TMS and Double Vision

I am new to the forum. but not new TMS. My journey with hand, wrist, arm, shoulder and neck pain absolutely changed my life. I have stretches of time now where I am absolutely pain free and I type, write, workout, play basketball and do anything I like without worry. Even when the pain comes back, I am not concerned, and I laugh it off until it goes. This journey also helped to ease anxiety and depression.

After about a year of life beyond TMS, brand new chronic symptoms have appeared. And this time, they are diabolical. These symptoms include lightheadedness, dizziness, anxiety and double vision. They are all due to TMS. However, I lapsed and allowed my brain to conjure a cause that is physical simply because the symptoms were not subsiding. Eventually I got back on track with the help of a therapist, and the lightheadedness and dizziness began to ease up.

However I do need some support. The double vision has been relentless and constant for 3 weeks. Every second, night and day, eyes open or closed. One of the best messages I received from my TMS specialist was that TMS always, eventually reveals itself. This has been true for every single one of my symptoms, except for this one. Even though I know it is TMS, I still google search for physical causes. I have still made visits to my primary care doctor who sees no medical reason for the symptoms. And now the fear is locked in. This double vision plunges me into episodes of anger and depression. I want to escape this double vision so badly that I imagine dying, and this fantasy only fuels the TMS because it reinforces the fear. Not sure what type of support I am searching for, but I know that I needed to write all this down.

I really love this forum. I read it sometimes when I need a reminder. It's about time I made a post.

 

That sounds difficult to deal with but you know already it seems that your problem is your reaction to the problem, allowing it to consume you. I understand this as I have floaters in my eyes. Without wearing glasses they throw me into depressive rage. They are not TMS though.

Maybe try meditation and psychotherapy. A little exercise to get the blood flowing. TMS gotcha good on this one. You been stressed otherwise?

 

Vision issues are notoriously TMS related. I started getting them myself about 5 years ago a few weeks after a friend of mine (both of us were in our upper 40s at the time) started complain about his rapidly deteriorating vision due to age. My eyes, never great but stable, took a turn right after that comment -- my reading took a hit (this was new and frustrating) , and my eyes got blurry very easily -- maybe some double vision but mostly blurry. While I ultimately gave in and changed my prescription, I never really worried... I knew it was mostly or all tms. By the way I also had at the same time an explosion of floaters, which did scare me... but my eye doc said I was fine and the floaters either stopped or I stopped noticing them (either way is fine). All this started happening a few weeks after my friend mentioning his own issues.. coincidence? Likely not. Like yawns, this stuff is contagious.

So just get your eyes checked out by an eye doc not just your primary and then fight like hell to remind yourself it is TMS... I have suffered from TMS my whole life. Usually, just like you write, my symptoms respond quickly once I remind myself what it is, but every now and then something takes a lot more work, and it is frustrating. For me I usually talk to myself not about the symptoms but about what may be making me anxious or angry and forcing myself to recognize that and integrate that into my awareness even if i cant do anything about why I am angry or anxious. At the same time I try to laugh off the symptoms knowing that I will have tough moments in the midst of this. So i concentrate on the causes and try to ignore or laugh about the symptoms and eventually even the tough stuff fades.

I have tried to stick with the TMS work now even when I am fine and that has helped ward off or minimize newer tms incidents...Otherwise stuff keeps coming back. Right now (see my recent post) I got some toe issues... grrr... but its not too bad and I am working through it.

 

Thanks the posts Bicep Muffins and SuperKev. It's hard to always understand the power of TMS. Hearing other stories is very helpful.