• Alan has completed the new Pain Recovery Program. To read or share it, use this updated link: https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/painrecovery/
  • Welcome to the new TMS Wiki server! Things aren't finished yet: email is not set up, so notification and password-reset emails don't go out, and new registrations are paused until email is installed. Details and updates are in this thread (click here). Locked out? Email tmswikisignups@gmail.com from the address where you receive TMS Wiki notifications.

Day 10 Potential Doubts

wellnessBound

wellnessBound

New Member
10 days in, and I feel like I'm giving it my all. Doing all of the required readings, journalling every day, and making these forum posts occasionally. I even bought the books recommended as supplementary materials, and plan on starting Hope and Help for your Nerves soon.

It's difficult not to feel some doubt in regards to these symptoms causing chronic fatigue though.

I definitely believe that TMS is real. And I believe that my symptoms could be caused by TMS.

However, there are people out there who have a chronic fatigue caused by something else. This is just a fact. Even though my blood tests come back normal, there are all sorts of people who end up finding out they have some weird genetic issue that normal blood tests don't cover. This obviously isn't likely, but it's also not something I feel I can completely rule out.

So if there's even a tiny chance that TMS might not be my root cause, is that enough doubt to prevent a recovery on my part?
 
Executive summary: No.

Your brain is literally (not figuratively, but actually and literally) designed to constantly scan the horizon, looking for danger and assuming the worst. It is still living in the dangerous prehistoric wilderness.

You will always have doubts. What you want is to be mindful of the amount of influence that your doubts have on your recovery. This influence is equal to the relative amount of time and psychic energy you spend obsessing over the doubts, compared to the time and energy you spend on constructive recovery activities.

We all have doubts. The key to recovery is to acknowledge them with patience and self-compassion, and gently reject them as unnecessary.

BTW, Hope and Help for Your Nerves was the second book that saved my life after The Divided Mind. To me, Claire Weekes is absolutely essential to recovery, right next to Dr Sarno, because anxiety and TMS go hand in hand. Just sayin'!
 
Last edited:
As Jan said, No. what you’re describing is very common in TMS sufferers. The resistance and hesitancy you are feeling is a symptom of TMS, your brain and subconscious feel safer with your body in pain than they do with you doing the work.

doubt is normal. No one starts being 100% bought in and believing. you need just enough belief to start the work and then you start getting proof that it works, and the rest starts to take care of itself.

Recognizing the doubt and resistance is a symptom of TMs is very important, because even after you start the work you’ll still have bad days where it seems like nothing is helping, or that this path is wrong, it is easy to get derailed in these moments. Your brain feels safer with you hiding away and in discomfort. You are more than just what symptoms and thoughts your brain conjures.

and in the event it isn’t TMS, you lose absolutely nothing by applying these methods, in fact you still gain a hell of a lot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top