question about facing fears

Hello,

I would like to ask your opinions or maybe about your strategies.

If you have symptoms most of the day. how can you not focus on them?

and if you had some surgeries in a specific area that having symptoms there. how do you convince yourself its not because of the surgery?

I am sorry if I spam too much with this kind of questions...

I try making a list of evidence that my symptoms are TMS but sometimes its not 100% clear.

 

Hello @okaoka How have you been doing? Did you finish the SEP? It will help answer this question for you.
You mention before that you have OCD.
One of the ways to deal with OCD thinking is to tell yourself to stop, and think about something else. It does not matter if you had an operation in the past, the focus only on the symptoms does you no good.
I had to tell myself to stop a thousand times a day for months. I would feel a sensation and say “this is just TMS” even if I had doubts., TMS was always my answer. I would forcefully think of something else. If my mind returned to the old thought I tried hard to be patient, not get angry or frustrated - just repeat over and over to stop and think of something else.
You have to teach your brain to change the cycle of thoughts.
It’s OK that you still have some doubts, and it’s ok that your evidence sheet is not perfect.
I was told my symptoms were from a structural diagnoses, and of course my mind would go there - but the start of my TMS was anxiety. I basically twisted myself into knots. So I can remind myself that there was TMS before the diagnoses, and this helps.
Perhaps the reason you needed the operation was because the symptoms you experienced before it was TMS. Think back, do you think you had TMS before? That is a good point to add to your evidence sheet.

 

I think Catusflower might be right. I appreciate her comment. It's very insightful.

 

thank you for the reply, I also really appreciate it. I did not finish the SEP to be honest.
yes, i agree its not good to focus on the symptoms, and yes its a very good idea to tell yourself to stop every time you think of the symptoms.
about my TMS, i can say for sure that i had TMS since young age and that part of my evidence list.
the surgeries i had was because of structural issues but you can think that they had emotional reasons.

 

https://www.youtube.com/live/Ebxih6gL0l4

Posted yesterday, very good video on Helmut's channel. Long story short: instead of avoiding it, you allow fear in small dosis.