Acid Reflux and physical damage (Day 5)

Howdy all-- first of all, this community has been so helpful so I just want to say THANK YOU!

A brief background: I'm 24 and I've had success treating multiple ailments as TMS--heart palpitations, chest pain, muscle twitches, random aches and pains, and neck pain. But for the past year I've had acid reflux and heartburn every single day for hours. I am 90% sure it's TMS related as it popped up when I was in the middle of a medical mystery I was super stressed about, and it doesn't follow the typical spicy/ fatty food triggers or sleeping positions or anything, it's more situationally dependent. Plus I'm a healthy young person who doesn't fit the demographic of GERD at all, and I got a Barium swallow test which was negative, Dr. said everything looked perfect. I've been going through the new pain recovery pain program for reflux and have seen a little success but it's been pretty exhausting trying to keep up the good mindset!

My question is-- how can I let go of the fear that something is structurally wrong when acid reflux does in fact damage the esophagus/ throat? Like, with back pain or other types of pain it was easier for me to accept that it's not actually causing harm to me, but when reflux actually does, how can I deal with that? I just freak out every time I feel the reflux welling up because I irrationally see it as burning my esophagus to shreds.

I'd love any tips!!

 

Hi, @lizardann -

You’ve been successful before, so that’s good news. You can do it again! Maybe you could find some tips on the forum with a search under acid reflux. https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/search/7886154/?q=Acid+reflux&o=date (Search Results for Query: Acid reflux | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome))

 

@lizardann
I too have had LPR which isn't that disimilar to GERD. Another of my TMS symptoms has been tooth pain.
As discussing tooth pain and TMS with my Dr. we discussed the reflux, which he has studied for many years. I asked if there was a connection between reflux and the tooth pain - he said damage to teeth is one of the primary signs of these disorders but many dentists simply don't connect the dots - and it takes a LONG time for the damages to occur. My tooth pain was purely TMS and had 0 to do with the reflux, which prompted me not to worry about it, and simply recognize it as a signal for anxiety.
I did initially take some medications, and eat a lower acid diet but after a few months of continually recognizing the symptoms as anxiety, they began to fade.
Now occasional the symptom pops up again, but each and everytime, it is clearly accompanied with anxiety.
Perhaps your symptom is associated with an emotion, or a state you are currently experiencing...or that it is actually mentally preferable over feeling the sensations of anxiety.
It took me time to recognize that I was stuffing down the physical sensations of anxiety - I was afraid of the thoughts and physical sensations that anxiety brings. Once I lost my fear, and allowed myself to be OK with being anxious, the reflux stopped being chronic.