Day 3 The last time I exercised

[Shakermaker]

Hi there,

I hope I'm not spamming the forum but I'll try to do as many answers as i can in the forum, which the SEP says I should. I'll see how it goes. I think it will help me to get the work done.

Here are my days 1 and 2:

http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/time-to-get-to-work.19700/ (Day 1 - Time to get to work)
http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/a-little-confused.19726/ (Day 2 - A little confused)

So, when was the last time I did exercise? Well, currently my main TMS related problem is not my back, its the issue with my vision which I mentioned in Day 1. So I've been doing exercise fairly regularly, since I've always believed the vision issue was down to stress I figured exercise would help. My vision gets worse with stress and exhaustion. I tend to go to the gym and do weights. However, recently I googled that doing weights can increase the amount of stress hormones in your body so I was feeling a bit conscious today of not overdoing it in case it made my vision worse as well as my exhaustion. It had been a few weeks since my last workout since I was on holiday and on return I was feeling very exhausted. After the workout I felt very tired and kinda anxious, mainly about how the workout would affect my vision and I was questioning whether I should've tired myself out.

Some other things came up for me today. Over the last 7 years since I "injured" my back, I've tried to keep active, especially from 2015 onwards when I read The Mind Body Prescription. However, I never went the whole 9 yards, i.e. there are still things I don't do through fear of worsening my back, i.e. lifting certain weights, doing certain bending exercises etc. Over the next few weeks I'm going to start gradually building up to this.

Also, I'm starting to question whether other things going on are also down to TMS having spent some time on this site and forum the last few weeks. For example my exhaustion/fatigue levels which I have put down to stress and burnout from work. I'm pretty much always tired and sometimes tend to avoid activities because of that. I also tend to start obsessing about my tiredness ("what's wrong with me?", "when will it get better?", "what if it never gets better?" etc). Maybe this is TMS and I should just try to ignore it and not let it get to me.

Another thing is that 2 years ago I sprained my ankle playing football (soccer) and it never healed properly. I still have pain. The last scan I had said the only issue left with it appears to be damage to a tendon in the ankle. Having read on here tendonitis can also be TMS, I might start testing this out too.

All In all, my next workout I'll try to work out as if nothing is wrong.

 

[freedomseeker]

Hi Shakermaker,

I too go through periods of obsessing about my tiredness. I've done so much research on it, and have come to realize that fatigue is definitely TMS. Even the act of obsessing about the tiredness is "TMS-ing." The tiredness is a stress response from the body as a result of an overactive nervous system (common in people with TMS), and also is used as a symptom created by your mind to distract you from underlying emotional distress. I believe the mind can create neural pathways to produce fatigue, in the same way it produces pain syndromes in many people. This is great news because it is reversible, and you can heal. Doing mindbody work, managing stress, and paying attention to underlying causes will help you greatly. I use meditation, journaling, counseling, and mindfulness to help me. It is not easy, and I am still in the process of recovering. It is important to be kind to your body and yourself. Self compassion and self care as well as a positive mindset will be keys to recovery.