Autoimmune

I know the sensations I feel are TMS and I send my brain messages of safety throughout the day. Messages of safety may include "... my body is okay and resilient". However, sometimes my brain comes back to me with thoughts along the lines of "your body isn't fine, you know you've got crohn's disease". I do indeed have crohn's disease of the colon. I hate the medical term "crohn's disease" because it implies abnormality in the function of the body. In fact, I believe the fear of having a diseased organ fuels fear and contributed to the stress in my life over the past few years. I prefer the term "colitis" i.e. inflammation of the colon rather than a reference to "disease". I hate some medical terms. Lets stick with colitis which is factually correct. Anyways, the more I understand TMS the more I'm starting to believe that colitis, in my case, is in fact TMS. The medical industry says that colitis is autoimmune i.e. immune system attacks the body's own cells. Ok, so I ask myself what ultimately controls and regulats the immune function i.e. is it the brain? A simple query in AI says:

"Absolutely—it’s a fascinating and intimate connection. The brain and the immune system are in constant communication, a relationship often referred to as the neuroimmune connection"

So, now I'm thinking my colitis = TMS. I know my colitis got more severe when I was dealing with more emotional baggage in my life i.e. reliving childhood memories. My GI says stress and trauma can trigger or worsen colitis so that validates the link to TMS.

I recall reading a book on TMS that said colitis is TMS (Sarno, Shubiner, Gordon??? One of those guys). Dan B interviewed a guy with another autoimmune - RA - and he got his symptoms in remission using TMS therapy. That is purely anecdotal and not a study so I'm not putting too much weight to it.

For those of you with deep experience of TMS what is your thinking of autoimmune and the connection to TMS? There seems to be some mixed opinions on autoimmune colitis:

https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/is-ulcerative-colitis-tms-ppd.8864/ (Dr. Clarke - Is Ulcerative Colitis TMS/PPD?)
https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/is-colitis-tms.11677/ (Alan G. - Is colitis TMS?)

Note: These posts are ten years old so views may have changed since then.

I do not know who Dr Clarke is nor his credibility but he says: "... in 25 years practicing as a board-certified gastroenterologist I did not observe much of a link between UC and psychosocial issues and do not believe it should be considered a form of PPD (or TMS). I am not aware of any other autoimmune disorder where psychosocial issues are more than a minor contributing factor (though that may change in coming decades)." I don't agree with him. I've spoken to a couple of GI's who say there is a significant link between stress/trauma and IBD severity. Steve O says: "The key will always be to understand "why" the body attacks itself, and to understand that the body doesn't just fall apart. There are reasons for the physical effects. " Although he didn't clarify why. Why does it attack itself and what are the reasons for this? Maybe the book The Body says No has the answers. Has anyone here read it?

I started my TMS journey three months ago and I'm now coming to the conclusion that most of the "ills" in my life was triggered by the brain and that my body is fine. I used to blame my body and now I feel it was the scapegoat. I'm learning to befriend my body now. I hug it everyday to show it love. Funny story, I was in the US in 2000 and I heard on TV that a bad flu is in the area and to take pre-cautions. I then thought to myself "oh no, I'm gonna catch this" and felt fear. I kid you not, within a few days I caught the flue and was bed bound. Did I actually catch the flu or was it TMS? I will never know for sure.

When my TMS got so bad recently the first symptom I felt was anticipatory fear i.e. anxiety. I felt so much fear but I didn't know what I was fearful of. This fear/anxiety was so severe (I believe a H Pylori infection triggered it but then became chronic i.e. like long covid). The emotional fear/anxiety then manifested as physical sensations i.e. pain and discomfort. I've come to the conclusion that fear/anxiety = pain/discomfort = TMS. My reasoning behind this is that I've had really bad acute pain before from tissue/nerve irritation e.g. tooth pain or colitis pains. Such pain was horrid and disabling but I never felt anxiety/fear when experiencing this pain. It was just severe pain which was horrid. The pains I'm now experiencing seems to be tethered to emotional states of fear/anxiety. I've never experienced this before. When I feel the sensations of pain I feel fear/anxiety as if there is an association. The pain almost feels artificial and not real. It feels like emotional energy of anxiety/fear manifesting as physical pain. This is TMS pain i.e. fear based pain. Does this make any sense at all to anyone or is this all in "my head"?

One other query. I'm very sensitive to meds and psychological meds are not an option for me but out of curiosity I have a question. For the sake of argument lets accept this equation: anticipatory fear = anxiety = TMS = physical pain (in my case I don't believe rage is a significant factor in my symptoms). If I were to take an anti-anxiety med like Sertraline and say that med worked perfectly i.e. reduced fear/anxiety in the CNS/brain and I felt calm and free. Would that get rid of the pain or would the pain still persist as the brain would still send out danger signals in the form of physical pain? I do wonder if anyone tried this approach.

 

My take is that you are still very cerebral about both health anxiety and TMS.
Researching, trying to find reasons to accept doubt and/or psychological responsibility.
This is a TMS phase in healing that many of us go through. The idea of TMS becomes as consuming as the symptoms and sensations - a great focus in life.
You seem very aware that there is a significant level of anxiety and stress related to both your health issues and TMS. Sometimes it’s a game of cat and mouse: did the stress cause dis-ease or did disease cause stress. In the long run, stress is the factor you yourself can deal with.
Personally, I’d focus on the things I could do something about and let doctors, if you need them help you manage the rest.

