Confused on what I should do.

Okay so after 3.5 years with my symptoms - which all started with health scare, which resulted in a massive panic attack - I’ve come to notice a pattern. I get my symptoms when I’m stressed. The main one is a feeling of swaying, like being on a boat (Dizziness). I’ve floaters, tinnitus too. My dizziness gets worse in supermarkets, small rooms, when I’m hungover, when I’m close up to objects like an ATM or if I’m washing my hands at a sink and also after driving (especially long distance).

When I take a drink (get drunk) my symptoms subside or disappear. With a hangover they get worse, the day or two after that, I seem to feel very calm and thus... my symptoms are gone, even if I try to think about them. That’s odd. But I’ve been able to compare this feeling of calm to how I feel on a general day - I seem to automatically go into a tense, stress mode after 12 mid-day, give or take an hour. In general it’s a slight uncomfortableness which I wasn’t even aware of until I had a calmness to compare it to.

When I exercise, sometimes afterwards my symptoms are reduced, IF I get that nice calmness afterwards.

I also notice after midnight, my symptoms reduce. So there must be something changing biochemical wise in the brain which produces calm before bed time.

I seem to have a conditioned response to driving (my symptoms get worse after I drive), but I’ve noticed now, it’s that I go unconsciously into a tense, stress, uncomfortable body state. I can’t help it.

I’ve read the many wise words of HillBilly, Ace, @balto etc. They all tend to say similar but different things in how to fully resolve this condition of stress illness (they’re a bit removed from the Sarno thinking). I also have looked at @Dorado and his success story. It apparently is extremely easy. Yet here I am, fully aware my symptoms aren’t killing me, I’m not going to die - I HAVE removed fear - that fear disappeared in year 1. But balto and HillBilly state that once you remove fear, you’ll heal. But that hasn’t happened for me. I do get frustrated with the symptoms, very slightly, because they are uncomfortable (mainly the dizziness). But I find it impossible not to feel uncomfortable - they are uncomfortable!

So I need advice and clear direction. Do I just continually shift my attention away to something else when I feel my dizziness, or should I focus on not getting stressed/tense in general and for instance, relax my shoulders when I see them getting tense when driving?

Many thanks for any help!

 

Ah, the good old days of TMShelp.

Hillbilly, Ace and dear Balto have left an amazing legacy. Kudos to you for dealing with fear. I have had experience of symptoms sometimes carrying on when fear is gone and generally this seems to be down to triggers and/or conditioning, over-sensitisation of the nervous system, or the simple possibility that you have too much stress/emotional stuff going on that needs resolving.

You say you’ve noticed a pattern when stressed. This may be the place to start. Actually if you’ve read Ace’s Keys to Healing, he’s mostly talking about a variation on Somatic Tracking and Cognitive Soothing, or desensitisation and deconditioning. Are you familiar with Alan Gordon’s program? He talks about how fear is the petrol of TMS. Without the high octane fuel, you become freer to shed the old skin, and become a more chilled version of yourself.

I found after ridding myself of fear, that healing centred a lot on self-care and self-soothing. Remember Sarno’s Rage:Soothe. It remains the best and simplest TMS maxim of all.

So...Relax and Talk nicely to yourself. You don’t need to shift attention, you just need to be ok with whatever symptoms you have. Ace says it can take a while but you have to keep on, you have to learn a new pattern.

Plum x

 

Hi,

I experience the same thing, just that when I drive (sometimes now, not always) I realize that my legs are tense. What I do is:

1 - realize the fact in that moment;
2 - float into it so I accept it and then let my mind relax and the the body relaxes completely. (I don't overthink it, I don't get upset or worried about it so I don't feed it, I just accept it);
3 - usually start to sing mentally something soothing/lovely or I just say an affirmation and repeat it (a positive affirmation, like a short mantra).
4 - in this stage I'm completely relaxed and at peace.

I hope this helps. All the best!