages, but sometimes they can be easily drowned out by other activities which take over your brain. As Walt said, a charity garage sale is going to make so many demands on your consciousness that your brain has no need to distract you from your negative emotions by creating symptoms.

This is, of course, proof of your TMS diagnosis, right? But you know that - you're getting there

SO - the next step is to work on becoming more aware of the negative messages your brain is giving you when it isn't so busy. Instead of mindlessly trying to ignore your symptoms, try to hear what your brain is telling you in the background. This is what mindfulness is all about (see my signature line).

An example from my own experience: I might feel a bit queasy after a big dinner. In the old days "Before Sarno", my brain would be sending me subconscious messages like "oh no, what's going to happen now? oh no, what if you start feeling nauseated? oh no, what if you get sick? oh no, what if you're up all night? oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no....................." And I would be up all night. Nowadays, I hear it, and I cut it off. I literally tell my brain "that's totally unnecessary - my stomach is perfectly capable of digesting that meal, so get over it". And I'm fine.

It's that easy. Or incredibly hard, at least until you get it.

You have to be (1) willing to hear the negative self-talk, (2) put a stop it, and (3) replace it with something constructive that your brain can use to visualize a different outcome. (Such as - "there is nothing wrong with my back, it's been checked out, so there's no reason for my brain to send any pain signals there").

Some self-love might be in order as well. You've accepted the diagnosis, but do you love yourself enough to know that you deserve to heal? Just askin'

 

thank you all so much for taking the time to reply! Is so many good nuggets in each of your posts. I've printed the posts out even and will try to work on the hearing the negative self-tack and replacing with constructive alternatives and self compassion. this is a hard one for me. a very hard one.

 

Let me give you some example. If your hand accidently touch a pot of hot water, your hand pull back instantly. If you hear a loud explosion, you duck instantly. If you suddenly stripped and fall, your body tense up instantly.... your body doing this without any conscious input from your mind. psychologist called this "implicit memory", others called it conditionings. Your body learned from experience what is the danger signs and what is the appropriate action to take. Trauma, strong negative emotion trigger your tms symptoms long ago. Sometime you have symptoms while doing some activities. Your body "wrongly" associate that activity as a danger sign. Then next time when you doing that activity again, your body will produce pain symptoms. The purpose for the pain is to creating FEAR. The purpose of fear is to get you to be ready to deal with the danger. So that is one of the possible reason why you have pain when you don't think you should.
When you think you should have pain but you don't. I think is because your mind is ready for it. You're already have a solution just in case if the pain come, so it don't come. It don't come because you already shut of the potential danger signal with your solution ("'this will likely hurt but if it does, I'll sit, I'll be okay.")
And then when: "Then I go do an activity that is familiar to me and I don't think much about if pain will be there or not and then there is pain.". Well, I think it come because this time you are not ready for it. Your implicit memory is at work.
You have to teach your body to react in a "correct" way to all these conditionings. You have to go in reverse and try to eliminate fear from your thought. When the symptoms come, just sit there and relax and tell your mind you're not afraid. When the fear subside, your body recognize that the situation is not a real danger, then after a few time like that, it will relearn and will not trigger the symptoms anymore.
Good luck.