@JanAtheCPA has made many posts about her RA and how she manages it without all kinds of messy TMS stuff getting in the way. You might want to search for some of her excellent posts.

 

Mike,
Crohn’s disease is TMS. I’ve read it in more than one place, but I can’t remember exactly where. I’ll look for it. It makes total sense, though. You know, the book that I think would help you the most right now is The Divided Mind by John Sarno. It’s his last book and it talks about alternative forms of TMS. He even says high blood pressure is TMS. High cholesterol. Your body can do all of this. You’re totally onto it and I know you’re just trying to absorb the fact that Crohn’s and all these things really can be caused by TMS, and they can! (But don’t tell the pharmaceutical companies because they’re making millions, probably even trillions, off of everyone’s TMS.)

Your question here:
“If I were to take an anti-anxiety med like Sertraline and say that med worked perfectly i.e. reduced fear/anxiety in the CNS/brain and I felt calm and free. Would that get rid of the pain or would the pain still persist as the brain would still send out danger signals in the form of physical pain? I do wonder if anyone tried this approach.”

If you read Claire Weekes’ books about anxiety— She routinely put her patients on anti-anxiety meds. They don’t make the pain and anxiety go away— They just help you through the process. Your nervous system still has to calm down on its own. It has to feel safe, and that takes a while.

 

My step-father was diagnosed with Crohn's. I do believe it is TMS. I've noticed it flares up for him at certain times, especially when he retired. When he started a part-time job, he was happier and had no symptoms.

 

Dr. Mate's books relate emotional suppressions/repressions to chronic diseases including autoimmune and cancers. The feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, isolation, inability to express one's anger are typical personality traits, which overlap with people with TMS (back paint, joint paint etc.). Backpain etc. may be for less buried emotions while autoimmune or cancers may require total emotional overhaul... It is kind of like digging through sand or wet mud for treasures vs. digging through frozen ground for a coffin...

 

Thank you, Diana. Dan B talks about laying the foundations first i.e. removing doubt and fears that it's TMS. In order to heal from TMS you've got to buy into TMS. I'm bought into it at 99.9% but there's always that voice inside my head that wants evidence and proof that what I'm feeding it is valid. I'm nearly there and I know that to be the case because the voice inside me isn't as loud as it was once before. I'm feeling more at peace now with a TMS diagnosis and not getting too much resistance from my brain. I always had such disdain for Big Pharma. They are evil to the core. I do believe you. They are profiteering from this. All Big Pharma does is bring treatments to market with huge side effects that needs more treatment. Never cures. They want you hooked in their business model. I know the power to heal exists within me but I just need to sell it to my subconscious and for it to be accepted as truth. It is truth.

 

Thank you for sharing that.

 

Yes, it takes a while. It’s a process! I think it took me almost a year to think that this round of my TMS is actually TMS. You have come SO FAR in such a short time. You’ve come from practically hopeless to hugging yourself! You’re filled with beautiful knowledge and peace. Don’t worry. You’re getting it. Your nervous system was hypersensitive probably before the age of two!

 

You don't have to be perfect!
Get big pharm out of your head, get your worries gone. They are all signs of anxiety, you don't need to focus on the negative and have fights and angst in your head about stuff you don't agree with. @Diana-M is right, focus on the positive! Leave it as there is stuff in this world you don't like and don't agree with and turn your mind to stuff you support, agree with and that will lift you up.
When you get sucked back into the mind circles, just "float" on out as Claire Weekes says. Let it take up far less of your time and brain space. It grants you so much more peace and keeps you on track.

One of my best friends has a very difficult case of Crohns that she believes began from anxiety over her parents divorce. However now she must treat it medically while keeping her emotions and mental state in mind. She has taught me much about where to place your attention and mind to get yourself some peace.

 

It makes one wonder how much potential the mind has. I suspect the mind is more powerful than even Sarno could have imagined.

In fact, we don't even know if the brain and the mind are the same thing, since we don't understand consciousness.

 

Absolutely! It really is awe-inspiring to consider the vast, untapped potential we carry within our mind/body/brain/spirit.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about how I used to remember at least a hundred phone numbers by heart. (which now that I think of it that is an interesting phrase: “knowing something by heart.” Especially since science has revealed that the heart itself contains neurons, even been called the “little brain in the heart.” + not just the heart - neurons have also been discovered in the skin, the gut, and the immune system!)

Then, when I started relying more and more on smart phones slowly over time handed that capability over to the technology! I lost the innate ability and now seems like it would be impossible for me to remember even 4 phone numbers without diligent effort! So many things like that.

I wonder if this isn't the case with the powerful potential of what the mind/body/brain/spirit has capability to be able to do re: health/regeneration/well-being, but humans throughout history just slowly stopped using the innate capabilities and "outsourced" to more and more "technologies" /medicines because it was quicker, etc.

Maybe it's still available to us, more powerful than we can even conceive of.... We just have to tap back into it.