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Therapy increasing symptoms - Advice please

billiewells said:
symptoms exacerbated by first TMS therapy session - can anyone relate to this please - disheartened
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Hi Billie,

That's completely normal, as you start looking into emotions your symptoms will either shift or change intensity. Please don't feel afraid or worry about this, it's part of the process. I'd also like to add, if the feeling does become overwhelming you may wish to try deep breathing or practing a body scan meditation to help you stay calm.
 
Thanks Mike, life has been so difficult I had hoped that identifying TMS would make everything easier. Naive maybe, but hopeful. Will try meditation technique, but am very flustered by all this. I really hope this roller coaster life will ease. Need to focus on people's success stories.

Thanks again
 
billiewells said:
Thanks Mike, life has been so difficult I had hoped that identifying TMS would make everything easier. Naive maybe, but hopeful. Will try meditation technique, but am very flustered by all this. I really hope this roller coaster life will ease. Need to focus on people's success stories.

Thanks again
Click to expand...

Definitely focuss on success stories, but also look onto meditation and the benefits it can bring. Once you've learned to tame the mind of fear, doubt etc you will be in a better place to heal.
 
Hi, Billiewells. Mike has given you great advice and encouragement.

I am a success story... began having severe back pain when I was 82 (healthy before that, thank the Lord). A nurse friend told me to read Dr. Sarno's Healing Back Pain and it convinced me that the back pain was from TMS, repressed emotions that went back to when my parents divorced when I was seven. The Structured Educational Program's journaling led me to understand them better, realizing they had TMS too, and it led me to forgive them. Forgiving ended my back pain. I'm 85 now and a much healthier and happier person for having discovered TMS.

I think you should start the SEProgram if you haven't yet. It helps us to discover the emotional causes of our pain.

I also suggest you practice mindful meditation which is living in the present and not the past or future.
I like these two videos for MM which are on Youtube:

GUIDED MEDITATION for Detachment from Over-Thinking. Michael Sealey's soothing voice leads us into mindfulness of breathing in the present moment.

GUIDED MEDITATION "The Seat" lets us practice mindfulness meditation while deep breathing as we set on a bench overlooking a pastoral scene.

We need to think positive, and visualizations such as these help us do that.
 
Walt Oleksy said:
Hi, Billiewells. Mike has given you great advice and encouragement.

I am a success story... began having severe back pain when I was 82 (healthy before that, thank the Lord). A nurse friend told me to read Dr. Sarno's Healing Back Pain and it convinced me that the back pain was from TMS, repressed emotions that went back to when my parents divorced when I was seven. The Structured Educational Program's journaling led me to understand them better, realizing they had TMS too, and it led me to forgive them. Forgiving ended my back pain. I'm 85 now and a much healthier and happier person for having discovered TMS.

I think you should start the SEProgram if you haven't yet. It helps us to discover the emotional causes of our pain.

I also suggest you practice mindful meditation which is living in the present and not the past or future.
I like these two videos for MM which are on Youtube:

GUIDED MEDITATION for Detachment from Over-Thinking. Michael Sealey's soothing voice leads us into mindfulness of breathing in the present moment.

GUIDED MEDITATION "The Seat" lets us practice mindfulness meditation while deep breathing as we set on a bench overlooking a pastoral scene.

We need to think positive, and visualizations such as these help us do that.
Click to expand...
Thanka for your input
 
symptoms exacerbated by first TMS therapy session - can anyone relate to this please - disheartened
Hi Billie,

That's completely normal, as you start looking into emotions your symptoms will either shift or change intensity. Please don't feel afraid or worry about this, it's part of the process.

Hi Billie,
I am another success story. Was headed for nerve surgery, had 8 physicians ready to operate at different times. Could hardly walk because of foot pain. Now I climb mountains again, and I got my life back. Dr. Sarno's work works.

It takes time and each person's path is different. I am glad you are getting the therapeutic support. This will take time too, most likely. What helped me was seeing how I treat myself moment-to-moment (self-rejection, etc) and connecting this to Dr. Sarno's theory. The Inner Child's feelings in response to my inner treatment/history are so intense that it is "too much" to allow these feelings into consciousness. So, therefore there is pain.

As far as getting worse after the first session, it can happen that your inner awareness is growing, and the symptoms intensify to distract you. Or that as your inner awareness grows, the superego gets activated in order to shut down awareness and distract. Increased superego activity almost always increases pain. This is because superego activity is usually directed at the Inner Child in a negative way, which elicits difficult feelings like rage and hurt and sadness.

It takes awhile for most folks to really feel/understand their inner dynamics and connect this to Dr. Sarno's work. When you do, relief will likely come. I hope you are patient!

Andy B.
 
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Andy B said:
symptoms exacerbated by first TMS therapy session - can anyone relate to this please - disheartened
Hi Billie,

That's completely normal, as you start looking into emotions your symptoms will either shift or change intensity. Please don't feel afraid or worry about this, it's part of the process.

Hi Billie,
I am another success story. Was headed for nerve surgery, had 8 physicians ready to operate at different times. Could hardly walk because of foot pain. Now I climb mountains again, and I got my life back. Dr. Sarno's work works.

It takes time and each person's path is different. I am glad you are getting the therapeutic support. This will take time too, most likely. What helped me was seeing how I treat myself moment-to-moment (self-rejection, etc) and connecting this to Dr. Sarno's theory. The Inner Child's feelings in response to my inner treatment/history are so intense that it is "too much" to allow these feelings into consciousness. So, therefore there is pain.

