The TMS mechanism is in play at all times, throughout our lives. So yes, if something else can act as a distraction instead of the symptom, the symptom can be dismissed for a while. This is true of most symptoms and sensations, including those caused by obvious injury or illness, barring extreme situations of course.
Our state of mind has an enormous influence on our experience of symptoms. When I crashed my bicycle and broke my hip in 2009 (age 58) my pain level was probably at a 6 or 7, but my catastrophizing level (fear of being bedridden) was at a 10, so my perception of my pain was higher. When the ER doc came in with my X-rays and announced that they could "pin" me up and have me on crutches in a couple of days I swear that my pain level immediately dropped to about a 3. When they offered pain medication, I asked for a couple of ibuprofen to take the edge off, and I was annoyed when the nurses kept asking about my pain level after the surgery, because I really didn't care. I broke my hip, then I had surgery, so yeah, it hurts. It should hurt. The key is that I had no fear of the pain, because I knew that I would recover.
Even then, three years before I discovered Dr Sarno and this work, I understood that I was the one who had control over my experience, and I recovered rapidly with that mindset. I also never filled the post-surgery Rx for opioid. I simply had faith that I had received excellent care and that I would be fine, especially if I was a good patient and followed all my instructions.
However, let's not talk about my irrational fear of dental pain.

Based in childhood, of course.
Anyway, when a lifetime of anxiety came to a crisis point of TMS symptoms in 2011, I know that it was my prior belief in my own ability to heal that was invaluable to my success with TMS healing.
Many people don't have that inherent belief, and they don't recognize when they are catastrophizing. Add the fact that unexplained chronic conditions don't come with concrete plans of action, and the result is folks who don't know how to recover when their TMS brain mechanism goes into overdrive.