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mala
Hong Kong
774 Posts |
 Posted - 10/01/2008 : 19:02:19
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Getting better is first & foremost all about believing the diagnosis. If you haven’t done that then there is no point doing all the other ‘stuff’. Your id/subconscious demands that you do so don’t bother going on to the next steps of treatment if you haven’t convinced yourself or truly believe that you have TMS. There is no point building on a shaky foundation of belief. It must be FIRM & STRONG & UNSHAKEABLE.
If you truly believe in the diagnosis, you must also repudiate the physical and the physical findings. That you may say is very difficult. Well actually is it all that difficult?
It’s not when I consider the following
None of the 15 odd doctors I have been to see have been able to tell me what is wrong despite having MRIs, bone scans CT scans, blood tests etc. It is because they don't know.
Why is it that my pain got worse from the moment I was told arthritis/ degeneration?
Why some will say surgery while others say no.
Medication, injections (under X-ray), physio, exercise, massage, chiro nothing has helped.
One physio says back, another says hip. One says it’s the piriformis another says psoas. One says don’t do the breast stroke another says don’t do free style.
They tell me I need to strengthen my stomach muscles and when I say why they say coz they are weak. Why are they weak if I am using them everyday? Silence.
Hey Doctor is it true that nearly everyone shows signs of degeneration and maybe even herniated discs but not all have pain? Yes. So why? Don’t know.
Why can’t anyone tell me how is it that I can touch my toes effortlessly, do straight leg raises, clasp both my hands behind my back with no problem but have pain all the time in my back?
Why is it that a deep cut in my hand or a burn can heal within a couple of weeks and not even leave a scar while this pain has been going on forever?
How is it that I can walk for hours with no pain but find it difficult to sit for few minutes? That's absurd really.
Why does the pain move around especially when I tell myself there is nothing wrong?
They can’t tell you anything coz bottom line is they don’t know yet we are so influenced by what they tell us that what they tell us sinks deep into our Psyche and takes hold making us more & more fearful. This nocebo effect can happen in several situations: the one- to-one interaction of doctor and patient, each with his or her expectations; people's general beliefs and expectations outside the therapeutic situation; and expectations created in groups of people.
We must change the way we think or we are doomed to be in pain all our life.
Please add to this list to empower yourself and others with the knowledge that what we have is indeed TMS and that there is nothing physically wrong with us. Do this before you do anything else.
Good Luck & Good Health
Mala |
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winnieboo
USA
269 Posts |
Posted - 10/01/2008 : 20:23:46
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| Excellent post, Mala. Thank you! |
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Belle
United Kingdom
19 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2008 : 02:09:23
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| and why does the pain get more intense when I start to focus on what's causing it? as though my unconscious is fighting against my conscious mind |
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pandamonium
United Kingdom
202 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2008 : 02:59:23
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Great post Mala.
I went to many doctors and consultants but no-one knew what was wrong with me. 5 years ago I was in agony but had nothing showing on my MRI, this year a disk fissure is shown on my MRI but the pain is exactly the same, this helped cement it for me that the pain was not caused by anything going on in my spine.
Belle, have you read Healing Back Pain by John Sarno? I haven't got it next to me right now so the details are hazy but in that book he describes a case of a woman who was pretty much bed-bound with her pain. She suffered abuse as a child and had repressed it all, as the emotions surfaced she went through agony until she broke down and then the pain went away. So yes, your mind has set up this pain as a distraction technique to "save" you from having to feel the feelings involved. As you have said there can be a struggle between your concious and your unconcious but try not to see it as a fight, try and accept your TMS as it is acceptance that takes the power away from it..
Panda |
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Belle
United Kingdom
19 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2008 : 07:55:39
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| Panda. yes. I know. I was adding to Mala's list |
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LuvtoSew
USA
327 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2008 : 09:17:50
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Yes Mala your so right, unfortunately we can't blame the doctors (although some of them are bad) but most want to help us. Medicine is a science and they are there to rule out things by blood work and dx tests, and treat by medication and or surgery.
