Parkinson's

My father had a mild case of Parkinson's before he passed away 3.5 years ago. Also some dementia and low-grade alzheimer's.

It's always been a fear of mine to lose yourself to something like this which causes you to either lose the ability to fight it physically...or worse to lose your mind that you don't even know to fight it. Both are horrifying realities to me and are probably on my personal "top 10 issues with aging."

Recently I watched the Michael J Fox documentary "Still" on Apple TV and I was stunned at how affecting it was on me. To say I was transfixed and horrified would be to put it mildly. Moved to tears a few times even.

Guess what? The last few weeks I have been dealing with some oddball (meaning new to me) TMS symptoms. I don't think the actual symptoms matter all that much, but here they are: "crick" in the neck, rib pain, chest pain, pain upon deep breaths, feeling of restlessness, twitchy hands, feeling a "buzzing" in my hands like energy being restrained.

My normal "bugaboos" (hip & knee pain) have been pretty quiet.

I am pretty sure all of my recent symptoms are triggered TMS responses. I clearly have some obvious deep fear of something like a Parkinson's that was triggered by watching that show, but since I also clearly recognize these as TMS symptoms, m question is what do I do about it? Do I need to get to the bottom of this parkinson's thing? I just acknowledge and move on?

Would appreciate some discussion or suggestions.

 

Hi Mr. Hip Guy,

I am touched by your experience. I can feel the vulnerability of my life, what might happen in the future, and aging and death of my parents.

I am feeling perhaps both ideas are fruitful for you. There might be some very tender explorations for you in your fear of Parkinsons, your relationship to it, your memories, your future thinking about it. And in a parallel way you have the opportunity to work the more cognitive techniques of understanding the symptoms as TMS, and "what else is new?" To understand and not be afraid.

My response about getting to the bottom is about the feelings you have, not physical diagnosis for Parkinsons. I'm reading again and perhaps that is what you mean, and I would say that you can consider what you would gain or not gain with going down that road, with a physician. That might be very important for you also, to know where you are diagnosis-wise, and also to have evidence perhaps that there is nothing physical.

Good luck.

Andy

 

I can’t read about symptoms because I take them on. One day I looked at a TMS page on FB where someone asked if “frequent urination” was TMS. That evening I developed this condition - for several hours. I’ve never had such output, and hadn’t consumed more liquid than usual that day. As suddenly as it came on, it stopped after about 5 hours. Weird, huh?

I can’t even list all the times I have heard or read about an ailment and caught my subconscious either wondering if I had the disease, or creating some symptoms that seemed to fit.
For me, acknowledging what is going on has been enough to encourage my brain to move on and let the symptoms go.

Remember, fear is the most basic thing that creates and keeps symptoms going. Knowing that your symptoms are being created by your MindBody is important; working to overcome the fear is, too.
If you can look at a symptom, recognize it for what it is that should help allay sone of your fears.

You might find Alan Gordon’s course on this Wiki helpful. It’s free! Also if you are a Facebook user, he has a page there where he posts good info regularly. His book, The Way Out, is excellent.

 

Thank you both for the wonderfully thoughtful & supportive comments.

@Andy Bayliss - Actually I wasn't thinking of "getting to the bottom" with an actual diagnosis, I was just referring to figuring out why I seem to have such an issue with it. But that's not a bad idea as I know they can do blood tests now to determine genetic markers for the disease etc. Not sure if that's a rabbit-hole I even want to go down though - I tend to make stuff like that a self-fulfilling prophecy.

@Celayne - I absolutely do the same. I recall when I was spiraling down with my "original" TMS manifestation (certainly not my first, but the one that eventually made me discover Sarno), which was hip FAI, torn labrum, etc, I remember reading the below website and most of the chronic pain the author described started to manifest for me, plus insomnia and extreme anxiety etc. I'm definitely too sensitive to reading about symptoms no doubt about that.

https://www.painscience.com/

 

I remember reading a memoir of a physician who practiced at the end of 19th century. With a great deal of humor he described how, as a medical student, he experienced symptoms of every medical condition he studied, including labor contractions, which he, being a male, obviously could never have.

 

In the 70s Marcus Welty and Medical Center were popular medical dramas on TV. My mom read that after each episode aired, doctors would report increased visits by patients convinced they had the Ailment of the Week.
I never watched the shows. I was already certain I would die soon after reading Love Story and Brian’s Song.

 

And now it would be very appropriate to remember Dr. Sarno's observations about the epidemic of whiplash and carpal tunnel syndrome in the US!

 

Yes, it would!
Despite knowing about suggestibility and being very aware of TMS, I developed whiplash symptoms after a car accident. They didn’t appear until about a week later, when friend asked if I’d gotten whiplash. I said no but my sub-conscious heard YES. It was a bit of a rough claw-back to normalcy.

 

So fascinating!!! Thank you for sharing this, it may help people to appreciate the immense power of subconscious, which can be both healing and destructive!