How can i stop checking on my symptoms ?

Ok so i had a huge success in eliminating a lot of TMS symptoms like back and shoulder pain, IBS, GERD and a lot of ear symptoms but i am still left with some war symptoms that i don’t know how to eliminate.

I am left with ETD so mainly clicking and popping sounds, very very mild tinnitus only before sleep and slight eardrum twitches but only if i look for them.

The problem is that whenever i check to see if i have any improvements i get a setback. I am trying very hard to forget and to ignore it since when i am doing that i am doing way way better and improving but for whatever reason “my inner person from unconsciousness” won’t let me alone and makes me check on my symptoms and i get a setback….

It’s very annoying, the moments when i am frustrated or angry are most likely i will go for checkups which end up with set backs…

I made rules now to follow but as soon as i get better its like i forget about any rules or how i feel when i check on my symptoms.

It’s very frustrating and even though i am doing much better and was able to eliminate symptoms i had for over 3 years i am still dealing with ETD issues for a year now.

It all started after a period of extreme stress where i got GERD then had something like sinus infection and after that i developed ear issues.
I am suspecting allergies to be the culprit for ETD and ear issues but allergies on the other hand are part of TMS also so it all cones down to TMS anyway.

Any advice much appreciated..

 

I understand your frustration. This is OCD of the body. You have to believe you will get better. Begin to stay conscious any time you try to check on your symptoms and redirect your attention to something else. Mentally, you can even say “no” or “stop” when you feel you will check and redirect to whatever you were doing in the present moment. I’ve used this approach with great success. It does take some time and effort to retrain your brain but it works.

 

Can you elaborate on OCD of the body? I am having a hard time time wrapping my head around this.

 

It can look like getting up in the morning and monitoring AKA "checking" if the pain is there. Checking the intensity of pain throughout the day. Checking if the pain is changing or getting better during an activity. It involves a lot of "checking" instead of being in the moment, being present, and moving on with life regardless if you have pain or not. Checking forums, Googling symptoms. Checking, checking, checking. It can be difficult to "let go" and move past this but once you get the hang of it, it is when you really start to see progress. You convey safety to the brain.

 

Ok wow- never saw it as OCD of the body. But I do this all of the time. Maybe seeing it like this will help. Thank you for explaining that!

 

@danijel1998 a lot of you wrote resonates with my treatment, I also have some strange popping sounds in the right ear that started in the same period as my back pain and to be honest only in the last couple of months it dawned on me it might be part of the TMS package

I like how @HealingMe refers to the checking as OCD. Helmut does that as well and it kinda changed my way of thinking of it.


By reading Richard Schwarts' No Bad Parts and Ethan Kross' Chatter (thanks again @JanAtheCPA) I started separating myself from the checking addiction. It was like a felt obligated to do that before, but after seing these intrusive thoughts as not mine, but from a loudly part of my ego (and to be simplistic I just assume it's either my inner critic or child), it started getting easier to not obey to them. I still somewhat struggle with that and for me this the hardest thing in TMS treatment. Way harder than not feeling fear.

Also, Barry McDonaugh's DARE helped me a lot in teaching how shutting down anxiety keeps the loop going and the best and modern approach for it is learning how to listen to it and have a good laugh at its bizarre messages.

Hope it helps, and don't forget, we're all in this fight together.