Not sure what I believe

So like most of us I've tried quite a few techniques to try and overcome this malady. Basically, for quite awhile I had the plan of not fighting TMS, just living my life and letting it run its course. One can try to hard to overcome TMS and since I had finished all the ground work I figured it would finally go away on its own. It think it's a valid tactic since letting the pain rule your life.

So I've been fed up lately because I had pretty much give up playing the piano since it makes my back hurt and I've been too depressed to feel like playing music anyway. After moving though, I decided to start playing again. It takes a little less than 15 minutes for my back to start hurting and once it starts usually only getting some sleep will cure it. So although I was content for some time I had to realize that my strategy was not working and that I was still in a rut. I've also been taking Kratom daily for back pain at work and since playing the piano again the pain has increased and the kratom is not as efffective any more.

I decided that since I have the symptoms of fibromyalgia, perhaps this is a condition separate from TMS because there are a lot of people on this site that are stuck like I am. You get better to a certain point and stay there. You can cope with the pain, but it is still robbing you of your life.

So doing some research on fibromyalgia I see alot of similar traits in that doctors don't know what causes it, how to test for it, or how to cure it. It has a history of different names and for what ever reason mostly women have it (or most likely mostly women are diagnosed with it, or women have the emotional traits that make one susceptible to the condition).

Another commonality is the cure 'protocols' that doctors or others have developed. Some patients see fantastic results while others reap no benefits and end up out of a lot of time and money. So, sure Sarno would say the ones these protocols work for are cured for the placebo effect. And I'd say he's probably right. But here on this site we have the same issue. Some are cured while others linger on. Is it simply the placebo effect curing the TMS patients that accept it with enough faith?

All I know at this point is I have a daily pain/fatigue problem with no known cure or cause. There's worth things to be stricken with, but as Sarno once said, most of his patients would rather be parlized because even paralyzed people can learn to adapt to their situation and live fulfilling lives. TMS or whatever you want to call it robs you of your life and makes you a slave in your own body.

 

Fibromyalgia is an extreme form of TMS, if that's what you have, it doesn't sound like it because you are functional. TMS is not a placebo cure, placebo cures are temporary. My suggestion is to keep reading TMS books, and see a TMS physician or a TMS therapist.

G'luck!
tt

 

I met a lady in the hot-tub once who was in obvious physical distress--I asked what her issue was--she said she had "fibromyalgia"--I suggested she read Dr. Sarno--she said she didn't have the strength to hold a book and turn the pages--I suggested she have her husband do it for her or to hire a high-school kid to do it--I don't think the audio books were out yet.

 

My brother-in-law uses kratom and swears by it. I'm not a huge fan of taking anything, much less an odd, insoluble fibrous material, no offense of course. He dared me to try it one night. I rank drinking kratom up there with jager bomb hangovers.........something you'll NEVER let happen more than once.......*wink wink*

Not to pry, but it would appear you've overcame symptoms before. What has changed?

I like TT's constant reference to the Holmes-Rahe Stress Scale. I would think it prudent when you fall back into a cycle to re-evaluate the stressors in your life. It's not perfect, but at least it allows some realignment of your thoughts. Now, I speak as if this works for me all the time. There are just some things that I know I could do, but know they cause more problems than anything. To those things I say "I quit." I'll constantly cycle decisions relative to my pain, through my mind: I have shoulder and arm pain, I don't need to throw baseballs. I have shoulder and arm pain, and my job requires I type all day, I should probably let this one slide and move on with life. The only spatula for flipping my burger just so happens to be placed two feet above my head, I'll go ahead and reach for it using my [bad] arm.

I'm learning slowly but surely not to approach the things I want to do as an exercise in futility, but as a means to encourage neuroplasticity, referred to internally as my "f^&*-it" attitude.

