Can TMS mimic flu and cold symptoms?

I have been feeling a lot of emotional stress in the last week. With this I have been getting pains in my body that's been moving about. I had lower back pain then pain that only lasted a few minutes in the back of my head then a tight sensation in my chest. The following morning I woke up with flu symptoms. I feel agitated, lack of energy, my face and arms hot and burning and I'm coughing up phlegm and I've got a sore throat. I've also got a headache and a fever and I'm shivering and my body aches when I cough. Strange thing is my nose doesn't feel congested. Could TMS mimic this?

 

Idk about mimicking symptoms I know that a lot of my symptoms came after I got the flu so from what I’ve read and felt there’s somewhat of a correlation between the two to the extent I’ll leave that to the experts on here

 

Sounds like the virus I had recently. Strange thing is, although I coughed up a lot of phlem, I never had a runny or congested nose. I convinced myself that it was tms until on day 5 I was talking to a friend and she and her husband had the exact same symptoms I had. Regarding the all over body pain, I had a massage the day before and I was very upset my brother-in-law had just died of cancer, so I thought that was the cause. Sometimes we do pick up a virus. Don't worry and you'll be all better within 2 weeks.

 

Thanks for the replies.

Something weird has happened. I just ate a banana and instantly I felt a little better which is odd. However, now that I am feeling a little better I am getting pain in my front tooth and upper jaw and tinnitus in my right ear.

 

Now that sounds like tms. Stop obsessing about your symptoms and do something to take your mind off them. If you aren't feeling well, then veg out and watch the Olympics or a funny movie.

 

Sounds like you are very closely monitoring your symptoms... Does it matter if it’s TMS or not? Why bother to analyse it? If it is a virus, you’ll be better soon. If it’s TMS, and you don’t feed it/obsess on it, you’ll be better soon! Only way it doesn’t go away is if you feed it.

 

I am just recovering from the flu and I can relate to the stuff you experienced.

Here is what happened with me:

Since December I have had bouts of feeling cold, sometimes I was even shivering under two blankets while it was 22 degrees (C) in my room. I thought it was TMS, so I tried to approach it that way. I also suffer from mild hives since then, which imo is due to emotional stress (my doctor also encouraged me to approach it that way, which was awesome in a way to hear a doctor acknowledge that it is often the main driver of hives)
Then last Tuesday I started to shiver so hard it hurt really bad in my abdominal and back muscles; a couple of hours later I had a fever and only today I feel the worst is over. I had a slight runny nose and sore throat, but not like when you have a real cold, the main problem was a high fever, sore muscles and sleeping 20 hours a day.
Eating something digestible like a banana can really make a difference. Find a site about the flu and you will find that it is encouraged to try to eat things like.... banana's... I also ate pieces of toast with honey, which somehow made me feel better too.

My theory is that I didn't allow myself to get sick for close to two months. The mild case of hives tells me I was 'TMS'ing' and therefore I was spending my time in survival mode. It is possible to postpone a viral infection via survival mode, which is why many people get sick once their weekend or vacation starts. Just ask around and I bet many people will concur with this. Too much emotional stress can also trigger getting sick, which sounds like a contradiction, but the body can only take and postpone it to a certain extent. So where stress can postpone, too much of it or a sudden lack of it can trigger a (healthy) reaction where the body will deal with the virus once and for all (and build immunity so you won't get sick a second time... that's why I advise you to allow yourself the time to get better).
As I somehow foolishly tried to gain control over feeling cold by meditating and allowing any emotions to be there, I noticed that allowing the sensations only made them worse. In retrospect it somehow makes sense as I temporarily opened the gate for my body to deal with the virus in my body once and for all... I still have the hives, although I really couldn't care less. I bet it will go away sooner than later.

If the above doesn't make sense, it probably is because I am still not 100% I am also interested in any other ideas on how the flu is related to TMS. Maybe one of the authors of TMS literature wrote about this, but I still feel too tired to dig into that. The only thing I remember reading is that 'staying at home with a cold is the western way of meditation'....

just give it a couple of days, drink plenty of water to stay hydrated and take some paracetamols to counter the worst and help to get some sleep (acetaminophen, in my mind one of the few legitimate drugs you should take when you have the flu).

to your health!

 

You are so right. Makes total sense to me.

I found the same thing happened to me in last year's flu season. When I finally gave in and allowed myself to enjoy 'the western meditation way', that's when I started feeling better.

As long as we are in a human body, we will sometimes get a virus or infection. We're not super humans.

 

It's been a week now since my cold flu symptoms started and I've still got it The fever has gone but I've got a bad head cold, my ears are clogged up and I have a tickle in my throat. There is severe pain in my upper abdomen whenever I cough and I feel run down and have a headache on the left front side of my head. This is the worst case of cold flu I can remember having. Due to my anxiety and emotional stress I get very little sleep. I'm finding it difficult shifting my focus away from this.

 

This sounds so much like the virus that's been going on in my area. I had it mild, but a friend's husband had a very high fever for a week before it broke and he then started feeling how you are now feeling. He's a surgeon and my friend is a nurse, so they knew what to watch for with complications. My cousin and her husband both had chest x-rays about 1 1/2 weeks after getting it they felt so bad. If you are worried, make an appointment with your doctor and put on a mask in the waiting room, but it does sound like it's running its course.

 

Well said. Great advice for me. This is exactly what I've been doing.

 

That's the problem with me being a natural worrier that I am closely monitoring my symptoms and easily panicking I tend to feed it. I am going to have to learn to not analyse this virus and get on with my day. I am still ill with this and it's been nearly 2 weeks.

Strange thing is while recovering from this virus I am feeling depressed, run down, tired and a bit anxious. Also with resting all the time I strained my lower back the other day bending forward to lift a cup from the coffee table. All this resting is making my lower back weak.

 

Artmuzz, the virus that is going around can be pretty nasty... I also felt a bit depressed/anxious from it. After 3 days the fever and muscle ache died down; it took me another 5-6 days to regain enough energy to do my normal day to day stuff without the need to sleep during the day.
Just take your time and if you have doubts about how it develops, just call your doctor for advice.