Is there a common ‘self-treatment’ approach that'd work across-the-board for all mind/body theories?

After all these years of ‘doing the work’ of various kinds, I’m still not symptom free. Overall and generally, I do feel a fair bit better than I did in the early years, but my brain still plays a constant game of ‘whack-a-mole’, continuing to give me symptoms of one kind or the other (ranging from minor to sometimes very disabling).

I’m wondering if the problem’s been that I try going down one track and when that doesn’t work (having given it a really good go) I try going down another track (and give that a really good go too) and so on, when what I actually need to do is to find an approach that is congruent with all the different theories.

I say this as I wonder if the reason I still get symptoms is because, for instance, I don’t just have a ‘reservoir of rage’ with my brain causing symptoms that serve to distract me from releasing that rage (al la Dr Sarno) but I also get symptoms because my brain is fearful and responds to harmless bodily sensations with disproportionate pain (al la Alan Gordon) and also because my brain has ‘wired’ pain due to neuroplasticity (a la Dr Moskowitz).

Therefore, I also wonder if there is one common ‘self-treatment’ regimen/approach that would work ‘across-the-board’ for whyever the mind/body symptoms are plaguing me and other ‘strugglers’ like me (who have completely accepted that our symptoms are caused by the brain).

There aren’t enough hours in the day to endeavour to do what Dr Sarno suggested plus all of what Alan Gordon and Dr Moskowitz (plus what others like, for example, Dan Buglio) recommend – and a problem is, of course, that some of the suggestions are at odds with each other because of the differing theories as to why the brain creates pain and other symptoms. Perhaps then, there isn’t a ‘self-treatment’ regimen/approach that’s ‘one size fits all’ and I'm being ridiculous, but I think it's worth asking the question and pondering whether or not there is one. (Of note is that I'm already ‘getting on with my life’ as best I can and thinking psychological and not physical as a basis for whatever approaches I try.)

I guess I can be accused of looking for ‘the’ silver bullet, but, in my defence, I am not expecting not to have to put the work in or expecting super-fast results.

Any helpful thoughts and suggestions will be gratefully received.

 

I think there is a commonality between all the theories and approaches for treating TMS. They all seek to bring the unconscious into conscious awareness. Only when these primitive,unconscious emotions and thought processes are brought into conscious awareness can we deal with them using our higher brain. Different practitioners espouse different techniques to accomplish this, and since our brains are so complex and varied, different people will respond differently to these techniques. Some will resonate and some will not. But they all require a sincere desire to look honestly at what we've been hiding from ourselves. Without that sincere desire and commitment, engaging in the techniques will satisfy our need to "do something", but will not result in recovery.

 

Many thanks for your reply @Ellen.

So, from what you've said, it's either a case of none of the techniques (as I believe I've tried them all over the many years that I've had TMS) resonating with the way my particular brain works or that I haven't as yet hit on a technique that resonates with my brain, and/or I don't have a sincere desire and commitment to look honestly at what I've been hiding from myself -- I only think that I have a sincere desire and commitment to look honestly at what I've been hiding from myself, but I don't really. I simply don't know how I can resolve the latter should the latter actually be the case for me (any suggestions would be welcome) so I feel I can only continue with trying to find a technique or a combination of techniques that will resonate with the way my brain works.

 

Hi again, @Ellen

In response to your posting, last night I also read some of your old forum posts. In one of them you wrote "TMS is a defense against the truth". I went to bed thinking about this succinct statement and, after sleeping on it, I came to the realisation that 'intellectually' my conscious mind does have "a sincere desire to look honestly at what I've been hiding from myself" and thinks it's succeeding, but my subconscious mind resists and won't let me. When I awoke this morning I realised that I had been dreaming for the first time in donkey's years - with considerable angst - about a long term relationship (of around 10 years duration) that I had had almost 30 years ago and I also realised that, although I got over the man with whom I had that relationship years ago, I haven't got over the loss of the sense of belonging that being close to his large family had given me; they were people who showed me kindness and made me feel loved and appreciated -- a stark contrast to my own family (I was an only child and my parents were distant and my father always considered me to be a nuisance). I'm going to keep reminding myself that "TMS is a defense against the truth" every night before I go to bed, to hopefully reveal and 'see' what other truths my subconscious may been hiding.

