Day 16 Telling others about TMS

I find that telling others about TMS is a little nerve-racking for me and actually causes my symptoms to flare up sometimes. I try to explain it to the best of my ability but nothing compares to actually reading Dr. Sarno's books yourself and instantly seeing yourself on most pages. It's hard to put everything in a 5-10 minute conversation when someone asks "How did you get better?". I think most people don't believe it and it sounds strange to them which is expected since (just like me) they are so accustomed to following what Western Medicine has told/taught us. Personally, I feel like this is a higher level of thinking and just as the book states, it's not a leap of faith but a leap of understanding. I'm at a stage where I can feel a flare up and instantly connect it to an emotion or feeling. It doesn't go away right away but at least I know why it's there and can ignore it since it's benign.

I think one of the reasons why telling others can cause my symptoms to arise is because I have low self-esteem and don't want people to think I'm "crazy" for thinking this way. Or that I was "crazy" and that's why my symptoms came about. That's not the case at all since TMS is normal and I understand most people get it at least once in their life (even if they don't know it). Telling people that you can control it with understanding, education, and changing the way you think isn't as accepted as it should be. I know learning about TMS has changed my entire life but telling others is still not that easy, especially those that are not open-minded.

Perhaps another reason my symptoms still arise is because my mind is still rewiring the way it works and I am still working on my conditional responses. I have been in pain for 2 years and have over 30 different conditional responses that I can think of (including reactions to food, clothing, social interactions, sitting/sleeping positions), etc. It's going to be a journey!

Does anyone have tips on how I can communicate TMS to others or experience anything similar?

 

If you have problems telling others about your pain being caused by TMS, repressed emotions, I suggest you just don't tell them. You don't need to convince anyone but yourself that your pain comes from your emotions. TMS is definitely a journey, one of self-discovery. It leads us to dealing with repressed emotions and we become healthier and happier than we ever thought possible.

I suggest that you spend a little time each day considering Dr. Sarno's 12 Daily Reminders. I especially like this exended version:

Herbie Douglas's Extended Version of Sarno's 12 DAILY REMINDERS

1. The pain is due to TMS. This is real pain or anxiety but its caused by subconscious tensions and triggers, stressors and traits to your reactions and fears and also when at boiling point your conscious tension can and does cause real pain too.
   2) The main reason for the pain is mild oxygen deprivation. This means that when you are in pain then the the blood is restricted from going to your lower back for instance. The blood being restricted causes oxygen deprivation which causes the pain - remember, where theirs no oxygen then there is pain in the body. Also, The pain stays because of fear and focus to physical organic symptoms and repressions.
   3) TMS is a harmless condition caused by my REPRESSED EMOTIONS so even though you think you can harm yourself from the years of pain you have felt and how you feel in general -- so far no reports have been heard from tms healing knowledge causing damage to anyone, it only helps.
   4) The principle emotion is your repressed ANGER -- this means under your consciousness lies something that happens automatically to everyone. Tmsers have repressions that are stored because of our personality traits,traumas, stressors, fears, strain, etc... When these stored repressions build and build then eventually they cause the brain to send pain into your body to keep you from having an emotional crises. The mind-body thinks its helping you.
   5) TMS exists to DISTRACT your attentions from the emotions, stressors, tensions and strains of your personality traits because if you can get distraction then you wont have to be in emotional turmoil. When you don't face and feel your emotions and they get repressed cause you didn't want to deal with something -- they are just adding up in this beaker, ready to pour over and create real pain and anxiety in your body.
   6) Since my body is perfectly normal, there is nothing to fear. So in reality when I fear the pain or anxiety I just cause myself undo strain and tension adding to the beaker of pain. If I fear then I feed the pain, If I fear Its impossible to recondition. Fear keeps the pain and anxiety alive in the body through focus.
   7) Therefore, physical activity is harmless. If I want to work against the pain I can but its better to lose some of the pain through losing your focus on the body and not fearing the pain. I can start my life over, I don't have to be in pain trying to heal cause I can face the repressions through awareness and journaling.
   8) I am resuming all normal physical activity. I don't fear moving anymore. I believe in my bodies ability to heal now. I can move how I want and my patience in flow will be my power. I will not fear moving anymore. I will also practice going out and acting normal again, not in fear of what pain might do to me.
   9) The pain is unimportant and powerless. Its only power is how it's hidden -- it's illusion, It's fear.
   10) I will keep my attention on the emotional issues. I will think about my emotions and feel my emotions throughout the day. I will not judge, criticize or fear my emotions. I will not run from my emotional issues but face everyone of them. I will feel my emotions fully and cry if I need to. Then I will release the emotion and get my mind and thoughts back to my life and living in the present, in flow.
   11) I am in control of all of this. This is how I recover.
   I will be thinking PSYCHOLOGICALLY AT ALL TIMES. This means I will keep my thoughts on psychological issues like happiness, fear and anger -- traits and triggers, conditioning and journaling. The science behind mind-body/tms healing, etc.... This way I will not feed my thoughts to the body -- that is a trick of TMS.
   12) TMS will always try to get me to focus on the body caused by the pain until I break its show and flair. When I get my attention off physical symptoms and on emotional issues and psychological issues then I will not feed the fear of the physical issues anymore thus making the tms of no effect. This will in return, give us the cure.