TMS doubt

Will I not be able to heal from TMS even if I believe I have it, but still have feelings of doubt at times. Been seeing a TMS therapist for 2 months and have read many TMS books. I haven't seen much if any progress in getting better. I have multiple symptoms around my body that aren't getting better. Leg weakness and pain, back pain, nerve issues in both my arms. If I was seeing any progress I would be convinced. Any words of wisdom or encouragement would be very appreciative.

 

[Deleted at BeWell's request]

 

Thank you for your response. I've really been working on trying to explore my emotions and opening my mind. Connecting it to my pain is a task at times.

 

IMO, it's normal to have doubts. I know I had little doubts here and there, but was still able to recover.

Belief is a process and it grows stronger over time as your successes mount. I sorry that you have not had a lot of success so far. It took me about 5 months before I really started seeing a significant improvement. You may just have to bare down and work hard at convincing your brain while you're waiting to get better.

Nobody said this was easy...

 

Putting a time table on your recovery is a sign of not believing.... If you are too eager for it to go away in a month or two, it will not go away. Some people spend years on getting over it. It took me 6 months to learn that I need to take it as a journey of self-exploration, not as a race to the finish line. Sounds sad but it did not work for me other way...

 

That's a really interesting response TG, I think it's true that we want quick results. M quest if anyone had told me that my neck pain was my inner emotional trauma I would have been very scornful. So yes it has to be about belief. My neck pain was replaced by tinnitus and pins and needles all over my head and face, I almost wanted the neck pain back because the tinnitus drove my anxiety off the richter scale! I'm still getting tinnitus but I get very angry with it and tell where to go and this works for me. Last year it was 9 out of 10, now it's 3 out of 10. I had to believe the tinnitus was tms. Keep listening to the success stories and keep journalling. Try getting angry with your pain?

 

This is such a helpful way of putting it and mirrors my own thinking. I'm a real TMS personality - I like getting things done, ticking off to-do lists and moving on to the next task. TMS recovery is not like that and has to be approached with a different perspective. Some days I do get discouraged and get into watching the calendar - I'm 67 and the " what if it's too late to get over this?" thoughts do recur, but I know that isn't helpful and I'm getting better at moving forward and doing the right things in faith and trust.

 

[Deleted at BeWell's request]

 

Mrs. Dependable, that is a very good point! My anxiety has always been somewhere behind the curtains in my life. I did not even recognize it as such, until my sleep became so disturbed that I would wake up at 3 am with a panic attack and racing thoughts in my head.

Thanks to Dr. Sarno, I started paying attention to my emotions. I know now, from several months of observations, that every small relief in symptoms is accompanied by a rise in anxiety (always) and in depressive thoughts (often). Now that I understand my emotions, I stopped defending myself from anxiety. My usual defense was to create a checklist of things to do and to obsessively cross the tasks out, one by one, while pushing the emotion away. I got so good at it, I got my chronic pain everywhere in the body!!!!

I know now that I have to soak my body in the emotion, whatever unpleasant emotion comes along. Make myself really feel it. Anxiety usually resolves itself in sadness - and then I am ready to move on. Doing this way, I make sure that my emotion is not repressed.

 

I am reading this amazing book, by Reggie Ray, TOUCHING ENLIGHTENMENT, Finding Realization in the body. He is teaching somatic psychology, which is right down our alley. He says that the right way of letting go of emotions is to live through them, otherwise we are risking repressing them and pushing them into the body.