One week in ... and a couple of Q's

So glad to have this forum. When you appear perfectly healthy, discussing chronic pain with a person without any experience is at best, a grind.

In this forum, it is a huge relief as so many can identify. Thanks all for your support.

My great news is that after reading Dr Sarno's 2 books twice, and following the SP for the past week, I believe I have broken my chronic insomnia pattern, which has existed for nearly 3 years! The past few days has been a bombardment of pain symptoms, but at least I am getting a good night's sleep.

This is almost certainly a consequence of a paradigm shift in my perspective, from hopelessness and dread of future pain - to acceptance of my real TMS situation, and reading the stories of so many sufferers who have re-claimed their lives. To further reinforce this, I have had my first session with former TMS sufferer, now Somatic Psychotherapist, Hal Greenham. Merely seeing and hearing how well he is after a 4 year battle, is a major inspiration. I feel like I am sleeping on a cloud now, not under a rock.

A couple of questions please, in relation to "physical" behaviour habits , considering my main TMS sites - feet.
As anyone who has experienced TMS symptoms of their ankle/feet will know, choice of footwear can leave you puzzling about what is least painful to wear, every time you need to put shoes on.

I have the luxury of self employment in a completely private office, so have for the past 2 years, carried a pair of boat shoes to wear. Whenever I am at my office I remove the far less comfortable dress shoes altogether for relief or change into the old casual shoes. Should I discontinue this habit?

Secondly, I have enjoyed a relaxing hot mineral bath every night pre sleep, for months now. Is this too "physical" a habit to continue? It seems to seep away a lot of tension, but could this ritual be "thinking" too physical?

 

It'll be hard if you go "cold turkey" like that, just eliminating the boat shoes and the mineral baths all at once, but you might as well try it, I think, because such a radical shift may deconstruct the programming you've been imposing on yourself. You're right to suspect that both these obsessive-compulsive behavior patterns are reinforcing a tendency to "think physical". I know I've had TMS pain in my left foot, in the location where I'd broken my heel 20 years ago. Obviously, the TMS was locating pain there as a distraction from repressed emotions (or some similar process). I remember not being able to wear certain shoes that in fact should have been quite comfortable without developing stinging across the back of my heel. Really uncomfortable! Now, my TMS has abandoned that left foot and relocated back in the lower lumbar area, so my foot pain is no longer an issue.

Sounds as though your therapist, Hal Greenham, is providing an excellent role model.

 

Hi Michael,

It's great to hear that you have a TMS therapist and that he has been through this himself and recovered.

For years I had all different kinds of orthotics, was supposed to only wear sneakers, etc. TMS in my feet was one of the first symptoms to go away and I actually had to buy all new shoes because I had only one pair of normal dress shoes.

Since you know you have TMS, you don't really need the boat shoes (or any other shoes) so you can let them go. I know this can feel weird. When I stopped doing the PT exercises I had done every day for 30 - 45 minutes for years it was surreal how I didn't have any pain, and I realized how much time I had wasted on those exercises.

Are the mineral soaks something you do for general relaxation? If they were something you did just to combat insomnia you might want to let those go for now too. You already know you can sleep just fine since you started working on TMS.

Take care,
Veronica