Restless Leg Syndrome

Has anyone here experienced restless leg syndrome at night? I have found great success in elminating back pain with Dr. Sarno's books, but I recently developed Restless Leg Syndrome that makes sleeping difficult. I am thinking it too is from TMS, but wasn't sure.

 

I haven't found anything in Dr. Sarno or Steve Ozanich specifically about restless leg syndrome but reading about it online says it's pretty common and no one is sure what causes it, and there is no cure, but some medications are said to help relieve the condition, but not cure it.

It looks to me, although I'm not a doctor or a psychotherapist, like another example of TMS.
If you have had some recent experience out of the ordinary, it may have triggered something in your past that
needs your attention by journaling.

I know that's pretty vague but do believe it's worth considering.

Try not to worry about it. Don't think it will come on every night in bed.
Tell yourself it's NOT going to come on. Do some deep breathing and any other relaxatio
techniques when in bed. Don't program your mind that it will be present whenever
you go to bed.

Dr. Sarno says people tend to associate sitting or standing or walking with their TMS pain,
which only programs our minds to expect that.

Good luck and maybe someone else will offer a suggestion.

 

Yes, restless leg is TMS. It is one of my many many many symptoms over the years. Keep journaling You can work it out. It falls under the category of "unexplainable." Any time I see that I am very very suspicious.

 

On page 107, GPD I talked about RLS as TMS, and when it began.

The inner-self is trying to "go".....to push harder, as the SNS seems to be fully engaged while trying to relax. I healed from it, or more precisely, let that symptom go, by relaxing the back of my head and neck and doing the observational breathing. The observational breathing is when you put all of your attention on your breathing, you observe it, as your belly rises and falls. Music also helped me break the obsession. Force your mind to something else.

The observation of the breathing was the most powerful tool for me. I got it from Weil's CD set.

Steve

 

My physical therapist taught me diaphragmatic breathing. I am a big big believer in it. She also told me to read The Divided Mind (how about that). An awesome woman. I use the belly breathing (DB) when I meditate which is a wonderful way to look inside my body allowing oxygen to move through my entire body. I know this technique allowed me to move one of the last TMS symptoms out of my body (anxiety). I still have minor TMS symptoms bounce all over the place reminding me to think psychological.

 

Hi Marcy,
I had restless leg syndrome off and on for years with all my other TMS symptoms. But when I decided to taper off of the pain medication Tramadol, it became severe--more like 'restless body syndrome'. I knew from my research that this is a common withdrawal symptom of Tramadol, but long after the Tramadol was out of my system it persisted. My doctor said that the Tramadol had been treating it and wanted to give me another medication for it. But at this point I knew it was TMS and just kept doing all my healing techniques and it finally went away. So I suggest to treat it as TMS and hang in there.

Best wishes...

 

Good point Ellen of Griswold, I forgot about meds until you wrote this. There were many meds that gave me RLS. Some of them were sleep meds. It feels as though the drugs are trying to force you down while you're inner self is fighting to stay active...conflict.

So check on your meds, they may be giving you the restless feeling. I had it in my arms too. TMS is an inner stubbornness.

The key will always be balance in life. Maintain the right amount of movement for your age level, counter all your stress with pleasure, forgive those you feel have hurt you, and you immediately free yourself from that anchor.

Physiologically it's an overact nervous system no matter which system you decide to name, they're all on high alert due to the perception of the person's environment.

But Marcy may have skedaddled. I hope she feels better because I know exactly how she feels.

Steve

 

Thanks so much everyone! I have not taken any pain medication, so I think it is just straight up TMS. Your posts give me the confidence to know that my RLS is TMS and to approach healing through the normal TMS ways. I really like the idea of observation breathing and will give that a go tonight.

 

Deep diaphramatic breathing is one of my favorite ways to relax.
I just wish I could do it all the time, automatically,
but I have to think about it, otherwise my "natural" breathing is shallow.

 

Marcy - I have had small doses of RLS and I know of a really, REALLY quick way I can experience it more fully. By reading about it. I suspect RLS is one of those diagnosis' that have increased because of the public education on it. I've decided recently that I have simply GOT to put myself on a strict mental diet…especially reading about these sort of health issues as I tend to tuck them away for TMS's use at another time. No small thing for me because I used to be a nurse and am fascinated my health topics. When I was in nursing school, I came down with all sorts of horrible maladies…few which were actually real. (Apologies to Mark Twain.)

I've long used a nature sounds app on my iPod as a way to relax and deep breath before sleep but lately I've put on an ocean view on Youtube (using a timer so it shuts off in a little bit), and that has been especially soothing to my buzzing brain.

I also use any tendency to feel RLS as a prompt to think psychologically. That particular symptom is more obvious to me since it's a "restless" one.

Here's another thing I love to do. I read this poem aloud…it's one of my favorites. I hope you like it! (PS I read not too long ago that they (whoever they are), have determined that reading Shakespeare is just as effective in managing depression as medications.) I like to think that Longfellow is just as effective.

The Day is Done
Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.

I see the lights of the village
Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me,
That my soul cannot resist:

A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain.

Come, read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of day.

Not from the grand old masters,
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of Time.

For, like strains of martial music,
Their mighty thoughts suggest
Life's endless toil and endeavor;
And to-night I long for rest.

Read from some humbler poet,
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start;

Who, through long days of labor,
And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
Of wonderful melodies.

Such songs have power to quiet
The restless pulse of care,
And come like the benediction
That follows after prayer.

Then read from the treasured volume
The poem of thy choice,
And lend to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.

And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.

 

Stella,
It is great to hear that you have gotten rid of your anxiety. I know I need to do the breathing technique you mention above, but for some reason I really dislike it. But you've inspired me to give it another go. Thanks.

 

Belly breathing, deep breathing, is just foreign to us. But it's so good for us, we need to be patient and
keep trying it. Hopefully, it will become second-nature.

If deep breathing is too structured for you, maybe just find a variation that suits you.
Just longer breathing in and out might do it.