Tms for a teenager

Hi Victor, and welcome - we don't see a lot of teenagers here, but you are definitely not the only one, not these days. I have a podcast episode and a possible teen group for you to consider, but first, I want to respond to this:

First of all, let me say that I am impressed by your awareness of this conflict within your mind! AND I want to reassure you that it is incredibly common. Not only that, what you are describing is the TMS brain mechanism, literally influencing you to be negative, suspicious, and fearful, so that you stay safely away from anything that it thinks is stressful. With that thought in mind, I'm going to digress for a bit to describe what's actually going on.

The TMS brain mechanism is not a disease, and it is not abnormal - it is a completely normal survival mechanism that evolved in every animal brain with the purpose of keeping the individual on edge and alert for physical threats to survival. The human brain is no different in that regard. We know that animals can develop anxiety and abnormal fear if they are exposed to serious trauma, and so can humans - plus we've been gifted with the dubious benefit of consciousness, but I won't go there.

So here's the problem: that brain mechanism evolved over eons as humans were evolving in the primitive world. The primitive world was dangerous, but it did not have that many different types of threats - and the threats were what we call "tangible" meaning that they were all related to physical safety, and they were easy to identify - things like starvation and dehydration, exposure to the elements, illness and injury, and dangerous animals. That was pretty much it. On the massive scale of time since homo sapiens evolved, most of that time was spent in that world. This is the world our brains evolved for. And it takes many millenia to make changes to a survival-based brain mechanism.

The very beginnings of civilization didn't occur until about 6,000 years ago, give or take. That's a teensy amount of time. It's when humans started congregating in bigger groups and cooperated to create permanent habitats, plan for the future, and develop technologies. Life and relationships started getting more complicated. Yet those new stresses were nothing compared to the beginnings of the industrial revolution a few hundred years ago - and even THOSE stresses don't begin to compare with what we've experienced in less than a hundred years - never mind the consumer technology revolution since the 1980s, and now the constant information overload, increasing lack of security and privacy, social media manipulation, climate change, political upheaval, and, to top it all off, a world-wide crisis of mental health suffering.

Even though most of us (and probably the vast majority of our forum members) live in physical safety due to modern amenities, our brains are not capable of dealing with today's world with its many intangible stressors. So, what's my point? It is this:

- Every time you are stressed by ANYTHING, your poor primitive brain LITERALLY interprets it as a dangerous physical threat to your survival - like a sabre-tooth tiger waiting to eat you. Because your brain truly doesn't know any better.

- The real problem is that the modern world serves up modern intangible stressors 24/7, and they are starting at a younger age with every generation - and it's unhealthy to live like that.

- Your goal is to figure out how to train your brain and calm down your nervous system. Which is where Dr. Sarno and this forum (which is dedicated in his honor) come in.


SO - now that I've presented your TMS Brain Mechanism 101, here's the TL; DR summary - the correct response to your fear of commiting to the program (and I'm recommending that you do the Structured Educational Program on our main tmswiki.org site) is: Just do it. Because, what have you got to lose? Not money, because it's free. And not freedom, because there is no kind of registration or sign-up or commitment - other than a commitment to yourself to give it an honest try. People (including Dr. Sarno) often say that you have to believe 100% in TMS in order to get something out of doing the work, but a ton of us with many years of TMS knowledge and skills have determined that this is not necessary. Belief comes as you learn and as you experience changes in the way you think and the way you feel.

Okay, I'm going to post this and post again with some resources for you.

 

Hah - it looks like Tamara posted a much shorter welcome message while I was busy writing my lengthy one.

First resource:
Nicole Sachs LCSW is one of our favorite resources for all things TMS. Her TMS story started when she was a teenager with back pain, diagnosed with an abnormality called spondylolithesis (I think I got that right but it's irrelevant). Doctors told her that she would always be disabled, and would never be able to do any normal activites, and definitely never have biological children. She lived in New York as a young adult, and saw Dr Sarno who said she could recover from all of her pain, which she did. She went on to have a normal and active life AND to bear three children. Technically, she still has spondy-whatever, and X-rays or MRIs of her back are alarming - and also meaningless. Anyway, after being his patient, Nicole went on to work with Dr Sarno before establishing herself as a therapist, and now she devotes herself to spreading the word about TMS through her books, website, podcast, and programs. Her weekly podcast is often like receiving personal therapy from her (which she no longer offers).

In this post I describe and link to an important podcast with Nicole and her teenage partner, Kate:
Nicole Sachs: Teens Teaching Teens TMS!!! Another must-listen. | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome)
(note, however, that although there was an online teens seminar last summer, I don't see any teen programs on Nicole's website now).

Kate wrote an article for Medium here, with a section on how to "JournalSpeak" (Nicole's term for emotional writing).
A Teenager’s Chronic Pain Success Story | by Kate Eisenpresser-Davis | Medium

Here's another excellent podcast from Nicole, about the basketball player Michael Porter Jr, who had three back surgeries before he was 25 - but did not actually heal until he started doing Nicole's work (I have a feeling Michael Porter Jr did get to receive private therapy from Nicole, haha). My post introduces and links to it:
Nicole Sachs, LCSW - NBA player interviewed by Nicole Sachs! | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome)

And finally, Victor, you mentioned possible childhood stressors. Answering the ten questions regarding Adverse Childhood Experiences is probably a good idea. This thread post describes the questionnaire, and how to use it as a starting point for examining the source of your distress:
https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/aces-quiz-online-printable-versions.27061 (ACEs "quiz" - online & printable versions)