Anyone have parents with TMS?..

Anne, it looks like the only difference is in the degree of TMS? Do I understand you correctly? You were asking if everyone had severe TMS pain in their lives, and I'm referring to The Mindbody Syndrome, where emotions create physical effects.

Sapolsky was the last person I talked to before publishing GPD. I wanted to try to understand the mechanism of knowledge therapy, so I explained Dr. Sarno's work to him. He was nice to me, he took a long time to get back each time but he gave great responses. I teased him about winning the Genius Award through the Heritage Foundation, and told him that would be cool to have in your holster on a date, or at a party.

Repression is a survival tool in advanced cultures, and so is depression. They're serving similar functions. Often when people get very angry at someone, or life, they fall into depression as a means of not harming them. Most often though it look like chronic fatigue is used for that purpose. Depression is the sense of isolation with no outlet for expression, and a sense of no value.

Colly you're still beautiful

 

Love the thread!

I disagree that people diagnosed with psychosis or schizophrenia cannot have TMS! I had been diagnosed with those and seem to have TMS! (probably had it before too, but not during the 'extreme states' that is true.) Though maybe my diagnosis was wrong?
I 99.9% of time haven't had visions or voices since being on meds, but now at home I developed physical pain when washing the dishes or doing other house chores (which I have mostly hated) or when playing guitar or writing (and pressuring myself to do it well/perfectionistically) or being behind the computer too much... (and reading this site or other 'difficult'/stress- or worry-laden subjects) I was told my pain could be related to poor posture or scoliosis, but I've been able to get the pain to disappear by 'yelling' at it internally. So I'm thinking TMS. I fit the personality traits and other stuff too. But we'll see if it will really go away

As for my parents, mum had stomach problems from coffee and stressful work, both had backache but cured it with a combination of nutrition+exercise & walking & change of thoughts too, yup. This year or so, if mum got nervous she got heart arrythmia, is that TMS then too? (And how to prevent it?) SEP program too?

I just had a nice discussion with mum about this as she saw me typing away on the computer and wondered what I was doing I briefly explained and printed out the TMS Lists for her and partially filled them in!

 

Layla, just to clarify, I absolutely DO believe folks with schizophrenia can have TMS. In the case of my brother, I think his mental illness has kept him distracted (the whole goal of TMS) enough that TMS has never had to bring physical symptoms into play. And for the paranoid torment I have seen that man go through…I'd pick chronic pain.

Just wanted to clarify.

PS I'm so glad medications have been helpful to you. They've really helped my brother.

 

Layla, who are you disagreeing with when you said you disagreed that schizophrenic people don't get TMS? Who said that to make you disagree?

 

By jpurnaling into my boyhood, I discovered that my parents had TMS from their repressed emotions.
My mother had frequent migraines and my father always had severe back pain. Financial worries during
the 1930s Great Depression were their repressed emotions and led to divorce when I was seven.
Politicians and the media won't admit it, but we're in another Great Depression and for many people,
financial worries are at the core of their pain. Politicians and the media won't be honest about it,
but we must be, and put our faith in the Lord that we will survive. We will, with His help.

 

Well, there was discussion about it above. Didn't you say that psychotic people don't get TMS? And that everyone else does? And then someone mentioned schizophrenia too... I think it is an interesting discussion, was just surprised that people with psychosis would be singled out from having TMS? (Or did you mean 'psychos' without moral or ethical conscience? I'm a bit allergic to this word these days though, sure you understand...)

North Star, I think psychosis/extreme states/schizophrenia could partly be a 'distraction' from extreme saddness or such, but it's more like an umbrella term for similar symptoms from many different causes, eg lack of sleep can cause 'psychosis' too, or lead poisoning can cause schizophrenia, and other causes/factors like UTIs and prenatal viral infection have been explored. (The doctors say they 'don't know' what is causing it, which only means their exact knowledge is limited and that many factors can be in the play.) Some see it as 'happening between people' (stress-related), and some people even point out that it could be at least in some cases a 'spiritual awakening' too and that shamans or 'oracles' in other cultures often start with a psychosis-like state (but are then mentored into learning to control it and evoke 'trance'-like state at will).

For me, the experience was 'magical' and beautiful (okay, except from being hospitalized, but I even met some fascinating people there and it was like being on holiday). It was way more fun than the pain! (I thought I was communicating with spirits and ancient deities - well maybe I was! I still miss 'em!) I do wonder if now that this venue is 'closed' with meds, pain chose to manifest to warn me about things! Or maybe my life has just been too sedentary too!

Back to the topic: I did discuss things with mum yesterday and might try to get her to do journalling too, not sure how to go about it. Don't wish her to get worse by delving into any unpleasant memories or such (though not sure if she has any, more like present stressors and personality...) I'll wait until she has more free time and no doctor's exams and such... (She doesn't speak English well enough to do the SEP on her own, and I don't fancy translating everything hmm..) Has anyone done like a shortened version with their parents?

 

Although I can't be 100% sure, I would put a bet on my mum possibly having TMS (or something very similar) to it.

 

I think our parents had lots of stresses that caused them to have headaches and pain.
I wish I had known about TMS and was older so I could have helped them.

 

I showed my mum a page from the Wikipedia entry and she sarcastically said it was on Wikipedia therefore it must be true. My dad also MIGHT have something similar to TMS as he was always having to repress his anger at his students when he was lecturing in his class. I don't know if he has had any extreme pains though.

 

To help your parents (or anyone else close to you) it is best to help yourself first... Forgive them for not believing something that only 1 in 10 people is willing to accept. Become the living evidence that it works and you might change their opinion.

 

I only really believe it due to a process of elimination, of the things I've been diagnosed with in the past three years or so ......

 

Gigalos, I was actually thinking about that today. The only reason my mom read a book by Sarno in the past is because it helped me. When I conquer some of these other symptoms, you can bet I'll be right there hoping she'll look into it further and give it another chance

 

I have had a minor success with the treatment of TMS about two months ago, but I don't know what my parents or anyone else will say about it.

 

When a mother really needs to believe in TMS, she will.

Gigolos is right. We are the best proof of TMS causing our pain.
Others will catch on because of our example.

 

Yes, I'm pretty certain my parents have TMS. My stepmother has chronic migraines, and I can tell she deals with repressed anger and goodist tendencies. She had a difficult childhood and has worked as a social worker, which can be a stressful job. She is also very fussy about keeping the house clean.

I think my dad suffers from headaches as well, as when I lived at home I saw him take aspirin fairly frequently. His symptoms don't seem to be as bad as my stepmothers, but the family seems to get sick constantly - it appears that they have lowered immune defences due to stress.

My mum also gets aches and pains in various parts of her body, although they are not terribly dramatic - they seem to come and go quite a bit. She also has trouble sleeping, and often seems to get tired.

…

Anyway, I have talked to my stepmum a bit about the psychological approach to chronic pain, and she seemed quite open to it as she knows headaches are often caused by stress. Also, having worked as a social worker, she knows quite a bit about mindfulness practice. Even so, I'm reluctant to push it too far until I've had significant success and breakthrough in my recovery.

I have also shared the TMS Wiki with a couple of people I know experiencing chronic pain, but I try not to sound too pushy. I usually just suggest it in a gentle way, by saying, "Not sure if this is relevant for your situation, but just thought you might find it interesting/helpful."