Long Covid is TMS

After months of Long Covid symptoms that doctors could no longer explain, I decided to approach it as TMS. I'm seeing rapid healing. Anybody else hear of this? The Pandemic was fertile ground for TMS to spring up in millions of people and then the fear instilled by the media in everybody has caused Long Covid to be a pandemic of its own.

 

My injuries/pain all started when the pandemic did. Anxiety for the health of my family is what triggered it all I'm sure. Now to just convince myself it's TMS and get over this!

 

I've cured back pain (despite 2 herniated L4 and L5 disks), sciatica, all migraines, "prostatitis" and eczema from ACCEPTING Dr. Sarno's diagnosis of TMS. They're all gone and have been for years. Sarno is the greatest physician of the last 100 years. I just never thought my LONG COVID was TMS until a podcast recently had a guest who overcame a year of symptoms by using Sarno's diagnosis. Just keep reading, listening and accepting. It will go away.

 

Hi Mindfulness, and welcome to the TMS Wiki and Forum,

Wonderful report, and I'd love to hear more about your situation. What kind of symptoms, any particulars in using Dr. Sarno's approach you'd like to share?

This is very important and encouraging! I had correspondence with Howard Schubiner who also shared a couple of success stories.

Do you have a link to a podcast you can share?

Andy

 

Thank you, I've listened to both of Dr. Sarno's books and I see myself so much in what he says. My big issue is that I have nerve conduction test telling me I have nerve damage in my elbows and it's really hard to get over that mental hurdle. I'm trying my best to find ways to convince myself but it's a daily struggle.

 

Emotional phenomena causes physiological change. The nerve conduction is real. But it's also harmless. You're afraid it's permanent or going to last a very long time. What would if feel like to ACCEPT the pain as real but harmless? That has been one of my mantras over the years, "Real but harmless. Feels real but it's untrue". Start a daily journal and write all your dirty, mean, angry, shameful and fearful emotions on paper. Let no one else read it. Start to drain your subconscious of all the perfectionism, anger over being responsible, and your need for people to like you because you're so "put together" and achieving. Let, it, all, go!
You've got this and it takes the time it takes. Follow Nicole Sach's podcast. It's excellent!

 

Thanks Andy! I got COVID in November of 2020 when we had record numbers (4,000 cases a day in Utah). I'm a pediatric dentist and contracted the virus either from a young, irresponsible employee who was going to bars and socializing like the Pandemic was a hoax. Or I got the virus from one of my thousands of asymptomatic but carrying pediatric patients. Regardless, I had a moderate case that left me with 6 months of chest pain, difficulty breathing, loss of taste-smell (oddly the most difficult symptom for me because I'm such a sensory person). Nicole Sach's has the best podcast in the world on TMS as she actually worked with Sarno for years as a colleague and suffered decades of TMS herself. She's brilliant and passionate. Listen.

When I finally ACCEPTED TMS as the cause of my LONG Haul COVID, my chest pain and difficulty breathing stopped in two weeks (after 6 months of being severe). Taste and smell has improved slowly over 3 months as I now know that my fear and anxiety related to lockdowns and loss of my business drove me to the edge. We either feel emotions with our heart or (if the emotions are deemed too dangerous by our subconscious) the emotions are felt in our bodies. The symptoms are VERY REAL but they are totally harmless. My strongest recommendation is Journaling your deepest, ugliest, meanest, maddest, most shameful thoughts and emotions. Sarno recommended journaling 20 minutes first thing in the morning and 20 minutes at night. I journal for 30 minutes right before bed (as I'm lying in bed actually). The key to healing is patience and ACCEPTANCE. Sarno believed in grades A, B, and C. "C" was average because you are only "considering" TMS as a possibility. "B" is good because you "believe" your symptoms are TMS. "A" is excellent because you have ACCEPTED TMS as the cause of your symptoms. You cease thinking "physically" including pills, PT, doctor visits (after servere disease has been ruled out by competent medical doctors) and using creams, lotions and who-knows-what-else as a medicine to cure your symptoms. Instead, start thinking "mentally" and what emotions might be causing your symptoms. As you journal, you'll start to peel the onion.

Lastly, everybody heals at different rates and comparing yourself with others is useless and sometimes delays healing. It makes you doubt and become more anxious or angry when you compare yourselves with others. Turn off all social media. Hope that helps. Dr. Schubiner is a great person and I hope more TMS doctors spring up in the coming years. COVID and the fear/hysteria/lies generated by media and politicians will create a wave of chronic pain/symptoms that the world has not seen in our lifetimes.

 

I really appreciate that! I feel so much pressure because I got my dream job and everything was going amazing before covid but then I also feared losing my job and then losing my family amongst other things. I started journaling and it helped but then I tried swinging a golf club for the first time in months and tweaked my back and then came the doubts. I miss golfing so much. That was my escape and ability to be competitive still. I was a national champion martial artist and still love being competitive so that’s been hard. I’ll be back to my old self eventually I know! Patience is not a virtue I have in abundance though

 

GODUCKSjr - I'd advise you to go golfing and recommence martial arts. Your symptoms are harmless. Sure - they hurt like hell BUT THEY ARE HARMLESS. Just do what you body can do and send your brain the message that you're not going to believe the bullshit it's sending to your physical body. Be good, compassionate and patient. But also be a WARRIOR. Go play golf today...