As far as getting worse after the first session, it can happen that your inner awareness is growing, and the symptoms intensify to distract you. Or that as your inner awareness grows, the superego gets activated in order to shut down awareness and distract. Increased superego activity almost always increases pain. This is because superego activity is usually directed at the Inner Child in a negative way, which elicits difficult feelings like rage and hurt and sadness.

It takes awhile for most folks to really feel/understand their inner dynamics and connect this to Dr. Sarno's work. When you do, relief will likely come. I hope you are patient!

Andy B.
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Thank you so much for your comprehensive reply. I am from the UK and am amazed by the level of kindness and support on this forum. I am very new to the whole TMS process and have battled from childhood with severe anxiety/panic attacks/agoraphobia and so when a series of physical symptoms started to devour me three years ago, my anxiety went through the roof. After some spectacular mismanagement from the health professionals, I researched my own path.

TMS therapy is the way forward I am sure and it will be very difficult to maintain patience and not micro manage my behaviour on a minute by minute basis. Hearing success stories is vital in maintaining confidence when it is so fragile. If there was greater acceptance of TMS in the UK I wouldn't feel so isolated.

This advice is wonderful. Thank you.
 
Hi billie!

I suffer from anxiety as well. It started 11 years ago and morphed into chronic pain, etc. When I started the tms work this fall my symptoms got a lot worse and I had my first panic attack in over ten years. It was terrifying. I'm still dealing with heightened stress-levels and general anxiety now, as well as the other tms symptoms. The lovely Jan here on the forum recommended Dr Claire Weekes to me, have you read anything by her? I started reading her work today and it gave me so much hope. If you haven't read anything by her I can certainly recommend it.

You are not alone.

Kindly
Simplicity
 
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Simplicity said:
Hi billie!

I suffer from anxiety as well. It started 11 years ago and morphed into chronic pain, etc. When I started the tms work this fall my symptoms got a lot worse and I had my first panic attack in over ten years. It was terrifying. I'm still dealing with heightened stress-levels and general anxiety now, as well as the other tms symptoms. The lovely Jan here on the forum recommended Dr Claire Weekes to me, have you read anything by her? I started reading her work today and it gave me so much hope. If you haven't read anything by her I can certainly recommend it.

You are not alone.

Kindly
Simplicity
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Thanks Simplicity, Yes I found Claire 20 years ago and thin she talks a lot of sense. I believe TMS therapy will be the key for me. Here 's hoping. The solitude is certainly tricky.

Thanks again
 
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Well, then you know. I'm very excited to learn more about her! :)

I've been dealing with my health issues by doing a tms/mbs program; working on issues from my past and facing the internal pain I've been carrying around. As Mike pointed out, mediation and mindfulness is very important and I'm now learning how to incorporate those things into my life.

I've been running away from Fear for so long and now I know I have to face it. Thankfully there's plenty of supportive and kind people on this forum who knows what it's like and who have succeeded in overcoming tms... that is very encouraging. So, yes, here's hoping (and believing!) we will be helped by this!
 
Simplicity said:
Well, then you know. I'm very excited to learn more about her! :)

I've been dealing with my health issues by doing a tms/mbs program; working on issues from my past and facing the internal pain I've been carrying around. As Mike pointed out, mediation and mindfulness is very important and I'm now learning how to incorporate those things into my life.

I've been running away from Fear for so long and now I know I have to face it. Thankfully there's plenty of supportive and kind people on this forum who knows what it's like and who have succeeded in overcoming tms... that is very encouraging. So, yes, here's hoping (and believing!) we will be helped by this!
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yes I've certainly been running from fear or rather never been able to express that fear, so it has grown and grown. I can not live in this way anymore. The trouble is, I want it to go straight away and so am becoming obsessed about doing things correctly - the perfectionist trait. I feel you have to be careful not to become obsessive about TMS too. It feels like a fine balancing act.
 
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I can easily relate. Living with fear as some sort of companion without facing it or dealing with it makes it grow. It's so easy to get preoccupied with things, trying to find some sort of escape or release from it. Most of us with tms are perfectionists and that is only slowing the process down. I'm trying to walk slowly, taking one thing at a time not to overwhelm myself; my system is overwhelmed enough already. It's easy to think that the more information you gather the quicker you will heal (I myself bought ten books on tms right away :)). The information is crucial, but also to be able to truly absorb it and believe in it. Plus we must learn to be kind to ourselves and that is easier said than done.
 
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Simplicity said:
I can easily relate. Living with fear as some sort of companion without facing it or dealing with it makes it grow. It's so easy to get preoccupied with things, trying to find some sort of escape or release from it. Most of us with tms are perfectionists and that is only slowing the process down. I'm trying to walk slowly, taking one thing at a time not to overwhelm myself; my system is overwhelmed enough already. It's easy to think that the more information you gather the quicker you will heal (I myself bought ten books on tms right away :)). The information is crucial, but also to be able to truly absorb it and believe in it. Plus we must learn to be kind to ourselves and that is easier said than done.
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I can relate to buying ten books. Hilarious but sad at the same time. We do make life difficult for ourselves.
 
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Simplicity is right. Books help tell us about TMS and offer healing techniques, but the most important of those is believing 100 percent that TMS emotions cause our pain. Maybe the best way to convince ourselves about that is with positive belief mantras like Dr. Sarno suggests: "My pain is not structual. It is from my emotions. " If you work on the emotional causes of your pain, the healing will come.

Have a cup of hot milk, do some deep breathing, and think happy thoughts. These techniques help.
 
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