Day 6 Doubts about this working for *me*

Briefly take a few minutes and write down some of your fears. Why are you afraid of these things?

I do 100% believe I have TMS. However, I am struggling to believe that I can be relieved of my symptoms. I really hope I can be. But I do not have 100% belief/faith that this will work for me. I know as things get better I will be able to improve the strength in my belief in fully managing my TMS. I think it is due to all other treatments failing and at one point I had to just put myself in the mindset not to get my hopes up after the first 5 or so things failed to help my pain. It is very hard to get into a mindset where I can fully believe this will work. I know I am only on day 6 and I need to be patient (patience is hard for me). I have been doing somatic tracking which always reassures me that it is TMS since I feel the pain and sensations changing and moving as I am just lying there.

I also feel like I am constantly thinking about TMS, every time I get pain I try to remind myself it is TMS and that I am not being physically hurt by it. I am also worried that I wont be able to catch all my "Fear"/negative thoughts and remember to be kinder to myself and self soothe. It is a lot of changes that I have to make with how my brain processes and thinks.

 

You are brave wanting to start to catch some. And who actually catches "all"? I don't...

When you starting to notice positive effects from your work, it will become easier and self-reinforcing. As you say to yourself in your text, have patience.

Keep us posted!

 

It sounds like you are Tms'ing about TMS...in other words feeling anxiety over being anxious lol. My advice is to not overthink all this. You don't need to avoid triggers or fearful thoughts at all. You just need to be aware when they arise. Be aware of how these chronic patterns and habits create tension in your body. The more you can tell yourself that there's nothing to fear, the more your nervous system and brain will calm down. Thoughts and emotions are safe...they are not dangerous. We have a trillion gillion of them all day long....like clouds in the sky....there's no need to monitor them. Let them float by and engage in your life. We blink our eyes a million times a day and our heart is always beating but we don't monitor those things either. Start thinking about things you want and need to do, that give you meaning and joy. That's how we retrain the brain out of the fear-pain-fear loop, as well as the fear-response-avoidance loop. When all else fails, just stop thinking. Get out of your head. Do anything...help someone else for example. This will propel you forward and disable the tms strategy .

 

I appreciate this reply and will likely come back and read it every few days! Good advice Thank you .