Why is the Fibromyalgia crowd so against TMS?

On reddit, trying to possibly help some of them, they downvote, call it a scam and rationalize their illness with none sense.

They refuse to acknowledge the brain playing ANY part in it while they ALL seem to have anxiety, depression and other mental disorders. Trying to explain to them TMS is not all in the head goes nowhere either as they feel TMS means you’re calling them a crazy liar.

Its weird

 

Denial of TMS and a firm belief the symptoms must me medical/ structural is hard to shake. It’s TMS’ own built in survival system. From our perspective the link between Fibromyalgia looks so obvious, but to some even considering it is akin to a loss of their identity. Super frustrating indeed but people have to reach their own conclusions.

 

They call themselves "Fibro Warriors" and even wear t shirts like it's a badge. Like mademesmile said, it becomes part of a person's identity and of course it's reinforced by the medical industry and commercials for Lyrica lol! Some people want to defend their pain. Some people have a victim mindset and they cling to victimhood. Sometimes it serves a secondary purpose (attention, extra care, feeling "special" or "unique").

 

they're trusting in the whitecoats, which is unfortunate

 

As someone who was diagnosed with FM I will say that you have to finally get to the point where you are fed up with all the traditional intervention. Take another pill, do another course of PT, try another diet. Once you go through that enough you finally start to become more open to this approach. I wish I had found this 20 years ago because I have lost so much since my diagnosis, but I still can't convince my mother that hers could be TMS and she's had it longer than I had it. I do think the victim mentality is huge. You have to be able to accept that YOU can change this and you have to stop blaming other people for it.

 

There used to be another Board...can't remember it's name, but if you posted ANYTHING about Sarno or TMS they instantly removed it.

I paid 14 bucks for my first Sarno Book. I think I have paid a total of a couple hundred dollars over the 20 years I have been recovered...mostly for copies for friends. Every single one who read it cover to cover got better ...100%. I used to have a standing offer of paying people two or four times the cost of the book if they read it and didn't get better... Obviously i have never had to pay it. That is astonishing and then it's not...

That would have been my co-pays for a month when I was in the system. Pretty damn cost effective deal, Huh? But then I am not special.... just another bum with TMS. No war stories of how my pain (and diagnoses) are worse than the next guys. I got kicked out of the 'woe is me' club. (Thank you God)

Same thing with spiritual or personal experiences in growth. People would rather talk about Christianity than read the bible. ....Hire a trainer rather than put down the Doritos. When the answer is so simple it might make their specialness all evaporate and the Ego is a survivalist extraordinaire. Without this adversity, who am I?

Eckhart Tolle explains this really well....

 

Baseball65, I spent 3.99 on "Healing Back Pain" which changed my life and God knows how many thousands and thousands I spent on doctors in the medical mill. I even had Ketamine infusions (5 of them). Each one cost about 4,000 (insurance did not cover). Only one of those infusions helped because I had gone full body with RSD and it was a dire emergency. The drug ketamine disassociates your brain for a few hours. The BRAIN. What does that tell you lol? It always comes back to mindset. Always. People who look outside themselves (to doctors, alternative pp, searching for someone else who had the exact same story....) will never get better. It's an inside job. One thing I want to add, is I did have psychotherapy and it was worth every single penny to get my life back. It amazes me that people will spend money on useless treatments, or distractions like video games but will cry poverty when it comes to therapy. And you're right. Most people don't want to do the work. They just want a magic solution or they want to complain or declare how unique they are from the rest of the human race. "Their" condition is "different" you see. They are "special". That is the mindset that keeps people stuck.

 

As described in the posts above, having fibromyalgia becomes part of the identity of many sufferers. Additionally, fibromyalgia patients are correct about something pretty huge: their symptoms are real.

The symptoms are not simply "made up" or imagined," which some people (outside of the TMS community) wrongly try to imply. However, that's not at all what we believe in the TMS community - we know the symptoms are 100% real, but the origin is not structural. There's a major disconnect between what these "fibro warriors" think the TMS community believes and what we actually believe. We know their symptoms are a damn nightmare and pure hell; we are not trying to invalidate that experience whatsoever. We only disagree on the source of their symptoms and the fact that they can be overcome with the work we do.

@miffybunny, you are 100% correct about the ketamine being proof of it all starting in the brain! Your description is fantastic and so accurate. Howard Schubiner, whom I know you said you once briefly spoke to about CRPS, does a lovely job of describing how all pain is processed and interpreted by the brain. This is why the brain can be taught to beat even many forms of structural pain! And for those of us who have overcome symptoms caused by the mind-body connection, we know how important it is to move past the identity of being "sick," a "fibro warrior," a "lymie," etc. These labels and communities only strengthen the belief that one has no control over their destiny, further perpetuating the symptoms and suffering.