Looks like TMS again- 7 years later???

Having been completely healed and helped on this forum many years ago from backpain, which had me off work for six months. I am now off work again with arm pain, numbness, chest pain, dizziness, leg numbness, etc. I finally remembered to look up this forum again and started the videos again and I can see completely that it is TMS again. Has anyone else had this? I feel so angry at myself and full of shame and Hope and despair and desperation at the stupid brain I have. Can anyone else relate?

 

Relapse is part of the TMS journey for most of us. I've had several in the 10 years since my initial recovery. My best advice is to go back to the basics and what worked for you before. Don't catastrophize and beat yourself up. You recovered from chronic pain before and you can do it again.

 

Yep, me too! And don't discount what we're all dealing with in the world these days. The TMS brain mechanism is very powerful, and it worked well to keep us alive in the primitive world, but it does not deal at all well with modern stressors, so we have to work a lot harder to keep it under control. Self compassion is essential.

In fact we're seeing a lot of reported relapses lately, don't you think @Ellen?

 

Thank you so much for encouraging me! So good to know it’s normal! After just a morning of listening to podcasts from Alan G and alon Z my symptoms are hugely reduced. What is left is very severe exhaustion. Can I apply same principles to this symptom?

QUOTE="Ellen, post: 138855, member: 1370"]Relapse is part of the TMS journey for most of us. I've had several in the 10 years since my initial recovery. My best advice is to go back to the basics and what worked for you before. Don't catastrophize and beat yourself up. You recovered from chronic pain before and you can do it again.[/QUOTE]

 

@Rotanzania:
I'm glad you found your way back to this forum! It's awesome that listening to those podcasts has already provided results.
I can relate to everything that you share.

I hope it's helpful (just to hear someone else in a very similar situation), but I posted something below...It's when I first joined this Forum, after another bout with new symptoms in another area of my body.
And, full disclosure, I've been very active on the Forum this week because of new issues.
So, I am right there with you on many levels.


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Here is part of what I posted in 2017 when I joined the Forum--7 years after I used Sarno's books/methods to successfully address my back pain:
>>I was introduced to TMS & the wonderful work of Dr. Sarno in 2010 after a bout of severe back pain. My life was centered around the back pain and I was in bad shape.
A kind and Sarno-aware physical therapist pulled me aside one day and suggested there was another way/another theory on how to deal with back pain.
Through the books and some journaling, I embraced Dr. Sarno's methods and was mostly pain-free for several years. I jumped back into physical activity and even took up backpacking.
I've had occasional recurring pain over the years and had the symptoms dance around my body (back pain> foot pain>skin problems >joint pain>headaches>upper GI, etc. etc.). It's crazy! The doctors have cleared my multiple times when I thought I really had something.
My current slump: I caught a stomach virus in November and haven't been right since ..... The local urgent care facility suggested rest.
The family doctor did a whole battery of tests, and told me I am in excellent health, there's nothing wrong with me, and that others my age would want the test results that I have.
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I agree with Ellen and Jan. Though we may have made it through the stress of the pandemic, so much has changed in the world.
COVID was really the first international stressor with a completely unknown view on the outcome.
Whether or not we felt it at the time, I think there are many of us who have that post-emergency downward spiral in our nervous systems.
The good news is...it's not a physical breakdown of our bodies, it's a psychological reaction to chronic stress since the beginning of 2020.

We'll be okay. I'm glad I can check back in with this forum when I have my own reoccurring days of symptoms.

Thank you for being here.