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I have just come through 3 months of extensive medical testing with pretty much all test coming back as normal. My Doctor gave me the diagnosis of “hypothyroid and adrenal fatigue”, IBS, reflux, leaky gut, allergies, in addition to my longtime FMS/CFS. She recommended I go to a naturopathic doctor to work on th leaky gut.

It seems everyone and their dog are now being diagnosed with adrenal fatigue. For the past 6 weeks I’ve been reading the books Stop the Thyroid Madness and Adrenal Fatigue and have been a member of the Facebook support groups for Thyroid and Adrenal. Each day I read countless posts by people dealing with these conditions. And what I am seeing, is that these people are locked into feeling crappy, and continually looking for relief, using supplements, therapies, trying new doctors, and so on…spending thousands of dollars, but not getting well. Some of them have been there for years! Most are taking dozens (one lady takes 70-80 vitamins daily) of supplements with the hope of finding the magic combination that will restore their health.

The final straw came for me a week before Christmas when our 20 year old daughter got the EXACT same diagnosis as myself! Enough is enough, I thought! And I started googling and came across a couple of forums which indicated that Adrenal Fatigue and even hypothyroidism, can be TMS.

I found the TMS wiki and have been on here most everyday the past week or so, reading and learning. I’ve decided to work on the 30 day Structured Educational Program and see how it goes.

Interestingly, once I decided that the Adrenal Fatigue was TMS, my energy improved. I’ve not been taking the Adrenal support products for a couple weeks and my energy has been stable through the days and I am doing more on a daily basis than I've been able to do for several months.

Also, I have been processing emotional work with a therapist since September and have had some good progress. Right now we are working on defense mechanisms (or scripts) from my childhood/adolescence. This involved doing forgiveness work and processing emotions until they no longer impact my body. It is difficult work….and I have a tendency to avoid doing it.

I am a first-born, overachiever, type A, perfectionist, goodist, master stuffer and on top of all that, I am very nasty to myself. When I read over Alan Gordon’s Recovery Program I recognize that the larger portion of work I need to do will focus on learning to love myself, treat myself with compassion and kindness and quit beating myself up for every little thing.

I am willing to accept that my pain and health ‘issues’ are a result of TMS, firstly, because all the medical tests I’ve had have never shown any abnormalities!, and secondly, because my pain and ‘symptoms’ bounce all over my body. Sometimes I’ll go several weeks without experiencing a symptom, and out of the blue I’ll realize, ‘wow, I haven’t had that for a while’ and the next thing you know the symptom is back.

That just happened today in fact. I had been experiencing air hunger (breathlessness) for several weeks prior to Christmas. Over Christmas (which is my favourite time of year) we have been so busy doing things with the kids and our families, that I’ve not had any issues. But this morning as I began to work on day 1, the air hunger came back so intense that I felt dizzy and faint and had to lie on the floor. I did talk myself through it and got up and got moving, the rest of the day went okay.

I also walked 1.5 miles today. I gave up walking several years ago as I was experiencing severe Sciatica from walking, although, there is nothing structurally wrong with my hip joint. The walk went well and I will do the same again tomorrow.

I am very hopeful that the majority of my health 'symptoms' are a result of TMS and I am very excited and grateful for this forum and the structural program.