Do some never heal

Yes, C64, must go forth and start living a full life. That's what I started to do and recovered very quickly.

What you want to do is to create so much positive exciting energy in a consistent manner that it overrides TMS.

You must approach it on a subconscious level. Conscious approach can lead to paralysis by analysis. It leads to getting stuck in negativity and losing hope, all of which keeps you in the cycle of pain.

As you keep moving forward with your plan to create a massive amount of excitement in your mind and your life, you want to gradually deal with some of the mental habits that are counterproductive, such as worrying, perfectionism, OCD, or negative thought patterns.

It may not happen overnight, but with the proper mindset you can expect to make significant improvements while feeling stronger and more confident day after day.

You can use this TMS Questionnaire to identify those areas you need to focus on and remedy in order to stay pain-free. These are the most common issues I have found facing TMSers.

Any area that you rate higher than 7 needs attention. You also have the option of submitting for my feedback.

http://www.fredamir.com/questionnaire (Back Pain)

One thing to keep telling yourself is that if people in this forum have managed to recover you can too.

Take care,

 

WOW! Thanks Fred! 24 carat pure TMS gold, tattoo this to your cranium.

 

(Off-topic answer .
Sagittarius here. Ruled by Fire.)

 

Plum,

You are always such a comfort and a lighthouse. I tried to look up Dr. Schu, but I don't think I was successful. Now that I'm typing this, I'm wondering if you meant Dr. Schubiner?

I thought I was extricating myself from the web of crazy and finding ways to live with and minimize the TMS, but this week it feels like that was entirely wrong. I bought Unlearn Your Pain, a couple of months ago, but I just cannot stick with it. I'll try again if he's the missing link.

Blessings,
Cara

 

Hey Cara,

I was wondering about you so it's lovely to hear from you. Don't worry about a bad patch. It's par for the healing course and if you maintain your devotion to healing it will settle down again. Fluctuations and flare-ups are latter stage signs that TMS is giving up the ghost and that you are quite likely dealing with conditioning and triggers.

I do mean Dr. Schubiner. I've been calling him Schu for years, I'm just daft.
He's not the missing link per se but he is a TMS/mind-body doctor with a structured approach that a lot of people seem to favour. My tendency is to kick the traces and craft my own path. However I did faithfully follow Unlearn Your Pain around 5-6 years ago and while it didn't resolve my problem, it yielded insights into the nature of pain that weren't particularly discussed back then.

Essentially my point 2 means you need to look at your triggers because they have created nerve pathways of their very own. The good news is that you can break them and create shiny new ones (and re-connect to healthy pathways that have been disused for a while). I find the most potent visualisation to be an old style train tracks complete with levers and such that allow trains to completely change course. For example one of my biggest triggers was brushing my teeth. I had to do it but because it induced crazy pain the act and any associations with it became fraught. I would brush very gingerly around the area that triggered neuralgia and sometimes I couldn't go near it. Unsurprisingly this in turn created a horrible fear that my teeth and gums were being neglected...and on the madness went. I also had dental phobia (which was rabid at this point) following entirely pointless treatments for bruxism. I don't recommend dental equilibration for the bruxers out there.

In my insanity I decided to try oil-pulling. My mouth didn't heal, it went berserk. My gums went livid red and swelled to terrifying levels. I had to see a dentist. I decided to see my partners dentist because she was so kind and gentle with him but being a good soul made her very popular and I had to a month for an appointment. A month of terror and panic attacks during which time another trigger, looking at my mouth in a mirror, became so strong I was beyond screwy. I was demented, irrational and totally out of my mind. The day of the appointment came and she checked me out and there was nothing wrong bar what she suggested was the result of stress. The relief that washed over me was transcendental (excuse the pun). She gave the world's gentlest clean and sent me away with a lighter heart.

A few days after that I saw my hygienist and she recommended a return to an electric toothbrush. Mine had broken and I'd not replaced it. I bought a new one. She suggested tepe's (interdental brushes) and showed me how to use them mindfully. Knowing that there was nothing dentally wrong gave me the courage to challenge the knot of triggers I'd created. My neuralgia levels were still through the roof but I knew that it was now or never. The panic attacks immediately ended. I began to desensitise myself around mirrors by looking generally and NEVER peering into my mouth. I went through a phase where I wore lipstick simply for the act of putting it on and admiring how nice it looked. These are but a few small ways that I repeatedly challenged the nonsense I had conditioned myself into.

I've gone into depth with this a bit in the hopes that people can extrapolate and glean insights into their own issues. I hope it's clear that this deconditioning step is vital and is one of the main things Dr. Schu helps with. If memory serves he explains the process his book so referring to that may be of benefit. The other person I recommend for this process is Rick Hanson. He is not taking about physical pain but psychological and emotional correlates and for this reason it is entirely germane to TMS.

One last thing. There is a 4th point that the stuck may find to be their missing link. Here is @ezer's success story:

http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/pelvic-pain-healed.8680/ (Pelvic Pain - Healed)

There is a link to Monte's page where a free download is available which discusses an often overlooked aspect. It's essentially a TMS application of Tolle's Power of Now which looks at the nitty gritty moment-by-moment reasons TMS is hanging around.

Long story short, don't fret about flare-ups. They come, they go, they give you the opportunity to refine your game. Deconditioning and calming your nervous system go hand-in-hand. I remember the first time I felt my body and mind to be completely at peace. A real milestone which gives you a glimpse of what true and deep healing is.

I'm here if anyone needs to ask more questions.

Blessings Cara, with love Plum x

 

And I found this invaluable. Thanks to @balto for posting the most excellent Ace's Keys to Healing here. They are a combination of steps 2 and 4.

http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/key-to-healing.3577/ (Key to healing)

 

Thanks very much very kind of you this seems very helpful

 

nuggets of gold. thanks Plum.