New Program Day 5: Changing Your Brain

This course is fantastic. I've read many books on tms over the past year and watched you tube videos, etc. This course is really bringing it all together for me. I completely agree with Eugene-i feel the information on nerve pathways and the fear around the pain are going to be key for me in my recovery. I'm hopeful for the first time in a while. Thank you so much for being so specific about how we can make changes. I think it's the piece that's been missing for me.

 

I gather from what you are saying my pain is a consequence of my fear. I am thinking my pain is more about my repressed emotions and past trauma. Does it fit the same criteria?

 

Hi,

Here is the way I understand it and I could be wrong. If I am I hope someone will correct me. Past trauma can cause fear. You also have repressed emotions. Your brain thinks those emotions are dangerous so it decides to create pain to distract you from those emotions. This pain also causes fear (will it ever end, what is wrong with me, etc.) and the fear in turn causes more pain because it signals danger to your body. That's my understanding in a nutshell.

Kristina

 

This really is wonderful information. I did go through the original version but then got sidetracked more with the repressed emotion side and journaling.

My brain exhausts me. It feels as though the extreme fear and monitoring of pain, anger and sadness related to it's impact on my life and not feeling safe and grounded are my biggest issues.

 

Do Tms drs do skype. Im in Canada no tms drs here

 

i really like how this program seems to be more about confronting fear than anything. awesomme

 

Yes, Adria, most of them do. Here is the site of the TMS therapists:

http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Find_a_TMS_Doctor_or_Therapist#Los_Angeles_area (Find a TMS Doctor or Therapist)

 

Can tms take away psycholpgical pain like bypoler stress and depression?and fear

 

@George860
Depression and fear are TMS equivalents. I'm not qualified to comment on bipolar disorders being TMS equivalents, as I'm not a doctor or a therapist. I understand that is created by a chemical imbalance in the brain, so I imagine that symptoms can be alleviated by TMS healing methods, but I would defer to someone who has more expertise than I.

@Alan Gordon LCSW could answer your question better than I can.

 

Gosh.....I just read your post about your morning pain body scan. It was like reading about my own morning. I had not realised that all of these thoughts are going through my head but you are absolutely right....I am a tigger but Eeyore kicks in before i even get up........Did you manage to get any tips or techniques on how to change this Eeyore habit? Tomorrow when i wake up i am thinking about asking myself quite simply - "what would tigger do right now?"

 

This is a great thread. I knew I had/have anxiety for a few years now. It’s been about 3 years with the RSI pain. Extreme anxiety had set in about that same time. I’m a textbook case of TMS, but I had such a hard time convincing myself 100%. Not anymore. There were days or weeks when I simply had to push through any rsi pain for work. I’d get it done, and the pain would only reach a 4 of 10 and just stop increasing. Hmm.

I’d go on vacation for a week and have no pain. 2 hours into my first day back and it’s at a 5.

Well the source of pressure related to me hating my job but feeling forced by myself to stay in it. I stayed for the money, and I worried I couldn’t replace that income elsewhere. I also worried my skills would become outdated staying in that position. I was laid off from that jobs month ago, and the weeks leading up to that point were very stressful. I was stressed in every possible way.

Well, the acute stress was gone a few days after losing my job. Doesn’t that seem backwards? I needed to use the computer quite a bit for job hunting so the fear or that pain still gripped me. I worried about being able to perform in a new position. So I went back to studying TMS as the problem. This time it really sunk in. I wasn’t willing to let go of that pressure relating to the job before. Money was too high on the priority list.

Since accepting the situation and moving my mental health to the top of my priorities the pain is gone in my hands. I now KNOW that my hands are physically fine. I know what led to it.

I have experienced the symptom imperative, and I think that is from the fear described here. Anxiety is still somewhat of an issue. I believe training myself to avoid an anxious state will be the final cure all to this condition. I feel like healing yourself mentally is what TMS is really all about. The journaling and self discovery are immensely helpful.

