Day 8 My first post...

Hello. I'm on day 8 of the Structured Educational Programme but this is my first post. I've been living with TMS symptoms since I was 14 (I'm 32 now), and around 8 years ago they started to seriously affect my life.

A (very) long story short, I developed chronic back pain, insomnia and chronic fatigue... All of which gradually worsened until I was unable to work, then had to move back with my parents and eventually became housebound and bedbound. I started my MindBody journey last January through using the wonderful Curable app (I highly recommend this if anyone hasn't already), and then through another mind body approach called Mickel therapy. This was the turnaround for me - I've moved out of my parents, I am no longer housebound, go for walks every day!

However, I'm far from 'done' with this work. I'm still in intense pain everyday - back, hips, feet, shoulders, you name it. It still holds me back from living a full life. But I know I'm on the right path, have ultimate faith in this approach and will keep chipping away. Thanks for reading and I'd love to connect with some of you here, Ariana X

 

Hey Ariana
Nice to hear from you. I am on Day 3 of this program but I did the Pain Recovery Program here first. I also found my way here through Curable. I have Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue with multiple symptoms and am pretty much housebound. I do have a wonderful husband who has stood by me through this, thank goodness.
I am so pleased to see that you have had some improvements and are able to be independent again. I am rooting for you to progress to being pain free <3
Blessing to you
Dawn/ Okcowgirl

 

Hi Dawn, thanks so much for your repsonse! I'm sorry you too are struggling with Fibromyalgia and CFS, it's hard isn't it. I was diagnosed with Fibro too, although funnily enough since thinking about things in mindbody terms I don't really identify with that diagnosis anymore. I did the 21 Pain recovery program on here too, I thought it was so helpful!

Wishing you luck on your journey with this program - rooting for you too Ariana

 

Hey Ariana,
Yes FMS and CFS are definitely hard.
I see you got some relief from Mickel therapy . It sounds like has some similar ideas to TMS treatment , working with emotions etc. And it sounds like TMS treatments are continuing your progress.
The last few days, I have been listening to Sarno's Mindbody Prescription again - especially the segments on Fibromyalgia. I listen to those segments daily to drive it home to my brain that this treatment is also helpful for my type of situation. Unfortunately many years ago, I did read something of Sarno's and put it aside because I felt it didn't really relate to me, as I didn't have back issues. Now I see it is much more rounded than that. Also I did end up with back problems - as part of the Fibromyalgia I believe. Now I feel it all relates even more to me.
I love the success stories as well. They are so uplifting. I truly hope you and I will be adding to those stories.

 

Hi Dawn, yes I hope we will be adding to the success stories before too long. Yes there's definitely a lot of overlap with Mickel therapy and TMS - Mickel teaches you that the emotional brain sends you symptoms as a message when you aren't acting on your emotions in the 'right' way. And when you do act in the right way, it stops sending the symptom. One thing that is different from TMS is that it addresses boredom as an emotion... So when your fatigue increases, rather than rest, you switch your attention to something more interesting/engaging... Miraculously I found this almost helpful immediately! This, and reducing fear around 'overdoing it', has been the key to my fatigue reducing so drastically. But I think there are definitely more deep-seated causes for the symptoms too. Hope this helps and wishing you luck going forward.

 

Hey Ariana,
That is interesting about boredom as an emotion. So you are saying that instead of resting when you are getting into a fatigue state, Mickel therapy says to get busy, so to speak (find something interesting to do) ? Hmm, that's what I do naturally lol. I keep trying to do - until I overdo it enough to crash. Am I misunderstanding you? For instance, if I have overdone it and am feeling fatigue, I often will go and try to do some mosaics, or go outside and putter in my garden, or play my banjo. The problem is that if I keep doing this, eventually I just cannot keep doing more, or my back or neck starts going out etc.

 

Hey Dawn, sounds great that you have lots of fulfilling activities to do... but I know what you mean, I used to try and 'power thru' and ended up crashing with more symptoms. According to Mickel, boredom is one of the reasons our fatigue might increase, but if it is another emotion there are other actions we might take, such as setting boundaries with others, acknowledging and expressing how we feel. I think for me boredom became a real issue because I was mostly bedbound and all I could manage was listening to audiobooks all day. But now when fatigue increases, I check in with my emotions... sometimes it's boredom, sometimes it may be something else Hope that helps. I'm on day 14 of the program and enjoying my 'day off', hurray!

 

Howdy...I think Fibromyalgia and CFS are very severe forms of TMS, so it's not surprising that it takes a long time to overcome them, or that other symptoms will pop up to replace them once you start to make progress. I was able to beat CFS through the program/Dr. Sarno/Dr. Schubiner, but other symptoms did pop up afterwards. And still, over a year since starting treatment, I have some on and off digestive issues (I had IBS-C long before CFS). I've been coming to the point of acceptance that for some reason, I may never be able to completely get rid of my symptoms. Maybe my brain is just wired that way. Either way, I'm much healthier than I was. Even if treatment can't solve everything, it can get you close. Keep up the good work!

 

Thanks for your response! I'm glad you've seen so much improvement using the TMS approach. I saw a post from Dr Schubiner saying that he didn't believe the longer you had a condition, the longer it might take to overcome it... But like you, I still believe that it must take longer, because we are trying to rewire more entrenched neural pathways. I too have had IBS symptoms since I was 14 and they're still here, but am more accepting and less fearful of them than I once was. Take care!