Getting unstuck

If I were to put all that’s changed down on paper over the past year, the list of changes and improvements I’ve made are amazing. Still: I wish my TMS were all gone.

But it’s been slow progress. I still need to really push the boundaries harder. I think of myself as being in pain. But I’m mostly in FEAR, if I’m really honest. And fear makes pain worse.

No easy way out. I’m going to have to press through this pain/fear. I’ve been exercising regularly for a month. Something I thought would be impossible! But I did it, and I feel great. At first my symptoms eased up, and now they’re worse. I’ve got to fight back and LEAVE this HOUSE!

It’s so hard for me to leave the house. I’m so slow. I feel overwhelmed. But it won’t get routine and easy until I do it more often.

How are you stuck? What’s your plan to fix it?

 

Keep doing what you are doing. Don't give in. You need to continue to push through the brain's attempt at protecting you against things that are perceived threats - but do it with kindness and compassion. Know that it's hard, it hurts, it's scary but that your brain needs to learn a new way.
That was exactly how I got unstuck and continue to get "unstuck".
I prefer to use the term plateau, which I learned from @TG957 because it is blameless, and non-judgemental. I feel like my brain gets to a point where it feels like it has some new sense of safety, and I stick there for awhile. I get some increased symptoms. I back off a bit - meaning that I still continue to exercise, walk etc. but do it more slowly and maybe for a shorter time but only for a day or two. It really just helps me calm the fears and let my nervous system level out a bit, and then I get back to doing what I had been doing.
Looking at it all as teaching the brain helped me gets through it all.
I still seem to work in "levels" - in that I get to a certain point physically, and then when I challenge that place, it gets hard ...much less mentally now but it gets hard physically. I've been through it enough I see the pattern and don't worry about it. I don't get frustrated much because there is more I can do and I keep my eye on the things I can do.
When I could walk around the block with less pain (or do a physical task), I knew I could do it even with more pain and I'd do it EVERY day. No giving in, no totally backing off. If I was afraid, I'd listen to a TMS podcast while doing the activity (and I still do). It's like building your own little support team to cheer you on, listening to those podcasts and it's a great form of self-kindness and encouragement.

 

@Cactusflower — thank you for this post! it’s exactly the advice I needed!

 

Fear is difficult to let go because, as Alan says, fear covers frustration, despair, anguish, irritation and annoyance. If you are in significant discomfort how does one achieve that? From experience I understand that visualisation is a powerful tool. If you visualise what you want to accomplish in your mind by closing you eyes and feeling it, sensing it, smelling it, hearing it ... day after day after day ... to the mind it's as if you accomplished it in reality. This may reduce the fear. I overcame a severe speech impediment many years ago doing just that. This book that was the driving force behind that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho-Cybernetics (Psycho-Cybernetics - Wikipedia)

 

Hey Diana, have you watched this success story on Prussack's channel? At around 29 mins this woman talks about attending to cooking school, even knowing it would bring pain. It's very inspiring and relatable.



To answer your question, I try every day to get to that goldlocks zone where I'm stepping out of comfort zone, but not forcing too much and triggering back spasms. Usually on the threadmill in the morning, and in the evening small chunks of activities I enjoy like yoga, skateboarding, playing with the volleyball against the wall and so on...

 

Thanks, Mike! Love this idea!

 

@feduccini
That’s the best recovery story I’ve ever heard.
A million gold nuggets!!!

 

Thanks, @feduccini ! Loved it!