Reading suggestions

Hi! While fighting through my own relapse of TMS pain, I spent a couple days this weekend with my MIL, who is a TEXTBOOK case of TMS. She is currently dealing with stomach/digestive issues that have caused her to drop significant weight and become very frail over the past year. A month and a half ago, she visited us and seemed to have a solid grasp on the mind-body connection and was improving through the belief that her issues are all emotional. However, I can tell she has thrown all that belief out the door because she has now self-diagnosed herself with a methylation problem and has also blamed her discontinuation of B6 vitamin on a couple "setbacks" she's had. It's honestly no wonder that she's not getting better because her diet is SO restrictive. She has self-diagnosed a dairy allergy, gluten allergy, soy allergy, and histamine allergy. She has also mentioned IBS. Even when she said she knew her problems were emotional, she was too afraid to reintroduce anything into her diet, so she survives on grilled pork chops, grilled chicken, grilled steak, and certain steamed veggies (all unseasoned) and constantly talks about how much she misses normal food, but says she just can't take a chance to eat it. She takes at least a dozen vitamins and supplements a day and immediately thinks that if she changes anything up with her supplements, that's to blame for her changing symptoms. She has a classic history of TMS, including several other self-diagnosed and doctor-diagnosed disorders that have sent her on a tailspin for months at a time, including TMJ, floaters in her eye, intermittent back pain, and a constant fear of MS, just to name a few. She had a childhood that she still has a hard time dealing with and she's been to several counselors over the years, but it seems like none of them have gotten her to really get deep into working through her problems, and I don't think she's addressed TMS or MBS with any of them.
It's hard for me on a good day, let alone during my own recovery, to watch someone continue down a path of not improving, when it seems so clear that she's suffering from TMS. I have talked with her about TMS and she says she read a Sarno book years ago and gets it, but she clearly doesn't believe that SHE has TMS. Are there any other book recommendations any of you have that I could perhaps send to her or suggest to her? I'm thinking ones that cover the whole realm of TMS symptoms, rather than something like Healing Back Pain, which I read and found enormously helpful in dealing with my back issues.
Thanks in advance!

 

Kris,
Have her read The Great Pain Deception. Steve goes into detail about his OTHER TMS issues (Equivalents) besides his 30 years of pain. In his Appendix A near the end of the book, he has listed over 135 other symptoms in addition to pain that are TMS EQUIVALENTS (to serve the same purpose of pain) and that is to distract us and have us become scared and preoccupied. I can relate to her issues. I too, have G.I. issues along with tons of food allergies. It is all TMS......I am working on getting more foods into my diet, and exercising and breaking my conditioned responses to pain and foods and pollens and molds, etc. etc.

Millions of people have methylation issues but don't have to be sick because of it. Rewiring her brain is the answer. She will keep chasing her tail until she accepts TMS and does something about it. One other book to mention to you for her is Dr. Schubners book called UNLEARN YOUR PAIN. Don't let the title fool you, he goes into other symptoms of TMS besides just pain.
He even mentions food allergies in the book on page 301 and says that if you are afraid to eat certain foods, this can create MBS (reinforcing TMS).

I hope she can get past her fear, and learn that it is not the food that is the problem. She does sound TEXTBOOK TMS for sure.

 

Hi Kris, Grateful17 has given you some fabulous advice.

May I also add, she may want to incorporate mindfulness meditation and / or pranayama into her day to day routine.

There are countless stories of mindfulness meditation restoring the immune system to its natural state and resolving any food intolerance. Again, it's not something that can be resolved over night, but it will require a gradual shift in thought which will ultimately change her physiology.

 

I'm also a big fan of The Great Pain Deception, but I think it might be a bit intimidating for someone not already warmed up to the TMS concept. Sarno's Divided Mind covers a variety of conditions, and so does Schubiner's Unlearn Your Pain, in more of a "how-to"manual format.

 

Much like your mother-in-law, the very person who introduced me to Dr. Sarno's work, years ago, complains of intermittent, excruciating back pain, but insists that it's not TMS and is scheduled for back surgery. Go figure.