Pregnancy and TMS symptoms

[kiele]

Hi,
I am about 6 weeks into the books and this site, and I am really starting to see improvement. Recent posts on acceptance and also on overcoming fear have been helping me a lot. Fear of the pain cycle and doubting myself, trying too hard, and then lack of acceptance, were both holding me back. I think something that is confusing me because it may be allowing me to still believe there is a "reason" for the pain is that I am 8 months pregnant. I've been experiencing a lot of different, moving around symptoms such as si-joint pain (biggest one that causes me doubt), restless twitchy legs, rib pain, radiating "sciatic" type pain, carpal tunnel hand/arm pain.... All things that are also caused or worsened in pregnancy. This leads me to a lot of evaluating and nit-picking over each symptom and leads me to having these awesome days and then bad days every other day because the idea that maybe some of it is really pregnancy related allows me to go to a place of more doubt. Should i assume its all tms because what's the harm? i think i am anxious to get things sorted out because i am nervous that the discomforts will continue after pregnancy (because some were there before too) and distract me from my newborn. Does anyone have any advice? Thank you!

 

[Lori]

I know that I had all kinds of emotions while I was pregnant. The "what if's". . . what if I can't take care of a newborn .. . what if he cries and I can't get him to stop. . . on and on

I have to say my biggest anxiety while pregnant was fear of the pain of labor. I remember crying at the ob/gyn office when she confirmed that I was indeed pregnant and she asked what was wrong. I said "it'll hurt when it comes out!" And you know, it really wasn't that bad. Hurt of course, yes, and I went the drug-free route because back in the 20th century if you had drugs of any type you could not hold the baby, and I would have none of that because I was going to hold that kid! When the boy popped out, all pain was forgotten.

Please tell me you are not reading those expectant mother books--I think those are setups for many physical conditions since our minds are suggestible. I got none of the typical pregnancy things like sciatica or morning sickness--as I refused to believe that my pregnancy would be anything but wonderful--and that's what I got! Women have been getting pregnant for thousands of years--it is a natural function!

If you are worried, can you speak to your doctor who can reassure you that you're ok?

Best wishes to you and much happiness with your family!

 

[kiele]

Thank you so much Lori for your thoughtful response. I have asked about some of these issues to my midwife and she has brushed them off, so I assume they will go away post pregnancy. But since I had some of these things pre-pregnancy, I'm just confused as to how to treat them now in order to completely release myself of them and their tension based origins BEFORE birth. I guess I am answering my own question here in saying that its okay to release all of them no matter what because they are clearly tension oriented or placed into my mind by those "what to expect" books or by worries of reoccurring non-pregnancy related pain. Maybe the techniques on this site and learning not to fight, will help me in labor? Thanks so much for your time and thoughts, I would love to hear more encouraging thoughts from anyone who has them related to this particular situation. Pregnancy is such a happy (and emotional) time so I am a little frustrated to have to be distracted by these things now, but it also helps me because I am grateful for the opportunity to learn these things now as opposed to later in life.

 

[JanAtheCPA]

Hi kiele - welcome, and congratulations on the shortly-arriving addition!

I agree with you - I think you have answered your own questions about this. You're being monitored regularly and if no one thinks there is anything to worry about, you might as well assume that these symptoms are TMS. Heck - they might be TMS in other pregnant woman, too. The fact that they are very common during pregnancy may simply reflect the fact that pregnancy is a time of anxiety, although hormonal changes could certainly have a large influence - but us TMSers are always being influenced by over-production of the stress hormones anyway. There's a growing body of knowledge about the influence of the stress hormones on our whole physiology, and it's pretty interesting.

Anyway, having the baby may not be much better - Dr. Sarno or one of his "Divided Mind" co-authors mentions that the stress of having a newborn is also a trigger for TMS symptoms. BUT - forewarned is forearmed - by recognizing this ahead of time, you can deal with symptoms as they come up, with much more control than you might have done in the past.

So do give yourself lots of credit for learning about TMS now. Not only is this good for you, it's going to be good for the baby to have a mother who is aware of the mind-body connection. You can start saying positive affirmations aloud for both of you at once, which is pretty cool when you think about it! And teach self-healing practices? I would love to have been brought up with that knowledge.

And it will definitely help during labor. At 8 months, you may not have much time to find a technique that works for you, but in addition to good old breathing techniques, you could try visualization (visualize holding your beautiful baby in your arms) or positive affirmations ("this is a natural process, women do it all the time") or just practical advice to your brain ("this pain is designed to warn me to lie down and prepare for labor - I've done that, so it doesn't need to be there anymore").

LOL - I used something like that the last time I had to have dental work - I'm so afraid of the drill, I can feel pain after three shots, but this self-talk actually helped a lot.

Anyway, start practicing any or all of these things if you can, before the baby comes. In your spare time

Keep us posted, okay?

Jan

 

[kiele]

Jan- thank you so much for your reply. A lot of good advice to ponder in there! I will definitely refer back to it. All of this does make me wonder whether common pregnancy symptoms are a lot of tms, or hormonal.
I guess it's a mixture! Sometimes it's daunting to think that you could actually control something like morning sickness, but it does raise the question. There is a lot that I'm reading about labor that relates, in the form of the question "what if we weren't scared?" "What if we knew it was natural?" Etc... Anyway though, my main anxiety is about learning to release these
Tms discomforts before baby. Hoping this work will carry me through. Interesting thoughts you've pointed out on raising a child using positive affirmations and self healing. I will keep you posted! Keep the convo coming

 

[kiele]

I just wanted to add- as a note to self and also to possibly others- basically, I rationalize that it doesn't matter whether certain discomforts or pains are pregnancy related or not, because if they are, they will go away, and if they're not so they are tms, they will go away! It's just that lingering "what if" and medical reasoning in the back of my mind that is still there a little, relating things to pregnancy. It gives my brain an excuse, which maybe means I will see more improvement after birth when pregnancy issues are not a factor anymore? I go back and
Forth, and most days I choose to accept that any issues I'm having and it helps a lot. It's just that little wonder...

 

[kiele]

And the need to "figure it out" is kind of just another distraction... Right?

 

[Lori]

Kiele:

I wish I knew when I was pregnant and a new mom everything I've learned about the mind/body connection!

Midwife! awesome. Glad to hear this.

I think a lot of pregnancy issues are indeed mind-induced--like from the expectant mother books. It's the nocebo effect--you read that in your first trimester this [condition] is common, etc. and the brain hears it and makes it so. Yet it doesn't have to be that way.

Jan--dental work--I got a reminder call from the dentist yesterday about my appt tomorrow--my teeth have been aching since!!!!