Those constant symptoms...

I'm a charter member of the Ruminating and Overthinking Club here too.

I carry dual membership in the Post-Event-Processing Club as well.

 

Oh man. I overthink overthinking. Am I thinking about that too much?

 

You can definitely go down that path!

 

Another reason to do activities - keeps you busy and when you're busy you don't have time to overthink.

 

It's still amazing to me when I will Google spondylosis (one of my many other diagnoses and as we all know, totally normal) and soooooo many websites say ABSOLUTELY YOU CANNOT RUN EVER OR LIFT ANYTHING HEAVY, just stretch some. Oof.

 

Just get rid of it. Done. Give it no more emotional fuel, no more time in your thoughts. As Jim Prussack says, use all that wasted energy as rocket fuel to change your mindset.
This is the crap I erase from my brain. O googling, none of the traps. You have actually influenced me to begin weighs again. I’m simply using the old lady approach to keep good (but not perfect) form and keep out of pain. Low weigh, high reps, in 2 weeks I have progressed very nicely with both increase weight and reps.

 

Awesome!

 

You're awesome, @Cactusflower !

 

Love it. Don't be afraid to try some higher weight and lower reps every so often. You're not going to hurt yourself (other than being a little sore for a few days). Sarno famously said "if you can't lift the weight, you just can't lift the weight - it's not going to injure you."

 

I guess here and there, not consistently.

 

I have to admit, I still really struggle with believing herniated discs and spondylosis, things like that, don't cause pain. Sarno said nerve pain and numbness were TMS too, but then I see in other TMS groups them saying if there's nerve involvement, it's structural.

 

Sarno was really adamant about it. And he would have known. That was his expertise: backs. Have you ever read The MindBody Prescription by Sarno? He goes into it in elaborate detail and explains where the nerves go and how that doesn’t make any sense, etc etc. It takes up a couple chapters. Fear is always going to fuel TMS.

 

Yes, I've read all his books except Mind Over Back Pain because that was before he really found his way with TMS.

 

That book helped convince me the most.

 

Your struggle is obvious. You consistently refer back to any symptom label you’ve been given or your fear you have a new “diagnoses”.
So where do you believe your issues are TMS related? Where in the psychological?
I believe you can do this.
Do I think those physical issues cause pain? Yes. spondylosis (and its close cousins) can cause occasional pain. I have been labeled with a more severe form of this and sometimes I can feel it but it in itself was not the cause of my suffering - my fixation, focus, anxiety, striving etc. was. Yes I had a temporary disc issue which was painful and they heal. It was massively compounded by my fear and worry, fixation and focus .
My awesome TMS coach got to a point she was frustrated with my mindset - I could not progress. So she had a session forcing me to make a choice and face the fear of making that choice. It came with a lot of baggage. I was afraid to make a commitment to my own wellness and be in my own corner because my mind had labeled me as not good enough, a failure, everything I did was a struggle, I could never win…My coach layed it all out there. It was hard to hear and undeniable.
That day I made the choice for me to choose that my path and my prioritizing my mental health was #1 however it didn’t mean everything else was #2 etc. It meant my husband and family were #1a, #1b etc.
She made me choose a path and name it. She made me say I have TMS and I will be fine. She made me write it down and save it in a notebook.
I started by only doing the SEP work but then slowly added things I recognized that could support me: meditation, OCD mindset work, Claire Weekes (which was most helpful next to Sarno in all of this).
I stopped talking to anyone even this forum about symptoms, I don’t talk about them with my PT and from that moment on not my coach nobody. I promised myself to follow at least 3 of Sarno’s 12 tenants at all times, no matter what.
I had flairs, plateaus, setbacks, doubts, and fears but kept my promise to myself.
Pain comes and goes but the chronic suffering is always in the psychological.

 

This speaks to me, too. As does this:

TMS really makes you peel back everything, including, do you love yourself enough to BELIEVE you can do this. I think about this a lot.

 

When you get mixed messages from different groups, it doesn't feel irrelevant. Sorry.