2 ten dollar bills will SAVE you. Truth. Paul David

@karinabrown, I understand how you're feeling! I had severe sciatica that made it almost impossible for me to walk/move at all. It's not about 'simply start living', it's about taking steps, doing the work and teaching yourself that it's your mind that's creating the pain. This has been one of the hardest things I've done, because I had so much fear connected to each one of my symptoms. I know that it's possible to get better, so don't give up.

 

Most of the time people don't believe how simple it is to get rid of tms/anxiety. They can't believe that just by go on living life can get rid of their 10 years of back pain or 5 years of panic attack, or knee pain, foot pain, pelvis pain, tinnitus, headache.... 1000 more symptoms. I am no doctor, I can only give you a living example. That is exactly how I got rid of my decades of multiple tms/anxiety/mind body diseases. By just go on living life and don't give a damn about my symptoms. In my opinion Mike, it is not a distraction. Your symptoms is the mirror image of your emotions. Negative emotions will produce negative health symptoms. Positive emotion will cancel out your negative and will produce positive feeling in our body. The concept is very simple but because it is people just can't believe it.
Our body always scan our mind and our surrounding for sign of danger. When it see sign of danger it will produce fight or flight respond. When sign of danger become chronic of traumatic, it make negative changes to our cells, our dna, our chemistry, our organs,... and we have Mind body symptoms. To our body, negative emotion is a sign of danger. Rushing is a sign of danger, traumas is a sign of danger, .....
To go on living our life (positively) is exactly how we can get rid of our symptoms. We shut off the sign of danger. We tell our body we are no longer in danger. We are safe and we are enjoying our life. We are calm, contented, and at peace. Our body will comply. It will stop producing stress hormones. Our breathing will slow down. Our heart will rest more and slow down. Our muscles will relax and our blood will flow more freely. Our blood sugar level will stablize. Our digestive system will work the way it suppose to work..... and we will be "normal" again.
I think different than you do. I think meditation, journalling, tapping,... will help but they are just "distraction". They help temporary but they rarely cure. Although some people got lucky using those methods and get rid of a few symptoms. But from my observation, they almost always get other symptoms or "relapses".
To truly overcome your symptoms. All of our symptoms we have to truly believe we are fine, we are healthy. We have to change our belief. We have to convince our body that it is not in any danger at all. Stop all of our FEARS is the single most important belief we have to achieve to heal.

 

balto my adorable one! So glad to see you here!

No danger. No danger. No danger. Changes everything. Let that be the constant signal.

Instead of I wonder, what if, oh no, what about, how am I feeling, how am I now, is it an 8 or a 3, etc..

 

Dear Balto,

Oh i can surely believe that it worked : For You!
Claiming that's it for everyone: Something else isn't it.
'just simply ignore your symptoms..pain' well that is 'simple'
When your dealing with pain just acting like you are not: Is not my idea of 'being healthy' or 'being fine'
Sound like s whole lot of work too.
Instead of ignoring my pain..or symptoms prefer to look for method that makes them go away so i don't have to ignore anything!

 

karinabrown I dont think you can make them go away before you start living. You start living, come what may and then it goes away. A living momentum. Not a dead waiting for relief. You wait for relief because you are scared of the pain.

I decided not to be scared. So I started to work, which just happend to fall into my lap. Now if I collapse at work, cry at work, hell poop my pants at work ha ha, anything! have a panic attack, I dont care let er rip. Im gonna keep on.

I dont know pain dominant, tho I have pain. But if I had excutiating pain, I think it would still work. Just try it out for a few weeks. Take your pain with you and go out there, maybe a bar and awkward dance. Fear Not. No Danger. Besides at a bar it is not unheard of to collapse, sit on the ground or cry.

 

Hi Branson,

'not a dead waiting for relief that i can agree on : I did experience that too
Last year made some changes
I got back to living for about 50 -60 % maybe..totally back was nog possible: Lost my job etcetc due to pain and a whole lot more..
But much better than the zero life i had
And still working to go for 100 %
I cannot do it like you mention: Crawling on the floor in pain if needed? Is not good living to me ! I can understand it can be someones way to choose for that
That is fighting to ignore it all.
I think i hope graduatelly get back into a better life: Not in waiting : absolutely not but slowly moving forwards
It has worked so far..so hope to keep improving

And believe me : I did tried it out!! Except pooping my pants thanks for the laugh!

 

I hope whatever method you choose to use will work for you. I just share what had worked for me and for many others that I know.
Good luck Karina.

 

Thanks balto good luck to you too

 

Dr. Sarno says ANXIETY is an affective TMS symptom.

 

Just to chime in on this I don't really think it is as straightforward as ignoring your symptoms but rather it is more of a case of reframing them to some degree.

I went down the route of trying to ignore my symptoms on many occasions but this was a frustrating and pretty useless affair as it was almost as if the actual act of having to ignore them made me to focus on the buggers even more.

What I find beneficial now is to be aware of the symptoms but try my best to strip them off anything over and above the physical sensation they offer up as I discovered it is pretty much always this secondary pain/meaning that generates the tension and anxiety.

I have to say this isn't always successful and sometimes it can take me rather a long time to 'neutralise' the secondary baggage that the symptom generates but it is the approach that is most successful I feel.

