Day 1- Hope At Last When I Needed it More Than Ever

Hi Everyone,

My name is Christie and I have been on one hell of a health journey. Very long story short... throughout my 20's I started getting bad tension headaches that eventually after 7 years turned into chronic daily migraines. I lost my job as Cabin Crew and lived in the four walls of my bedroom. I tried every conventional medicinal approach to no avail until I went holistic and got rid of my migraines but not my tension headaches.

Over time this has also developed into myofascial pain syndrome in my neck and shoulders. I used to dance 5 days a week and now I struggle to walk. Just before Covid hit I tried to come off a medication that caused the most immense fear response in my body. My pain was ten times worse, I could not even walk to the end of the road, I had constant headaches and my migraines came back. My relationship is now currently hanging my a thread and so are my family due to trying to keep me going.

BUT since discovering Alans Book and TMS I am sooooooo sure that all my symptoms are TMS. I tick ALL of the boxes and I can literally go back in my past and correlate the level of fear I have about a situation or activity, to the level of pain/headache I got.

I would say I 95% accept the diagnosis but there is just a level of doubt only around 'Can I actually make this work for me', 'Will i be the person it doesn't work for?' only because its been 15 plus years of hell. This is my biggest doubt. Does anyone else have those fears?

My other doubt is that a lot of the work is geared towards back pain and I don't have that so will it work for tension headaches/neck and shoulder pain.

My other worry is how long will this take as my husband basically said to me last week that something has to change or he can't do this much longer

Despite all this, I call this day 1 a HUGE day of hope as I begin this journey. I know how powerful the brain is but now I just have to use it in a positive way.

Much love

Christie x

 

I would say I 95% accept the diagnosis but there is just a level of doubt only around 'Can I actually make this work for me', 'Will i be the person it doesn't work for?' only because its been 15 plus years of hell. This is my biggest doubt. Does anyone else have those fears?


Hi Christie. I feel 100% the same!
I wish you all the best!

 

That is EXACTLY how I feel. I am the same with the diagnosis but the what if's it doesn't work for me? and the How can I get it work for me are the remaining factors. What has helped me is to make a win list so I write down all the times I see a positive change and then now I can look at it and when I see things started to change that I never thought was possible, that 95% goes to 95.5%... and up from there.

What have you been struggling with for 15 years if you don't mind me asking?

 

So its working for you, good to hear !!
The list is a good idea, Ill give that a try.

I just had some "swallowed" down psychological issues that all came out after my breakup and manifested as neuropathic pain after i treated myself like a piece of crap...

But if theres a chance with this approach Ill give it all
So you are seeing change, I like that!

 

Yes it really is and can 100% work. After simply reading the book my shoulder pain went. However, my other symptoms are disappearing slowly so I am having to be persistent with this.

I am so sorry to hear that. Did you experience pain after your breakup then? Do you mind me asking if you think your symtpoms were worse becasue you didnt look after you? I am actually going through a similar thing right now as my husband wants to leave me for being sick for many years and is justifying needing to go off with another woman because I owe him for looking after me.

 

I had no pain after the break up physically, but it manifested after the injury. After the injury i didnt rest or took care of my mental and physical health, so i can say yes. I made it worse, so Ill make it better now! And surgery made it around 427 times worse.
Before the surgery i had painfree days. So it was 100% a mental thing. Looking after myself is key!

 

Check out the Crushing Doubt podcast and search for Dan Ratner on YouTube. I need this myself.