Crowding TMS out of your life

This was a great episode on the Pain PT Youtube channel, about a young woman, Haleigh, who battled TMS for several years, but finally “made it out to the other side,” as she puts it.

How she made it out was slow and steady. I especially liked this quote, because I can relate to it.

The TMS journey is “extremely humbling, extremely rewarding and extremely difficult the whole way through.”

She emphasized that the final knockout punch for her TMS was she crowded it out with things she loved better in life. She pursued her passions, despite fears. And, in the end, it made her TMS go away.

Haleigh likens the TMS journey (and life itself) to a pie chart. When you’re overcome with TMS, it takes up almost the whole pie of your life. What you want to do is make all the other pieces of the pie bigger and crowd the TMS out.

Great success story! (Thanks to @feduccini for posting this inspiring video in another thread!)

 

Yes!!!! I was thinking of this very thing the other day after listening to the author of the book: Pain Deception. Indeed, fear (and it's associated feeling) is a hard thing to conquer when in so much pain. Fear is like the pink elephant in the room. It's impossible not to see it and to not fear it is easier said than done. However .... I have conquered fear in the past by making events joyful and happy (this includes the fear of talking in public). It's about where you put your focus and the mind will gravitate to the biggest energy. If your passions (things you love) are more stronger in energy than the fear then that is key. The key challenges are how significant are the pains and associated fears vs how much are your passions in life? Ultimately that will make me happy i.e. finding deep passions I can focus on. My partner suffered from bad fibromyalgia for 6 months ten years ago following deaths in her family but she told me the symptoms went away after improving her diet and becoming more happier in life!!!! This is my strategy too. I just need to find some deep passions.

 

BTW Diane I have a lot of respect for you. Pain and fear can be most cripling but your perseverance to find a solution to your pains and fears are most admirable. Do not give up and lets do this together!!!!!

 

This is indeed very helpful. Very familiar journey. PURPOSE is SO IMPORTANT! This is what I lost. Passion for something is vital. Otherwise, we make healing ourselves our purpose. And that's not good!

 

Thank you Mike that makes me feel good! I try really hard but sometimes I feel like I’m getting nowhere. Any little encouragement is a really big help!

 

Ugh! Yes unfortunately that’s my purpose right now— getting better. I Definitely need to make this adjustment. I read something somewhere recently that truly handicapped people that have been handicapped for a long time maybe even in a wheelchair their whole lives, live much better lives and much happier and productive lives than people with TMS who focus on how ripped off they are every day. We bemoan our terrible fate, instead of just taking the obstacles we have and making a good life for today. I think about this a lot.

 

Acceptance and letting go every single time we have a negative thought about our "condition". In addition to the TMS specific books, one I turn to repeatedly is David Hawkins' "Letting Go". Our hyper-vigilance needs to be about catching every negative thought and dismissing it immediately as "just a thought" that I do not have to attach to, rather than OMG, now what? A new symptom! This human existence certainly has it's challenges and each of us reacts differently and the same. I, too, have seen many disabled people who lead very positive lives, contributing to society and minimizing their challenges. We can get through this. We need to convince our bodies that we are safe regardless of what our thoughts are telling us.