 

Dr. Sarno's TMS theory is that the pain is a distraction from facing emotional problems head-on--a defense mechanism. His "cure" is to find positive distractions as a substitutes to make us feel good, creating those endorphins . Homo sapien sapiens are VERY distractable--try having a conversation in the hot-tub and see how long it is before somebody hears a word that leads them to chime in, taking the focus of the topic off on a different tangent.

 

Right on huckleberry. Reframe is a good term. Cuz it's not really ignoring. It is taking IT the pain the fatigue with u, purely as it is adding nothing extra to it, nor trying to keep it at bay. No fear. No danger. You can take it slow, take it Sarno but in the end ultimately u will not lose all your pain B4 you get back to living. Only u can decide what level of your pain is acceptable to you to go out living and cured. I was someone for 28 years disabled. Not a light case not a newbie to this information. Nothing has worked until now.

So what happens with a setback? So what. I'm expecting it. Everyone says it is up and down. No worries.

Lots of love from

Poopy Pants

 

Two ten dollar bills reminds me of what Mae West said once, when she was at a party and there was no toilet paper, so she asked the host if he had two fives for a ten. This has nothing to do with TMS except that that is how she handled the emotional stress.

As for distractions not helping get to the root cause of TMS emotional pain, I believe in spending some time away from thinking about pain and even about TMS. The happier are, doing things we enjoy, the better. A half hour a day of working on TMS was enough for me in healing from back pain I learned from the Structured Educational journaling went back to my childhood.

 

Hello 'poopypants'

But how can you know that you only loose all your pain by getting back to living ?(interesting subject on its own What is real living , depends doesn't it)
If i understand you correct : You still have pain? So ?

 

Many wise minds say that real living is living in the present moment because that's all the reality we have.

 

Hi Walt,

That is true ! Present is all we have even with pain or fear.
Like that mae west example too!
Your half hour spending time is also my goal so now: Will take a break

 

I think the concept of symptom shifting is important here as I know for me once I start living with a symptom and it finally fades away it is all too often swiftly replaced by another...good example for me currently being having over a year of daily headaches and derealisation which I obsessed over and convinced myself was a brain tumour then when I lost the fear it literally went overnight to be replaced with my current gastritis type issues which have been going on for about 5 months. I'm still in the fear cycle with this symptom so its not really any surprise that it has probably become self perpetuating.

I think another issue here is that when we convince ourselves we have TMS we automatically buy into the idea that we can be cured and lose our pain or whatever equivalent and then this can become a bit of an obsession in itself. You often see people who have physical ailments that are clearly not TMS and they either tend to have a mindset of being defeated by their ailment and who almost give up on life and yet you see others who adapt and modify and carry on with their lives...even though they will never be 'cured' or free of pain they still engage fully with life. I often think this is the paradox with TMS and mind-body disorders...they offer the chance of recovery and reclaiming our life as it was before the symptoms started BUT it is the chance of recovery that often generates so much tension and chasing our tails, our lives become so consumed by chasing the cure that we fail to realise the anxiety this causes in itself.

Ultimately I think that it is a case of having to live with uncertainty and that once we accept that this is how our life is in this moment and it may not get worse and yet it may not get better then we can maybe give ourself some peace. I know its a bit of a naff and throwaway quote but the whole 'get busy living or get busy dying' thing does hold a kernel of truth.

 

Sorry, I'm not grasping this.... How can one go back to living if they are in debilitating pain or not mobile? Maybe this protocol works for those with less severe symptoms. But it's certainly not an option for those who are on the more severe end of the spectrum (we have to ease into living, enjoying and having gratittude for the simplest of things).

Just starting to live again without changing or understanding "why" I.e a journey of self discovery seems a little bit of a flawed approach to me. Maybe, one may have a quick win. But the question remains, will it be lasting, or will one relapse a year or two down the line.

I agree, we do need to start living life, being positive, having a sense of worth, loving, embracing life, but we must strive to achieve these parts simultaneously and over a period of time. But in addition we must understand and transform our limiting beliefs from a place of fear, to one which is vibrant and full of positivity. Only then will we see a change on a psychological and physiological level. But simply going back to living and doing what you were prior to the onset, seems questionable to me.

There's a stack of science behind the likes of mindfulness, journalling etc so to totally disregard this wouldn't make sense if your symptoms are on the more serious end of the spectrum.

I know we all have differing views here, but it's about instilling belief (a placebo) in the set of protocols you are using. Quite often too many ideas, suggestions etc can confuse and prolongue ones own healing.

I'm not saying this book doesn't hold any wisdom, perhaps it holds the key to your recovery, but it's up to each of us to find out what resonates with us and follow that path. Skipping from one approach to another without any commitment, dedication or motivation seems like it could be frustrating and without rewards.

 

Mike!
You just said it exactly as i see it too.
'easing slowly back into living' is the way for a lot of us.
and when you are in a lot pain and disabled that is actually a huge thing!
In the beginning that was my stressor : I wanted my life back : Anything less was nothing to me.
Now little good things are important and make me grateful..nothing wrong with that.
A lot of little things can maybe become big things..
I kinda already let go the thougt of going back: I am changed that is a fact.
Better think of improving and enjoying things now. And that's okay too.

 

I see TMS healing like building a house, if the foundations (ie your emotions) are weak everything you build on top won't be stable. Recovery is a process and it takes time, there are no short cuts.

It's important to count ones blessings as small as they seem when working towards a desired outcome.