 

I know I need to, I’m just so afraid. I have a 3 year old I take care of and a job that I am scared to lose if I flare myself up worse. Also, does it take a few days before you can start a thread? I don’t see the option anywhere.

 

Listen to Nicole Sach's podcast "Healing Chronic Pain". Start by listening to Episode 123. Consider therapy and even a psychotropic medicine for a time to calm your Nervous System. This is all being driving by your Autonomic Nervous System. And keep Journaling your fears, anger, sadness and shame. Let it all spill out. Knowledge is the only treatment you need.

 

I actually am on her 3rd episode after your recommendation and it’s very cool. I saw a counselor 3 times and after the first one I had my first panic attack ever right after. The next 2 were better but they still made me feel worse after. I think I should give it another try and stick with it.

 

Your panic attack is TMS too. Anxiety is TMS. It's repressed emotion. Your counselor stirred some healing up and it hurt for a while. You're finally addressing the emotions you CAN'T feel because they're hidden down in the subconscious. Your body deems them too dangerous for you to feel so the emotions embed in the mindbody. Feel it all and don't give a fuck. Feelings can't hurt you and they always pass. What we resist persists. What we allow abates. This too will pass. No emotion is permanent. You're on your way to healing.

 

It should be easy for you to start your own conversation. At the top you start with
All Subforums
Then choose the forum category you want to post in, for instance
Support Subforum, and if you're signed in then you should see at the top right
Post new thread to this Subforum
Then you can title it, add tags (makes it more searchable for the subject matter like "feet" or whatever), and write and post.

Welcome to the Forum and Wiki!!

 

Hi Mindfulness,

Thanks for explaining how your process has gone. Great details, and I love your enthusiasm! This stuff works, doesn't it?

Do you have a link for the podcast with a long covid success story? It would be helpful to have it here for others.

Thanks!

Andy

 

Thanks for the welcome! I'm just not seeing the "post new thread" anywhere in the top right. I work in IT so I swear I know what I'm doing haha.

 

Hi GODUCKSjr

You might log in and try this link:

https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/forums/support-subforum.26/create-thread

 

weird, that seemed to have triggered it and now the link is there. Thanks!

also, sorry to thread jack!

 

I came across this Q&A article detailing an interview with Prof Francois Balloux and thought this thread was probably the most appropriate place to post it up https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/07/prof-francois-balloux-the-pandemic-has-created-a-market-for-gloom-and-doom (Prof Francois Balloux: ‘The pandemic has created a market for gloom and doom’). Prof Balloux is director of the University College London Genetics Institute. His work focuses on the reconstruction of disease outbreaks and epidemics.

Here's an excerpt:

"You have stated that a “non-trivial” number of long-Covid cases are psychosomatic.

We know that infections such as Covid lead to post-viral syndromes. At the risk of being insensitive, I would be surprised if there wasn’t a link between disease severity and the severity of follow-up symptoms. Like tuberculosis or influenza, people who have a severe case should expect to take a long time to recover fully. And sometimes recovery is never complete.

The situation is more complicated with a mild infection. Post-viral symptoms can happen but it seems relatively implausible to me that this would happen very frequently. In all likelihood, some cases are psychosomatic – though this doesn’t make the suffering less real for those affected or reduce the cost to society. All disease is real, irrespective of its root cause.

There is a mental component to health and disease. Just the fear of something bad happening to us can make us feel unwell. A remarkable example of this process can be seen in the way over 30% of the people who were enrolled in the control arm of the Pfizer vaccine trial reported headaches and fatigue, despite not being injected with a vaccine.

You had a bad bout of Covid – does this inform your view?

I try to discount my own experience when I think about public health issues. That said, I would probably be included as having long Covid because six months later I haven’t fully recovered my sense of smell or taste. I think we need a meaningful definition that captures whether you have regained full fitness. I would like to stress: if you have a serious infection, do not necessarily expect to be back to full fitness in three months."

 

Hi how are You doing now? Seems that i have a flare up of this long covid still im Open top be tms. I was journaling and actually.i spend the last couple of weeks better but i have to stoped it since i burn My hand (it's ok now) i got the Bad news that someone that i kneew it died from covid vaccine due to some health underline issues. The flare up started the next morning (two days ago) i tryed journaling again but i can even last 20min sit. Wich actually putt me un a Bad mood. All this symptoms screen TMS but. I have to go to the docs first and see if there it's no damage. And You see My was a mild case. Even My blood test and everything was fine for being covid. And now this? Like out of the blue. I'll let You know how My test came the next weeks. Still i'm not so scare actually very calm. This symptoms are anoying and i really fell awfull right now Even when im in bed writing all this. My bro is a doc and just toldme thah i have to learn how to live with ir u.u. but i was told that same for My crónic.pain and My prostatis and My rsi and here i'm way better almos symptom free thanks to sarno. But now this long covid just put me in this situation ones more. Thanks for You kind words