I’ve decided to let go of the things that cause me immense pressure and accept the consequences as they are the lesser of 2 evils. The other one being poor mental health and TMS symptoms. Somehow I think I’ll have my cake and eat it too. The anxiety wasn’t or isn’t productive.

 

This thought came to my mind today and totally reminds me of today's post:

"Imagine sitting on your front porch and you see a squirrel walk down the sidewalk with a walnut in his mouth. You aren’t upset at the squirrel, you aren’t overly excited to see that squirrel.. You just notice it as it makes an appearance in your day. Then you move on.

That squirrel is your pain."

Over the last three days my pain has massively diminished. Even when some faint tension happens in the places that have been problematic I have just watched it like the squirrel above and kept going with my task and it is incredible how well that strategy has worked.

 

I'm loving the swearing, Alan, keep it going, kept real!

 

This program is really reaching me on a level that my other reading about TMS pain/symptoms has not. I agree that describing the pain/symptoms that we suffer in terms of fear and anxiety is more comprehensible. I can now see that I have learned to obsess over my symptoms and have let this obsessing make me afraid to go about living my life. I have lived the last few years of my life very isolated and afraid to do even basic activities, but I now see that it was not so much the actual symptoms that were causing me to react this way but more so my fear of them. I can not even put into words how thankful I am for this program - I think it is going to completely change my life! Thank you a million times!!

 

I’m dealing with a recent foot fracture— that came after a small procedure in a podiatrist office that was supposed to help with numbness in the toe—and (according to two doctors) — has never caused searing nerve pain that persists for 30 days! They both sent me to a neurosurgeon for tests which I very much do not want. I also do not want to backslide into bizarre crippling pain and narcotics addiction that I came out of after five years incredibly hard work (and help of an MBS doctor). The fracture came when I was walking barefoot, two weeks after the nerve “injury” and slammed my foot against door opening. It felt like a broken toe— but I treated it like MBS— continuing to ignore. Within two days while leg and foot swollen, tons of nerve pain and sensations in addition to the first! Later a fracture discovered. Good news: after four days of this forum and working it— see improvement!!! Thank you.

 

@Christie Uipi MSW or @Alan Gordon LCSW, could you reply on this?
What is the best way to approach the sitting pain here and to get rid of it in time. Could you give here advice please? It woud be wonderful
Regards Marco

 

I’d be interested in this as well...hemorrhoid/fissure discomforts...

 

A life free from fear? That sounds heavenly!

I always sailed through my life repressing fear for the most part. I went through multiple objectively fear inducing experiences, seemingly without a shimmy It was necessary to get me through being raised by sociopathic parents in a very rough neighborhood.

After the final break from them, that I refer to as “a messy divorce,” I wound up with what The Far Side called, “a cumulative attack of the willies.” It was as if every fear I had repressed over the decades suddenly got in line to tap dance on my head in spiked shoes.

I know that my fear response was greatly exacerbated by going through Lyme recovery with my sociopathic parents here. We had thought they were helping us and had changed. They fooled us and several professionals!

Later, we found out that it had all been a scheme to take our house, a ploy and not parental love.

Being helpless (I needed help to do almost everything) in the presence of two abusers threw me into a fear response from which I am still recovering two years later.

I think that is why this pain has been so sneaky and intractable. It mirrors the experiences of life around my parents, especially as a small child.

And I am determined to heal!

Don’t let the bastards win!!

 

It was amazing, but not surprising, when I did this exercise. I was observing critical, pressure, and fear thoughts, and I discovered that most of the problematic thoughts are fear thoughts.

I’ve been meditating regularly for about a year, so I was familiar with the observer position. That helped a lot.

While I know that part of the process of getting rid of fear is simply recognizing it, I was wondering if you have any additional suggestions for how to invite it to leave.

 

Have you read Steve Ozanich's book, "The Great Pain Deception"? If I recall correctly, he says his research has shown that tinnitus commonly shows up as a last symptom of TMS? That may be good news for you! But 16 years???