sudden onset of scary symptoms! HELP!

hi everyone, I wanted to tell my story as I feel so alone and confused with what happened to me... I woke up 9 months ago suddenly with a dry mouth and throat, two days prior I had Angular cheilitis..sores around the sides of mouth and boom dry mouth just like this.. I didn't think much of it as I thought maybe its something I ate, but then I realised I also lost my taste buds, partially and thought it was very strange.. the dry mouth was just unbearable and i started to panic and get scared , I thought about a million reasons why I have this and went down the rabbit hole.. I saw so many doctors and one of the oral specialist in UCLA said I had acid reflux in my mouth causing this .. another ENT Doc said your vocal cords are perfect and there is nothing wrong with you. feeling helpless my level of fear was very heightened that my symptoms started changing .. I started to have excess saliva and spitting stickiness in my mouth and very weird scary sensations .. I ran so many tests and everything seemed normal, people were saying maybe you got covid tongue where the saliva glands are attacked, but I did the antibody test and it was negative. I did an MRI as well where they found tiny lesions in my brain but the neurologist did a thorough exam and excluded anything serious .. I also did the antibody test for Sjögren's syndrome and I was negative, I have multiple symptoms ranging from acid refux stomach aches numbness and tingling low grade of tinnitus and the list goes on.. but my mouth symptoms are still there and they change ever so often, the drooling and excess saliva stopped and im left with really strange symptoms in my mouth from dryness that can become severe to tightness of the cheeks, sticky toffee feeling to clicking noises.. I don't know what to do? no doctor has helped and I am thinking this could be TMS? but I just don't know if I had covid early on and it went away and I am left with phantom symptoms that my brain is creating .. I know that something is really off and Im sad .. I used to be so positive and a happy go lucky person that never really sweated the little things also very healthy and seldom went to the doctor. this has made me so depressed, anxious and scared for the last ten months. I would be so grateful for any input? thank you so much!!!

 

Dear Mina,

Bless, you sound so over-wrought and anxious, you must be feeling awful... I know, I've been there too.

First off, I'm glad you've had all the investigations. This is what Dr Sarno says to do - eliminate any physical causes. I know it feels like the doctors aren't helping when they don't find anything, but really they are - they are helping you on the path to accepting TMS. You can now officially forget any physical problems and start thinking psychological! And it's great that you're receptive to TMS, that you've come round to it yourself - I think a little, instinctive part of us kicks in to save us when we're ready to accept it.

Even with awareness of the mind-body connection, I think covid has been quietly undermining a lot of us. Just look at the Olympic athletes having problems recently - these are people who are used to training and competing, but there's been this extra anxiety overlying everything, and it just gets too much to take. It's the accumulative effect. I don't think we should underestimate just how much all our systems have been put on the alert - for SUCH a long time - frightening news every day, a once-in-a-lifetime crisis that has dragged on and on... If you can't think of anything particular that triggered you 9 months ago, I should think that just this is enough... So you noticed something that was 'a bit different' one morning, and you were away to the races... Been there!

So take heart, because this is something YOU can start to change! Of course, I suggest the usual books: Dr Sarno's 'The Mindbody Prescription', Steven Ozanich's 'The Great Pain Deception'... others here will have their favourites. It's not just pain - TMS can affect any system of the body, the mind. And it's all treatable the same way! Have a browse around this site - a lot of people have felt like you do, and they have got better! You can do this!

Well done for taking the first step!

 

Hi Cariad,
Thank you so much for your heartwarming and kind message.. I really resonate with everything you said especially about how the doctors path to elimination of structural causes helped steer me on the path of mind and body! Thank you for your book suggestions too I just finished the new book of Alan Gordon, the way out and found it very helpful and an easy read! This is all new to me and trying to wrap my mind around this, but it makes so much sence..TMS is very powerful and I feel I did put my brain on a loop with fear that lasted forever! It doesn't help when the whole world is also on high alert!

I'm ready to face this and will keep you posted on my recovery !

 

"feeling helpless my level of fear was very heightened that my symptoms started changing "

hi Mina: I hope you will be feeling better soon. I second what Cariad says, but also the fact that you have myriad symptoms that have been moving around and changing is a classic TMS/nervous system indicator, particularly as you have now had lots of doctors having checked you out without any kind of resolution. You are doing the right things and in the right place. In Alan Gordon's book he talks about these kinds of indicators in the appendix, and notes that he himself had a huge number of symptoms. In the book "Back in Control" David Hanscom (an MD who cured himself of pain), he similarly talks about a whole bunch of things that went haywire with him as he obsessively worried about his conditions.

I also have a bunch of weird symptoms that I never had before, that developed about the same time I developed back/pelvis pain: tinnitus, skin rashes appearing and disappearing all over the place, urgent need to pee, other stuff. I know they are all related and really just a reflection of a nervous system out of balance somehow. I went and saw a "TMS doctor", an osteopath who knows all about this stuff and he said 99% of my problems were TMS, not structural or physical, and that the skin rashes etc were all classic symptoms. I'm guessing it is the same with you. I am still a work in progress but there are tons of people with success stories on here who resolved quite a wide range of problems, not just pain. Hope it helps!