Should experienced TMSer follow established program or create own from multiple sources?

R

Recursion

Peer Supporter
I'm curious what the community thinks of this question, especially those of you who have had success resolving TMS, preferably longer-term success.

For someone with a long TMS history and a deep belief in the TMS diagnosis, when attempting to resolve a new and nagging pain issue, is it better to pick an established program or to review several and develop your own program based on what worked in the past and resonates with you? The main reason to use a custom approach would be to prioritize where I spend my time. I don't want to spend weeks on an activity that I am pretty confident will have little impact. I would also evolve the approach as I come across new information and see what parts are being effective.

On the other hand, I can see how following a single coherent approach has its benefits, assuming it is of sufficient quality.

Examples of established programs would be Sarno's books' treatment recommendations, Claire Weekes' approach (generalized from anxiety to pain), the Wiki SEP, and other programs and books on the Wiki and by prominent authors such as Schubiner, Ozanich, Sopher, Amir, etc (sorry if I left out your favorite :)).

Thanks for your input!
 
I don't know the answer for you. I can tell you what I did. I read this forum, the success stories, a few books about this subject. Of course Dr. Sarno's books as well. I did the SEP and listened to Claire Weeks's on YouTube.

And then, I made my own program. And it works. It involves working out, controlling/strengthening the mind, hobbies, simplicity, will power, meditation, clean diet, keeping away from crazy things (like news, unbalanced people/situations, demented movies, loud music), limited screen time, saying the truth, having a moral compass and so on.

Take care.
 
Thanks @Sita! Coincidentally, I was reading some of your other posts this morning. I resonate with the elements you listed in your program.

Did you integrate any particular parts of Claire Weekes' approach into yours? I like hers but am having some trouble applying it to pain rather than anxiety.
 
in the back chapter of "Mindbody Prescription" There is a story about a Mr. Campobello, and Sarno printed his letters where he explains the therapy he developed. I found it interesting because It is nigh identical to what I did , and I hadn't read that when I developed my own program...so that might be a tell right there....that is a Good plan.

I actually got better faster than Mr. Campobello, But I also :
A. Believed it faster and
B. Was way more active and out doing extra credit assignments

I got extraordinarily into challenging the conditioning and notion that there was anything wrong with me.
Lots of physical activities I used to do, but in greater intensity and frequency.
I also had my Vet friend teach me about firearms and went and blew up lots of furniture and Broke a lot of plates. I went and Pounded plywood with a Baseball bat. Screaming. Virtually anything implied in the John Stossel Video.

I had the good fortune to be on disability and my Case worker gave me an extra month when I told her I had found my own solution. I got to dedicate it to TMS recovery all day long. I am still grateful about that 25 years later.
 
Recursion said:
Did you integrate any particular parts of Claire Weekes' approach into yours? I like hers but am having some trouble applying it to pain rather than anxiety.
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I used her technique for anxiety not pain. I had some level of anxiety in certain life situations. I don't have it anymore - the anxiety I mean - thanks to her method.

...
Regarding pain, I used Baseball65's method of letting go. Shooting pistol. I started more than a decade ago. I'm into knitting, embroidery, I'm good at drawing in pencil etc. These are some of my hobbies. So...I have a steady hand. Really steady. So shooting pistol/guns is fun for me and a great stress reliever. Boxing is good too, I use a boxing bag ... not people ha ha. Even though sometimes...I would...

I do recommend these methods for getting rid of pain and anger. If you're not into these things you might find something else. Some types of stress relief.
 
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Hi @Recursion ,

Claire Weekes doesn’t really have a program in the sense of a class, like the Structured Educational Program. It’s more a knowledge that sits with you every day. It doesn’t take much to read her book and keep it in mind. She can be incorporated into any plan you create.

