Migraines

I have had TMS on and off for about 6 years now. First it was back pain that I was able to overcome after about 11 months by going through Dr. Sarno’s book and the recovery program on this forum. Then my pain came back a few times either in the back, neck or feet and I was able to identify it as TMS and overcome it each time. For the past 3 years, I’ve been suffering with migraines. For a long time, I believed they were real and a result of hormone imbalance. I saw my GP and my OBGYN and tried various medications with limited success. Over time, I have begun to see that they are due to TMS. They have all the classic signs. They are inconsistent (sometimes once a month, sometimes once every three months), they are almost always on weekends, they ease when I am distracted and they’re worse when I’m very stressed or approaching an encounter with a family member that I have a very difficult relationship with. Recently, and for the first time in 3 yrs, I am having them more frequently. Now almost every weekend. I know this is a good sign, that the TMS’s power is weakening and so it’s trying to ramp up its intensity, but I’m so discouraged. I still feel like I’m just never going to beat this particular manifestation of my TMS. Any advice on how to beat it once again, or better yet, once and for all! I’m so tired of it stealing away time that I could be spending with my family. Thanks.

 

Hi @MJH724
Welcome.
It’s fantastic that you have reduced your pain several times.
What methods do you use to “beat” tms?
I ask because it sounds like you still struggle with stress, perhaps some new techniques can help you change the way you react to these stressors in your life.

 

Hi @MJH724

I had migraines for over 50 years and they became chronic. I wrote my Success Story on overcoming migraines and fibromyalgia and it can be found by clicking on my profile. At the end of story I share the strategies I used. I hope there is something useful there for you.

 

Thanks so much for your response. I have tried the following:
-Journaling
-Review the TMS affirmations
-Guided TMS recovery program
-Giving my pain the finger (going for a run in the midst of my migraine or back pain) *This has been one of my most effective methods of working through TMS.
-Self care, trying to show myself compassion
-Trying to go about my life as best I can despite the pain, not skipping things bc of it (tried this yesterday - carved pumpkins with my family despite the migraine and nausea and was able to finish carving my pumpkin, but then went and threw up bc the nausea was so bad)
-Talking to my subconscious mind and trying to reassure it that I'm ok and that there's nothing to fear
-Listening to the audio book of Dr. Sarno's Healing Back Pain
-Trying to distract myself from the pain, which is really hard to do when the pain is intense
-Practicing alone in my car or on a walk what I would say to the family member who causes me a lot of stress and pain

One thing I'm wondering about is medication. I was prescribed Imitrex for my migraines and it usually helps but seems to be slowly losing its effectiveness. I only take it when the pain is truly unbearable and I can't continue on in my day. Is it ok for me to keep these in the medicine closet and still take them when needed, acknowledging that the migraine is due to TMS, or is the act of keeping these around holding me back? I am reluctant to take them because I know the physical pain isn't something that is wrong with my head and why would I want to put unnecessary chemicals into my body, but at the same time I'm hesitant to throw them out because sometimes they truly give me my day back and allow me to enjoy my family time.

Thanks so much for your help.

 

Thank you, Ellen. I read your story and the list of strategies you used is amazing. I will dig into this over the next few weeks. I really appreciate you taking the time to post this for the group and for guiding me to it. One thing on your list that I haven't tried, but would like to try, is guided meditation. I will keep pressing forward, like said, not towards a "cure" but towards better management of my TMS.

 

@Baseball65 uses a technique I have been adopting

I have a list of all my current stressors in my phone, along with things I've found related from my past this includes thought patterns and personality traits too. I just look at it several times a day and accept that these things create stress, and just sit there as I go over the list and think about how they make me physically feel.
This has worked for several things.
I think it's a pretty good long term strategy for stress management: basically become more aware and intimate with your triggers so that they don't pile up unnoticed.

 

...and oftentimes I don't even need to be triggered but reflecting on the 'absent' trigger will abort an episode , of whose cause I haven't a clue !
I usually get TMS when 'everything is fine!'

This is peculiar because my anti-TMS strategies are all based on 'perceived emotions' that Sarno says aren't the cause...but he also said that making it a regular habit banishes the symptoms??????? WTH??

I had migraines my whole life UNTIL I read HBP. Haven't had one since...and I used to get gnarly ones that sometimes made me puke.
The only thing I can figure is that my belief in Sarno's observations is so strong and He himself had Migraines and assured me they were TMS.
For awhile, whenever I got the 'shimmers' right before they would start, I ran the list @Cactusflower mentions... Now I haven't had those....TMS being like a DEMON is always trying to pretend to be something new!

 

Yes! I conquer one symptom just to have a new one pop up a few months later. And it takes me a while to piece together that the new one is also TMS. Trying to accept that I need to get better at managing TMS and not expect that I will be completely cured someday.

Thanks for your response. I will try the list idea. The migraines are a different beast than my back pain was. The back pain was constant until I beat it with Sarno's strategies, but the migraines come every month or few weeks. I'm finding it difficult to conquer them given the intermittent nature of the pain. And with the back pain, I was terrified of reinjury, whereas with the migraines, it's more an annoyance, like oh crap, I'm going to lose another day or afternoon but then it will be gone. I'm finding it takes a different perspective to face it, but there are still a lot of things that are true no matter what type of pain it is.