Hi, looking for advice

It's TMS.

I had a perfectly normal, loving, supportive childhood without any trauma or abuse, other than the fact that I was the first of four children, my parents only wanted two, and I ended up being somewhat isolated and on my own because there were so many of us. Haha! And there it is. Also, as the first child, my mother subjected me to her anxiety. I realized at age 60 when I started doing this work that I'd had TMS symptoms off and on all my life, but they didn't come to a head until I had reached 60, with all of the fear and anxiety that brings on. My Profile goes into more detail.

Do our Structured Educational Program, and do it with complete openness and honesty. You'll be amazed at the small, seemingly unimportant events and things that come up for you, but that your brain has repressed because they made you feel guilt or shame or rage. These are just the natural accumulation of our humanity.

 

Haha, that would be @Alan Gordon LCSW I believe that Alan Parsons is someone completely different - and are you and I both of that generation? (I'm 68).

Alan GORDON very generously donated his program to the forum several years after I'd done the work (the SEP) so I don't know very much about it. Some people start with the SEP and go on to do his program, which is less structured. Some have only done Alan's program, while some start with his because it's newer, but switch to the SEP because it's more structured. I do like the structure and short daily lessons of the SEP, which is especially helpful for beginners. You could start by looking at Day 1 of both, and maybe even continue doing both. The thing you need to understand - and this is hard for some people - is that there are no hard and fast rules, because doing this work is different for every single person. If there are any rules, it's to make a commitment to doing the work with complete self-honesty, and to not let your fearful brain take control. And to not expect your progress to be linear. And to have faith in the process.

Kind of squishy rules, in other words Which, again, is very hard for some extremely rigid/perfectionist types to handle (read: extremely fearful). Learning to relax and become squishier is, IMHO, an important part of healing from our symptoms.

In order to understand the importance of the emotional aspect of this work, I have two other resources which you can access while you're doing one (or both) of the programs, because they will enhance and solidify your understanding:

- The Cure For Chronic Pain website, to discover the multiple resources (book, program, videos, and podcast) of @Nicole J. Sachs LCSW

- The Mind & Fitness Podcast, by Eddy Lindenstein, aka @LindenSwole

 

I suspect that the therapists are extremely busy in their own practices, thanks to an explosion of mindbody disorders, and to the recent proliferation of news about treating them as such. Which is good news, of course.

But I'm not particularly sorry to see the many many "Ask A TMS Therapist" questions go unanswered. As an admin, I see every one, and they are invariably the same questions, over and over and over again, and the truth is that they can be adequately answered by anyone who has achieved any level of success doing this work. And they have been answered many times, right here on the forum.

I don't want to single you out, Dario! You have plenty of company, believe me. The following advice is for everyone with this question, which is many of you:

If you can't accept the diagnosis of two medical doctors who have assured you there is nothing wrong, and if you can't connect that diagnosis with what Dr Sarno tells us, there is a page on the main wiki with therapist resources and it's easy to find.

I do want to let you all know, however, that many of us took that same information, diagnosed ourselves with TMS, with 100% belief, and just started doing the necessary work. The end result is the same. Well, it's the same IF seeing a TMS professional actually creates the necessary belief. Some people are never able to take control over their primitive fearful brains, and they continue to suffer from doubt. And from symptoms, of course.

There are many posts in the Success Stories subforum which illustrate the truth of what I just said. Reading Success Stories is a great way to get many questions answered!

 

The Alan Parsons Project, ca. 1975?

 

That's totally up to you and whether you are willing to take back control from your fearful brain. The best resource for anxiety (my #2 lifesaving book) is "Hope and Help for Your Nerves" by Claire Weekes. It's a small book, easy to read, very compassionate, and it's been saving thousands of people from the disabling effects of anxiety since 1969.

Yes it is. But there are options. Before I discovered Dr Sarno, I was seeing a cranio-sacral doc who advised me to gently stroke my atlas-occipital joint (at the base of my head, right?) whenever it went "out" (causing neck spasms and bad headaches) towards my cervical spine, while visualizing it calming down and going back into place. It totally worked and I stopped seeing my long-suffering chiro, cold turkey. This guy later told me that he knew all about Sarno and that his work was all about teaching me to talk to my brain and self-soothe, which totally made sense, but once I had read Dr Sarno and discovered this forum, I quit seeing him cold turkey as well

I hope this helps!

 

Yeah, baby. And still relevant to your generation! Awesome.