As far as linking anxiety to pain—it’s simple. If you get enough anxiety, you get tension. If you get enough tension, you get pain. Rage causes anxiety, as well. So you can see , it’s all part of the same thing for us TMSers. We all have anxiety, because TMS is a form of anxiety. You could read her books and replace the word “anxiety” with any TMS symptom you want. They are all interchangeable. When I first came into the forum, Claire Weekes was constantly recommended. I resisted at first looking into her books. But after awhile, I did and I was glad about it. It was another missing piece to the puzzle for me.

Years ago, I had debilitating panic. I was almost housebound because of it. Looking back, I can see now it was my version of TMS at the time. Like you, I have a very long history of TMS. Flash forward to now, and I have a very complex set of pain symptoms that definitely flare the more anxious I am. It’s as if I’m having panic in my body itself.

I think you’re on the right track creating your own unique prescription for healing from TMS. I think ultimately that’s what everyone does who gets better. It takes a lot of exploration, trial and error and effort to heal. And for some of us, it takes a lot of time, unfortunately.

Don’t worry too much about figuring out how exactly to heal before you do it —just start doing things. You’ll get there!
 
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Baseball65 said:
in the back chapter of "Mindbody Prescription" There is a story about a Mr. Campobello, and Sarno printed his letters where he explains the therapy he developed. I found it interesting because It is nigh identical to what I did , and I hadn't read that when I developed my own program...so that might be a tell right there....that is a Good plan.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I have MBP and will take a look at that story.

I'm glad the physical activities worked so well for you. I don't know that I'll blow stuff up (haha) but my preferred exercise is weight lifting, so I am SLOWLY ramping back up on that. I overdid it before and the resultant muscle soreness really exacerbated my TMS pain, probably because it gave my mind a "legitimate" reason to have my thighs and hamstrings hurt when I had been suffering from sciatica and piriformis syndrome-type symptoms.

@Sita, I'm glad Claire Weekes' approach worked for your anxiety. Regarding stress relievers, I need to think about that more. I'm not sure if the weight lifting will be sufficient, but it might take some time to assess that.

@Diana-M, thanks for your thoughts on Claire Weekes. What you said makes a lot of sense to me.

In what follows, I give my opinion on some of the "big picture" of TMS. If you disagree or think I have it all wrong, that is ok! I'm happy to hear other opinions.

For the purposes of this post, I note that I consider TMS to be any recurrent or chronic physical or mental pain that is not due to injury, infection, or clearly biological disease such as cancer or diabetes. Grief is ruled out because it is not TMS unless it becomes recurrent or chronic to the point of being unhealthy.

Then there seems to be a bit of a split between Sarno and Weekes that is reflected in the larger mindbody community. On one side we have those who say TMS is the mind's attempt to distract from repressed emotions. Their solution is to learn about and accept this mechanism, and to release the repressed emotions via journaling, counseling, etc.

On the other side we have those who say TMS is the result of an overstressed nervous system, in particular, an out-of-control sympathetic nervous system. Their solution is to elicit calming responses by activating the parasympathetic nervous system via affirmations, calming routines, etc., and to retrain the mind to react more appropriately to stress via Weekes' floating, somatic tracking, or something similar.

It seems most people fall into one camp or the other, and some are a combination. Regardless, it appears that spirituality can also be a component of the solution (see my other thread from today).

Now that I have a better understanding of the big picture (at least I think I do), off I go to construct my approach... (first I will check out that story from MBP that Baseball65 mentioned)
 
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Recursion said:
It seems most people fall into one camp or the other, and some are a combination. Regardless, it appears that spirituality can also be a component of the solution
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I like your view, and it coincides with mine. There’s one more, and it’s neuroplasticity (as found in https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/painrecovery/ (Pain Recovery Program) and https://backincontrol.com/ (New Home - Back in Control)). This is a healing plan backed by research that says you can create new channels in your brain to circumvent your pain channels. My take on all of this is when you do Sarno methods and soothe your anxiety, the by-product is new pain-free channels.
 
Thanks @Diana-M. I guess I was lumping neuroplasticity into the "overstressed nervous system" camp, and I view creation of new "healing" channels in the brain to be similar to somatic tracking.
 
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