Also, in one of the threads in which you posted, I saw that Steve O wrote to someone the following: "I would suggest that you don't have a fear of your pain but that you have a fear that it will go away. Get with that for a while, and begin to see it all differently. Then change begins to occur." I'm going to regularly remind myself of this as well. My subconscious mind could well be fearing that my pain and other symptoms will go away and it's just my conscious mind that wants it to desist.

Thanks once again for your reply to me; it's been very helpful.

 

I do think that having the sincere desire and commitment to look honestly at what we're hiding from ourselves is key to recovery. I think that when we have that, the right technique and path will present itself. I don't fully understand how I got to that place. I think there was a major shift when I truly believed that I had TMS and that I was causing my own symptoms. I no longer saw myself as a victim, and so felt empowered to change. That change was sudden when it happened, and it felt almost miraculous as I experienced the shift at the core of my being. So I guess I'm saying that belief is the key, or at least it was for me. It's very hard to say exactly what leads to belief. I think what was most helpful for me was listening to and reading Sarno over and over. He sounded like someone I could believe and trust. Eventually it just clicked. And I should add that it's not been permanent, as I've experienced relapse many times over the years. But when I relapse now, I can see fairly quickly that it's because I've shifted into victim mode. And following that realization, I can look honestly at why I am choosing to feel like a victim.

I wish you well on your healing journey. I know how frustrating and lonely it can feel at times.

 

So happy to hear of your insights.

 

Hi @JanAtheCPA

Thank you so much for taking the time and trouble to reply to me so fully; I really appreciate you.

I'm going to read what you have told me about your TMS journey a number of times more to take everything in, but in the meantime you have galvanized me into some action...

I have 'When The Body Says No' on my Kindle. I read it many years ago and can't remember that much about it (which I guess is almost certainly highly significant!) so I'm going to revisit it.

And, in light of what you've said about Nichole Sachs, I've just bought and downloaded 'The Meaning of Truth' to my Kindle. I've watched some of Nicole's videos in the past but they didn't gel with me. However, I read the sample from her book on the Amazon website and it seems to me that what she's got to say will be much more accessible to me personally via the written word. I think it's coincidently significant too that the title of her book is about the 'truth' as it ties in with @Ellen's statement "TMS is a defense against the truth", so that appeals. (I tell of a profound reaction to that statement in my posting above, which I see you have seen.) I didn't get on with journaling about all the shit in my life when I tried it before, but from the viewpoint of seeking the 'truth' that my subconscious is likely to be hiding, I think 'truth journaling' could be really helpful to me.

It's interesting to me that you mention that you feel that part of the reason for your success in dealing with your TMS is due to having good body awareness, because I am the exact opposite of that. I was a comfort/binge eater (now recovered) into my adulthood from the age of about 6 or 7 (due to being messed up by strict, distant and highly critical parents who didn't comfort me as a kid) which made me overweight and because of that I didn't like my body and tried to ignore it. I wasn't good at most sports either (apart from those that involved good hand/eye coordination like tennis and netball) due to my weight and genetic make-up (no 'fast twitch' athletic muscles like Usain Bolt's to be seen at all in my family!).

I'm sorry to hear that you have RA. I too have an auto-immune disease -- two in fact, one of which is pretty rare. The rare one can affect the whole body or, more even more rarely, affect just the eyes. It usually starts with the eyes and progresses to the rest of the body (especially so if, like me, you choose not to take prescription corticosteroids long-term due to their adverse side effects) but mine has stayed with just affecting my eyes... I think it did that because of the TMS work that I've done that has served to help me otherwise too to a certain extent. I therefore also think that you are almost certainly managing very well on the oldest and most basic RA meds because of your mindset.

Thanks again, Jan. You've given me lots of food for thought, contemplation and action. Xx

 

That's another interesting way of looking at TMS that I've not considered before... something else for me think about before bed and then to 'sleep on' through the night. I remember that in Dr James Alexander's book 'The Hidden Psychology of Pain; The Use of Understanding to Heal Chronic Pain' he talks about 'dream-seeding' (which is something I hadn't tried).

 

This seems like an important issue to explore. For me, the pain of knowing I was unloved and resented as a child was a huge part of the truth I was hiding from. Also, because I was actually a victim as a child, feeling like a victim as an adult had an amount of familiarity and comfort to it.