 

I share your frustration. I'll get yelled at for saying this but for some of us I think it's more of a hypersensitive nervous system (genetics probably being the #1 factor) rather than repressed emotional issues that need to be worked out. The concepts of Central Sensitization really fits me well when you look at my entire life (and some family members too), whereas the emotional content of TMS really doesn't. There have been periods in my life of extreme stress where I had no pain and periods where everything else was going well (like now) and I'm doing poorly. It doesn't match up. I don't think the people that are cured following Sarno orthodoxy had a placebo- its just they had a mind-body problem that was more emotional rather than "brain-based", shall we say.

My solution now is to do absolutely nothing and hope it flames out at some point. Definitely not doing the Doctor/PT route or researching anymore.

 

Could you expound on that theory please?
Thank you.

 

Someone whose pain started out of the blue during a rough time in their personal life is a lot different than someone who's life was going fine, but whose problems started after an injury or illness and spiraled out of control. The former is more of a somatization disorder while the latter seems to be more neural pathways that just won't quit. A hypersensitive nervous system explains a lot of the non-pain symptoms I used to get back in the day too (tinnitus, hyperacusis, eye floaters, intolerance to bright lights & smells, fainting during routine medical procedures, etc.)

Just my two cents.

 

Thank you Jason32.

 

One more thing: I think the Internet and the way the medical system has become over the last 15-20 years has really hurt things too. I was thinking back to when I was younger- if I had a problem, I went to the Doctor, he gave me a simple diagnosis, gave me some magic pill (that probably worked as a placebo) and I was on my way. I think it would've been a lot easier to accept a TMS diagnosis 20 years ago when all you had was the all clear from your local Doc and Dr Sarno diagnosing you with TMS. Nowadays you have every health site and forum for every symptom you can think of, full of horror stories and people hopping from one specialist to another. I think back to when I had prostatitis as a teenager (definitely mindbody syndrome)- the Doctor was calm and told me to take an antibiotic (which I probably didn't need) but it worked! Nowadays I'd be googling symptoms and finding out that most prostatitis cases aren't an infection and it wouldn't have worked.

Which brings me to my next point- we've also moved away from having your local family Doctor you know well and trust to having nothing but an endless variety of specialists (who don't even know you really), drilling down to the most specific problems- we don't just have neurologists or gastroenterologists anymore, now we have Doctors who just do fibromyalgia or TMJ or pudendal neuralgia or Chronic Lyme Disease- I even saw someone on here talk about a "wrist clinic"! I don't know, I've found my interactions with Doctors nowadays (particularly younger specialists) to be very rude and cold compared to years ago.

 

Well said and you're right on Jason32, our cars get more TLC from mechanics today, then we get from the "new age" assembly line medicine.

 

I am someone who had fibromyalgia for 20 years, but have recovered completely by treating it as TMS. That was about 3 years ago. You can read my story on my profile or in the Success Stories sub-forum. There are also a lot of fibromyalgia success stories on Dr. Schubiner's Unlearn Your Pain site.

I do get a relapse 1-2 times a year. Just had one for a few days over Christmas. It reminded me how severe and disabling the pain is. But I was able to get rid of it a few days by recognizing that it was TMS and looking at the psychological issues that triggered the relapse.

So don't give up. Recovery is possible from fibromyalgia by treating it as TMS.

 

As Ellen said, and provided her own personal-science evidence for, fibromyalgia is TMS. Since it is a more serious form of TMS, this may be why it appears here that people are "stuck". I've been at low points in my life, where I could have been easily dx'ed by allopathic medical practitioners with fibro, CFS or clinical depression. I realized it was all TMS and made the break to make myself better.

You have to come to grips with the TMS fact that "it" is not "robbing you of your life", but rather your sub-c is robbing you of your life--like Pogo said, "The enemy is us"--or according to TMS, the PROTECTOR is our sub-c, deciding we need to be off the playing field of life as a defense mechanism.

As long as your TMS RESERVOIR OF RAGE is constantly overflowing, due to a combination blend of past conditioning, recent and current life events, and having a Type T personality, the symptoms will persist-- until YOU consciously decide that this is all TMS, making the theoretical mental break believing it, moving out of the old ways of thinking, towards functioning and making a new life.