Periodic Limb Movement Disorder

E

eoram

New Member
18 years ago I sent my back pain packing after reading Dr. John Sarno's book. I believe in the power of this work. I have suffered for 5 months with excruciating fatigue, I went from active to homebound. At first they thought I had sleep apnea but I did not. What a sleep study revealed was abnormal movements at night that I am unaware of, but apparently they cause arousal and sleep disruption and so you feel exhausted all the time. I've been prescribed Gabapentin, at it helps a lot. But I cannot escape the feeling that this is TMS due to a nervous system in overdrive, that can't shut down, even at night. In Dr. Schubiner's new book he lists Restless Leg Syndrome as neuroplastic - PLMD is closely related to RLS, but it happens when you are asleep and unaware.

Has anyone else had this PLMD (or its sister RLS) and cured it with mind/body brain training methods? I intend to pursue this with all my heart, and would love to hear from anyone else who has had this and succeeded in vanquishing it.
 
Hi @eoram
This sounds so much like what my husband went through when he was studying for a grueling set of exams over a 10 year period. He wasn't even aware of the behavior. His body would jerk in his sleep for the first two hours, but then he'd hit some sort of a sleep cycle and be relatively still (thankfully!). I didn't mention it to him for years, until one day (way before I knew about TMS) I mentioned he did this and it got worse at times of great stress.... it stopped fairly quickly afterward. He is a runner, and his mind goes blank (a form of meditation) when he runs, so he picked up running again and has ever since. He does have times when he gets a bit of movement again, but it's always in relation to work stress.
He never seemed to have fatigue, but lots of people on the forum do report fatigue: either sleep related or not is very much part of their TMS symptoms.
My suggestion is to not worry what is "causing" anything you suspect is a symptom and look right into your internal stress levels, self-talk your emotional life. This website has a free program called the Structured Educational Program based on Dr. Sarno's work - it will help you with some internal reflection.
 
Cactusflower said:
Hi @eoram
This sounds so much like what my husband went through when he was studying for a grueling set of exams over a 10 year period. He wasn't even aware of the behavior. His body would jerk in his sleep for the first two hours, but then he'd hit some sort of a sleep cycle and be relatively still (thankfully!). I didn't mention it to him for years, until one day (way before I knew about TMS) I mentioned he did this and it got worse at times of great stress.... it stopped fairly quickly afterward. He is a runner, and his mind goes blank (a form of meditation) when he runs, so he picked up running again and has ever since. He does have times when he gets a bit of movement again, but it's always in relation to work stress.
He never seemed to have fatigue, but lots of people on the forum do report fatigue: either sleep related or not is very much part of their TMS symptoms.
My suggestion is to not worry what is "causing" anything you suspect is a symptom and look right into your internal stress levels, self-talk your emotional life. This website has a free program called the Structured Educational Program based on Dr. Sarno's work - it will help you with some internal reflection.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for your reply, and for sharing your husband's experience. Whatever this is wrecks my sleep so I am nonfunctional during the day. I am working with a therapist from the Better Mind Center on practices to downregulate my nervous system and practice mindfulness instead of constantly scanning my body for symptoms and solutions. This just screams TMS to me, but looking at the forums (I don't anymore!), there are people who are put on methadone for the rest of their lives to control this. (I am convinced patient forums are a major cause of TMS illness)
 
eoram said:
Thank you so much for your reply, and for sharing your husband's experience. Whatever this is wrecks my sleep so I am nonfunctional during the day. I am working with a therapist from the Better Mind Center on practices to downregulate my nervous system and practice mindfulness instead of constantly scanning my body for symptoms and solutions. This just screams TMS to me, but looking at the forums (I don't anymore!), there are people who are put on methadone for the rest of their lives to control this. (I am convinced patient forums are a major cause of TMS illness)
Click to expand...
My suggestion is to keep your mind open, and try not to worry or judge those who need medication - for now or for a time.
Try not to worry or judge “wrecking” this is all focusing on a negativity that is the suffering. Try your best, even if it is a struggle, to engage in things you enjoy or used to enjoy. It’s great that you are working with someone, but don’t forget to include your emotions in the mix, and for you, it might be embracing the “good” ones. I mention this from my own experience with TMS. Our greatest suffering is the emotional “closing up” on ourselves and our world. Doing the nervous system work can be part of that, but sometimes we also need to open to a bigger experience within ourselves too.
 
