Worrying and the brain's capability to produce symptoms

I have a question, would love to hear from some of the TMS experts: Do you think the brain can produce symptoms of a disease or other illness that has concerned the person in the past? ie, sore throat if worried about throat cancer, abdominal pain if worried about liver cancer ,etc?

 

I went a week of difficulty swallowing food, GERD-sensations and esophageal spasms. Very nearly scheduled an endoscopy at 29 years old.

My father died of esophageal cancer at 60. I told myself I'm too young, this is TMS, you're far healthier than your father was, and tried to focus on enjoying my food, visualizing the ease with which it could and should go down.

It promptly faded away and became severe foot pain.

A resonant YES to your question.

 

Jared, right on again. The obsession brings it on as in simulcrum. Many students in medical school take on the symptoms of the disease they're studying. Dr. Jampolsky said he was surprised at how many. So I contacted him to see if they took on the actual disease or just the characteristics. He told me it was usually just the symptoms but that he had seen some get the disorder they were observing, eg, colds, sore throats, etc. Urethral infections are common under great guilt.

Shift the obsession of fear away to another outlet.

 

I'm trying to Steve but it is proving a lot more difficult than it looks.........I'm fine one minute and the next I feel a twitch/multiple twitches and I lock on to the idea that I have a terrible disease and the symptoms are getting worse by the minute.

My biggest problem was that I googled the twitching early on and it led to a possible connection between my biggest fear and my main symptom, and this has sent me into the abyss.

Any suggestions on how to shift the obsession to another outlet?

 

If you can take the time to notice the obsession independent of the twitching, then you can count that as a symptom shift.

 

Mdh, Definitely, I think the brain can make us think we have a pain or disease we hear someone else has.

I never had any knee pain until someone posted they had it. I immediately had pain in my right knee,
and instead of attributing it to TMS, told myself it was the onset of arthritis because of my age, 84.
When I stopped thinking structural and convinced myself the knee hurt because of TMS, it went away.

I suggest accepting the pain and attributing it to TMS. Work on your repressed emotions.

My Zodiac birth sign is Cancer and I can worry a hangnail into losing my arm.
TMS has helped me to realize how dumb this thinking us.

 

My ocd has quieted down as the tms has ramped up... again, trying to see this as a "gift" b/c right now I'm so busy with the pain, i dont
have space to bother with the ocd so hopefully when the tms goes away, i will remember how "unnecessary" the ocd is...
I think the above is a pretty common experience
I'm trying to figure out exactly what the function of both the ocd and tms are for me... i dont really think its all about repressed emotions for me, though that is
there too.
So glad for this forum, reading here and posting helps the pain! Today has been tough.

 

Today has been rough for me as well.....one minute I feel half decent, the next I'm in pain in both arms/legs. The only way to totally guarantee feeling good for a little while is to take a bath or hot shower. I keep trying to tell myself that is proof it is tension related.

 

My tms is a little monster -- each day now is different as to what part of leg/back hurts/helps. Cant predict a thing...took some aleve today, it just got to be too much, trying not to feel like I gave in... it helped.. or was it that I finally got distracted by my work.. or did the painkiller allow me to focus back on work and get distracted... etc etc etc... i imagine this sounds familiar to many!