VISITORS SYNDROME

I have just survived a visit from a big family who comes out to our family farm several times each year.

A common scenario on small farms is that, when the weather is nice, all of the old friends and new friends and people you've never before met start stopping in to say hi for a morning or afternoon or day or weekend or more.

After a long winter with barely seeing other human beings outside of your family, you can experience a never ending many months long non stop rollercoaster of tag team visitors.

When I used to work on other farmers' farms, I would witness and be astonished by literally a group of 2-8 people visit in a big way for a long time, then turn around to leave and a next crew of visitors shows up 2-8 people, literally passing the people leaving, for another huge visit.

These farmers were plagued by all sorts of migraines, back pains, etc.., etc....

Over the past six or eight years, a big family (parents, 2 kids with new baby, sometimes grandma and grandpa) have sought us out and made friends with our family. They have shown up and come and gone many times during a visit of several days- very disorienting for us slow and steady moving farmers.

They have instigated and planned parties and meals telling us what to do and where to go and so on- all on our own farm and in our kitchen!

They are really very kind and interesting people who we really do like.

They do all, however, come on very strong, and act as bulldozers (at least the parents) and we end up spinning around all crazed before, during, and after their whirlwind visits.

Even since using Sarno's methods to overcome a huge amount of symptoms, visits from this family have reliably bowled me over with crazy symptoms, despite all of my talking to my brain.

On one of their huge visits, during a break, my wife and I were collapsed on outdoor couches- she in cramps and me with a migraine. We saw smoke billowing across the river at our neighbour's farm. We waded across the river with a bunch of 5 gallon buckets, and proceeded to fight a fire for 2 hours- literally hauling buckets of water hundreds of feet up a bank to toss at burning creosote ties, piles of lumber, dry grass and sage. The whole while I was barfing my guts out with a pounding head.

After the relief crew arrived and we went home to collapse reeking of burned smoky nastiness, we showered, popped open some bottles of mead, and were suddenly feeling great!

Before John Sarno's methods, I would have continued to be sick for days afterwards, fearing food, light, sound, beverages, people, anything.

Still, despite Sarno's methods, I would still get slammed with a quick recovery when this family would come to visit.

Many more visits, many more symptoms.

This time around, when I heard that this family was coming for a visit (with us putting some timeline boundaries in place, which were totally completely overstepped in every which way), I suffered some mild symptoms. A mild headache of a few hours and a small barf (my first head pain in a long time)

This all cleared up and I steeled myself for their visit ahead, doing plenty of talking to my brain, and having a conversation with my brain that I wasn't going to suffer any symptoms because I wanted to talk about this crazy scenario on TMS Wiki.

And so, today, although I have been kind of pissed off due to all sorts of disasters like our flour mill stopping working in the middle of grinding grain for bread, and a 20 foot section of fencing blowing over twice due to extreme winds and my having to pound two big metal posts into rock hard driveway- I haven't experienced a big nasty migraine or other terrible ailment.

I think that my brain and I are coming to an understanding and agreement about big visits from big families.

This work isn't always easy, but it is very important.

 

I can relate although I generally only deal with individuals and not gigantic families. I feel exhausted after I spend time around other people. The happiest I ever felt was when I was cut off from the world for a month in 2021. It was so relaxing.

If I were you I'd probably just turn down some of their offers and tell them that you are too busy with work and need some time to recover. I've found that speaking your mind with people is generally helpful. Most adults have had their fair share of struggle so they can relate.

I guess the concern I might have is that if I turned down too many invitations then they might think you don't like them. I'd just try and be honest.

I've had these red splotches flaring up on my face for about a year and a half and I now think it is TMS and not an allergy or autoimmune problem. Anyways a couple of weeks ago I was invited to help make a promotional video. Initially I wanted to tell the person that I was too busy with work but I decided to suck it up and explain that the skin on my face is peeling off so I don't want to be in a video. He then told me that he himself has problems with flaky skin on his scalp.

I hope this is somehow helpful. I even feel nervous posting this and my brain is telling me the post is irrelevant and I shouldn't be talking about my vulnerabilities in public. The point is that dealing with other humans can be nerve wracking

 

I recently experienced pretty bad muscle spasms during a three week visit by my mom. They started the day she called me and went away a few days after she left ... Amazing what the mind and emotions can do.

 

I sometimes get muscle spasms but they generally go away after a day because they don't really bother me.

A couple of weeks ago I was doing journaling and then out of the blue I woke up and my arms were totally numb and felt sore. I hadn't worked out in 9 days so I knew that it was TMS. It was kind of painful but I knew it was TMS so the pain didn't bother me.


TMS seems to move around the body. Because the spasms and muscle soreness and back pain no longer distract me, my unconscious seems to prefer to give me skin rashes.