Cactusflower said:
My suggestion is to keep your mind open, and try not to worry or judge those who need medication - for now or for a time.
Try not to worry or judge “wrecking” this is all focusing on a negativity that is the suffering. Try your best, even if it is a struggle, to engage in things you enjoy or used to enjoy. It’s great that you are working with someone, but don’t forget to include your emotions in the mix, and for you, it might be embracing the “good” ones. I mention this from my own experience with TMS. Our greatest suffering is the emotional “closing up” on ourselves and our world. Doing the nervous system work can be part of that, but sometimes we also need to open to a bigger experience within ourselves too.
Click to expand...
"the emotional “closing up” on ourselves and our world" I love this, thank you. This is so easy to fall into when you are dealing with symptoms.
 
Cactusflower - I think I grok your meaning there, about opening up. But could you clarify it just a bit? Do you mean participating in the world, enjoying life, feeling joy, rather than just being hyperfocused on the self? (that is something I have been thinking about)
 
Yes. All you have written, but it’s not just the through the current pain experience, it’s through your life before too - the things that brought you the place you are at now.
I envision the work as wholistic and liken it to a crumpled ball of paper held in a clenched fist. Open the fist slowly and gently, and that tight ball of paper unfurls.
 
Cactusflower said:
Yes. All you have written, but it’s not just the through the current pain experience, it’s through your life before too - the things that brought you the place you are at now.
I envision the work as wholistic and liken it to a crumpled ball of paper held in a clenched fist. Open the fist slowly and gently, and that tight ball of paper unfurls.
Click to expand...
Thank you for this. This place, this Wiki, is so remarkable, so healing. There are many people in this mind/body space now who have made a name and monetized it. I don't begrudge anyone a living, and there are much worse ways to make money. But its different here. It is pure love, pure caring, pure human compassion. Just connecting with that energy is healing.
 
Another wonderful piece of information that was imparted to me on this journey was to treat TMS like the "peeling of an onion". We may have long (or short) periods of time we are doing better: wonderfully well, and then at times we might struggle and it can seem to come "out of the blue". Part of our TMS minds want to blame us for missing the ball...but the truth is, we haven't. It is just time to get to another layer, have another peel at the onion and go deeper.
This is normal.
Life isn't complete homeostasis all the time, and everyone has struggles in their own way. We learn and develop and grow throughout our earthly existence and reminding ourselves of this normalcy; this process is very freeing to the deep sense of responsibility we often feel to keep the symptoms at "bey" and the idea that to be "all right" we don't feel things: physically, emotionally, spiritually - or whatever. Some folks balk at the idea (I'd say have a deep fear) of things "spiritual" which is not a religious concept - it's a soul concept: it's the deep feeling and 'knowing' - the connection of ourselves and our environment: the people, the places, the animals, the vibe or juju or whatever surrounding us. This is often the part we crumple into a ball and hide from. It can be a lot for some people. Unfurling to it makes life so much richer and more meaningful. If you read many of the success stories here, you'll see some hint of this in the stories of many of the people. Dr. Sarno wrote about this but in fewer words - I think he didn't really want to alienate people by being "woo woo" and if you've seen him on film (or read his books) he felt that the knowledge of the phenomenon of TMS was an easier thing to translate to people. But he himself got a lot of satisfaction: soothed his soul and felt this amazing spiritual connection to humanity enough to make healing his life's work.
 
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