How to deal with rapidly changing symptoms?

Since I've started the structured education program, my symptoms have grown more varied and harder to pin down. It seems like my body cycles through fatigue, gastrointestinal trouble, ear pain, mouth sores, hay fever, and several different areas of musculoskeletal pain and tension (feet, legs, lower back, upper back, shoulders, hands) in a rapid and unpredictable way. I find this unpredictability hard to deal with. It feels like I don't get the chance to grow comfortable in dealing with a specific symptom before my body throws a new one at me and I have to start over the cycle of being surprised, doubting it's an actual physical problem, being afraid, and then finally realizing it's another TMS manifestation.

Does anyone have a similar experience? Any tips on how to deal with this would be much appreciated.

 

Hey ttdsprtra,

Yes, I can certainly see how quickly changing symptoms could make working the program more challenging. For me, it always took some time to accept that a symptom was, in fact, TMS. And that's when I would finally start getting better ... when I accepted/believed a symptom was TMS. So yeah, I totally see how that could make it harder.

On the other hand, the way your body is reacting sounds very much like a hyper-vigilant nervous system, where your fight or flight reaction is on high alert. That just shouts TMS. It reminds me of when I was struggling to recover from chronic fatigue. I also had a bunch of different symptoms, some very similar to yours. Though they didn't change quite as rapidly as you describe.

In time, it's likely your anxiety will improve and so will your symptoms. Some will probably go away and others will become easier to deal with. At least that's what happened with me. The good news is your getting to see just how crazy TMS can be early-on in your recovery. In the long-run, that may serve very well.

I've found that meditation can be very effective in reducing anxiety and calming the nervous system. Here's a few free guided ones at UCLA: Guided Meditations - UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center - Los Angeles, CA (uclahealth.org) There are more there, as well.

Learning about Somatic Tracking can be helpful too. Here's some stuff on that:
New Program - Day 9: Somatic Tracking | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome) (tmswiki.org)

New Program - Day 10: Somatic Tracking II: Anxiety Strikes Back | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome) (tmswiki.org)

Also, TG957 is holding a meditation session on August that I anticipate will very enlightening:
Free Online Meditation Session | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome) (tmswiki.org)

Best of luck to you!

 

Great suggestion by Cap!

I will add to that the importance of your mindset in dealing with your symptoms and how they make you feel.

As long as you feel upset, angry, frustrated, disturbed, sad, or any similar emotion when symptoms appear they will continue to occur.

That’s how TMS does it’s thing: keep you busy and focused on your symptoms. So as soon as you eliminate one another one shows up.

Set your mind that you will challenge any symptom that shows up, that you are in charge not TMS, and that you will fully recover.

In this video I explain how to set your mind for full recovery.

 

Thank you both so much for your encouragement and advice. Yesterday night was a perfect example of what I was complaining about: I woke up in the middle of the night with bad insomnia and it felt like my body was shutting down: a painful mouth sore, pain in my left knee, sinking pain in my chest, and stomach trouble. I struggled through a cycle of fear thoughts and negativity, but at some point my attitude shifted. I was able to smile at my body's panic and just accepted the situation and started reading until I got exhausted and fell asleep. I woke up and completed a session of the bodyweight strength program I'm working through despite the pain, and my symptoms have gotten better throughout the day. Another entry for my evidence sheet!

Fred, thank you for the video, that was fun! Next time my TMS flares up it's going to find itself facing an unstoppable ocean ;-)

 

Woohoo! Awesome mindset.

Woohoo! Awesome mindset. Glad you found it fun to watch. Fun can be a good way to counter TMS.

Keep at it for 4-6 weeks and you will see amazing results. You might want to watch the rest of the Rapid Recovery videos and design your own recovery plan.