TMS and Addiction are not illnesses. They are signals.

[riv44]

I saw my physiatrist Dr Martinez for the first time in well over a decade. Both of us understand ipsychological triggers that worsen pain, we felt free to criticize the Great Man himself. it is disingenuous to tell people they can be healed by just attending a lecture. Psychological and physical self-healing is a lifelong process, not an over-and-done episode. I n my therapy practice (I am a therapist I)) do a lot of work with people seeking to change substance behaviors. II mostly do groups as I am on the road to scaling back clinical work. I do not say they "have addiction"-or "are" addicts. In the same way I don't think people "have TMS." They have something going on that is showing up as a symptom.
Freud called it something similar- a "conversion reaction". I am not a Freudian in particular, but it is interesting how longstanding mind body practice is.
My work in the substance use field is iHarm Reduction oriented. I also subscribe to principles of Moderation Management.
I often hear folks here asking if they "have TMS. " It's not a thing that you Have, it's a response to life process. All we are saying is that What we call addiction or TMSdiagnoses--they are the brain's imperfect solutions to an unexpressed problem. Since life is a frequently stressful experience, and aging has its consequences, flareups can be expected. So we do the best we can to build self-awareness and not panic. Panic and shame make things worse.
Just my 2 cents.

 

[JanAtheCPA]

Hey @riv44 -

I often hear folks here asking if they "have TMS. " It's not a thing that you Have, it's a response to life process

Indeed, great way to phrase it.

I like to describe TMS as an acronym that we still use in honor of Dr Sarno, but I prefer referring to the "TMS brain mechanism", which is the primitive evolutionary mechanism that was designed to help us survive in the primitive wilderness. Dr Sarno helped to identify how it works, although modern neuroscience has greatly added to his suppositions - we still need, in the greater outlook, to accept that long-term emotional stress and distress will cause negative physiological changes, and to put more of our resources towards mental health instead of the magic pill or miracle surgery.

In other words, "TMS" is a perfectly normal response to stress, but the runaway stress of surviving in the modern world has led to runaway mindbody symptoms. The mechanism has not yet evolved to deal with the modern world, which is a tiny blip along the scale of human evolution.

 

[BloodMoon]

Hi @riv44.
Some people do think of it, and/or talk about it, as being a condition. I think others understand what it is but use “having” it as a shortcut—which can, of course, convey to people who do not understand it that it's a condition.

What is needed, I think, is a quick way of referring to it that does not make it sound like something people “have”. It would be useful to find shared language that avoids implying it is a fixed condition, while still being easy to use in conversation—but I do not know how that will happen. “You are experiencing a response to life process” is correct, of course, but it is a right old mouthful to keep typing out.

Maybe it is wrong of me, but I tend to assume people are aware of the situation until something else they write suggests that they are thinking of it as a condition. I reply to a lot of posts, and I would find it too exhausting to 'police' this and risk coming across as a nitpicker.