MECFS as TMS

You've gotten excellent advice from all those above, so I don't have a whole lot to add.

I had fibromyalgia for 20 years and was intermittently diagnosed with ME/CFS during that time. I was not as disabled as you, as I was able to work during that time (though not able to do much else). However, it was because I was taking the highest dose of tramadol daily. Tramadol did nothing for me physically, but it worked enough on my mental state to keep me semi-functional. I'm not recommending taking this drug or any drug, because once I recovered using TMS techniques, I had a massive addiction and the subsequent withdrawal from the medication was really rough. But I've been symptom-free and drug free for over 10 years now, though I've had several short relapses during that time. But taking the drug for 18 years helped me to realize that the underlying problem was psychological.

There are actually four stress/fear responses: fight, flight, freeze, and fawn. If CFS was a fight or flight response, we'd be moving as our response--fighting the fear or fleeing from it. What I learned is that CFS is the freeze response. We are like the animal playing dead out of fear, hoping the big, bad wolf walks away and leaves us alone. To get out of this response I had to begin to think about it psychologically, and only psychologically. I had to be completely honest with myself and face all the ugly truths I was hiding from. I had to face that I was seeing myself as a victim with no agency to change myself. It was difficult and painful work and it took me over a year to be symptom free. And the work has never stopped, as it is a lifelong process of learning to live my life as honestly with myself as I can.

You can read my Success Story by clicking on my profile. Perhaps there is something there that you will find helpful. Recovery is possible. You can do this.

 

The reason I want to get better quickly is because doing nothing is very stressful. I have been lying in bed for years. Excepting this has been profoundly difficult. I finally, at long last, made it to the point where I could sit up for 13 hours each day. I thought this would make my life much better, but all that means is that I was sitting in a chair next to the bed watching TV instead of lying in bed, listening to it. my arms and hands are too weak to do much of anything. Being up for 13 hours was not the goal, it was just the start. I really want to get out into society and interact with people. Given my change of living situation, I’m going to be moving into a house and I will be alone better lying in bed all day. I will have less social interaction that I do now, and I’ve been in that situation before. As a result of being in that situation, I did where I needed to be spoon fed. I’ve had value on human interaction, and I should just be fine with the isolation. This is not realistic, Living in complete isolation is terrible for anyone.
You are correct about pushing through, however, pushing through only works if it’s done with the it is seen as a struggle, one gets nowhere. That has to be done with joy. I just wish my body were adapting more rapidly. It took half a year just to be able to sit in the chair next to my bed. I can’t imagine it years before I can go back to work and let us semi-normal life. It seems to me that there is no shortcut, and the body just put on strengthen endurance are very slow rate. Once the TMS is dealt with, that is just the start. I have sent the TMS intermission, and I think it would’ve lasted if I had been able to get some normalcy in my life at some point. But as the month dragged on. It was easy to go back into the old old way of thinking.
Thanks for your help. It really does mean a lot that you are taking time after your day to answer this post. I hope this didn’t come across as less than positive, but this is a realistic reflection of how feeling.

 

thanks for the reply, I will check out your success story. To the extent you overcame physical dysfunction, did you have to work through any sort of weakness, or did you just get yourself on track, psychologically, and then work within what felt to be your natural bounds? Thanks

 

@music321 Fear is the wrong emotion to focus on. It can definitely help you take the edge off enough to help you make it through life -- but it is not the same as resolving TMS. It's polishing the surface, but not getting rid of the rot underneath.
As @Baseball65 says, re-read Sarno, again and again and again.



Rage ----> Anger ------> Physical sensations -------> Mistaken Beliefs ------> Fears

When you cut the head of the snake, rage and anger, the rest starts to dissolve away.
The snake is a sneaky buggah though. Like those planaria you learn about in biology class where it keeps growing back. The head of this snake can keep growing back too.

 

Psychological all the way. The mind controls the body.

Also, check out success story and posts from @Cap'n Spanky . He recovered from CFS. There are others, I just can't think of their names.

 

in the analogy, rage is the head of the snake? It’s not just fear of physical symptoms, it’s fear of other life circumstances. I don’t know if rage under lies those fears or not

 

If you are exploring TMS, the fundamental principle is repressed, unconscious rage/anger.
You may have fear but that is not the cause of your physical symptoms (according to TMS), it only seems that way.
If you want your physical problems to go away fully, rather than momentarily, then you must find and allow the feelings of rage that you don't know you have.
Otherwise, there is no point in hanging around a TMS forum. (Sorry, that's some tough love.)

Dealing with your fear will get you out of bed for an instant but dealing with your suppressed rage will get you out of bed for a lifetime.

For what it's worth, there are many of us that would never in a million years have believed we had rage inside of us. I know I sure didn't. I had nothing substantial to be rageful at.....but come to find out the little me inside of me still has some tantrums inside over seemingly trivial things to adult me.

 

I posted another thread, and wish I had read your apply first. It seems helpful. It might be the case that all of these other behaviorism, tools, etc., or just Band-Aids on the problem. The rage needs to be accessed and dealt with I suppose. I just read this moments ago, and have to really reflect on it. Thank you very much, I appreciate it

 

That's Sarno's theory anyways.

 

Your post regarding rage gave me something to think about. I happened to speak with a medical doctor via phone earlier today who trained under Sarno. I asked him about the and fear issue. I’ll get to what he said in a second. First, I want to preface this with my saying That I’m not trying to call you out, etc. I very much appreciate the reply that you gave me, and appreciate the replies of all those who have answered anything I’ve ever posted. With every reply I get, I always feel touched that somebody would take time From their busy day to address a question I have to try to make my life better. I feel all the more so when the reply is lengthy, and obvious time has gone into it. This being said, the doctor I spoke with said that there need not be repressed rage. as he said, there is nothing special about rage. He said that what is not being addressed, could in fact, be fear, and that fear is actually the problem more often than is rage. I would guess that there could also be other emotions, besides rage and fear involved, for instance, any of those that we consider negative. This is to say, jealousy, frustration, etc. Who knows though, I’m not an expert.

 

No worries, @music321, I share what I know and my experiences without any strings attached.

My take on what your doctor said:
Yes, jealousy and frustration and other emotions. Absolutely -- but the important part your doctor is missing is that being jealous -- leads to internal RAGE. Being frustrated leads to RAGE. All these emotions -- make you angry and that is what you have to get out.
So yes, 100%, explore those things. Write about those things --- AND LET THE RAGE ABOUT THEM come out.
If you politely discuss with yourself or a therapist or in a journal how you were jealous of your momma loving your sister more than you and only discuss it intellectually, I posit that it will do nothing to help you.
If on the other hand you recognize that your little self was jealous of your momma loving your sister and let yourself have a big, messy, snarling tantrum about that -- and have a few minutes of HATING your sister for that and HATING your mother for that and get that all out -- then, my friend, you will see your symptoms start to fade away.

Do you see the difference?

 

I do, thank you very much