The alternative medical people all believe in their own treatments.
Depending on the type of doctor you go to , the dx. and treatment probably will be different.
Ever watch the show House (although that is not real life) he does one test after another, but I love it when he uses psychology on the patients.
I do believe many medical doctors believe stress is mainly at the root of most conditions, and they need to run these tests, and prescribe things like meds and PT., and most patients would walk out of a doctors office if he told them its stress, they want the tests and meds.
Actually most doctors would consider tms an alternative medicine, but then again most doctors haven't even heard of TMS.
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meema
10 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2008 : 11:30:00
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I think, too, that there are a lot of medical doctors who believe that stress and psychological issues are, if not causing, then at least exacerbating their patients' problems. But what can most doctors do with that belief? Most patients will feel insulted and like their pain isn't being taken seriously, the doctors don't have the time in their day to try and explain, and the insurance companies won't pay them to take that extra time anyway, whereas they will pay for all the tests and useless treatments. Often doctors will then prescribe antidepressants when they're convinced there's nothing physically wrong, but that doesn't get at the root of TMS, and isn't ultimately very helpful, in my opinion, not to mention all the potential side effects. It just seems to me that everything in our medical system makes it more difficult to first, get a diagnosis of TMS, and second, to truly believe in it. Not impossible, as many on this board can attest to, but more difficult than it probably should be.
It just occurred to me that maybe these are precisely the conditions that make TMS flourish, that it's so much easier and acceptable to deal with physical complaints than emotional ones, and that most of us are much more likely to find support, both from the medical world and the world at large, for our physical pain than our emotional pain.
I never had a doctor actually say to me directly that he or she thought there was nothing physically wrong, but when the antidepressant prescription would get offered, it made me really upset and angry. To me it was like they were saying, "Take this so you can be less crazy and stop bothering me." For me, the crucial thing that Dr. Sarno says in his books is that TMS is very normal and common and doesn't mean that you're crazy. He was able to take the judgement out of it for me, and that was essential to my ability to accept it. |
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mala
Hong Kong
774 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2008 : 18:19:30
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The purpose of this post is not really to blame or defend doctors (although that in itself would make for a very interesting thread) but to make a list to help people accept the TMS diagnosis more readily & disregard the physical findings which have taken hold in their subconscious. This as I mentioned earlier is the first and the most difficult step to take.
The purpose of including the points about the doctors and their physical findings is really to highlight the point that they do not really know themselves what is going on so how can anyone believe so readily in what they tell you . In other words don’t blindly accept what they tell you and don’t be influenced by this idea that your back, spine, shoulder whatever is weak which is basically what they are telling you although they can’t tell you why.
So pls keep those points coming in.
LuvtoSew, I like to watch House when I’m on the treadmill at the gym. Hugh Laurie makes it a whole lot easier on the knees!!
Good Luck & Good Health
Mala |
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LuvtoSew
USA
327 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2008 : 08:26:21
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I agree with everything. After years of being told not to twist, lift, how to sit, keep the shoulders back,etc. it is hard to foget the physical, but then I guess it comes down to how we want to live,
like a robot, stiff, and watch every move we make,
or relaxed and move freely.
With me its the fear of moving freely which I need to resolve.
I just wanted to add none of the physical has helped me either, the chiro visits which made me worst, or the PT. and the meds sure don't help except to alleviate the pain for awhile.
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Edited by - LuvtoSew on 10/03/2008 08:29:16 |
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winnieboo
USA
269 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2008 : 08:57:17
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Go to your emotions, not the pain
Go to the gym
Go to your drawer where you keep your journal and start writing
Go to your therapy appointments
Go to your faith or spirituality
Be kind to yourself
Be patient, generous and compassionate with yourself
Allow yourself to cry
Allow yourself to experience your emotions in the moment
Rent comedies and laugh
In doing the above, the objective is to create NEW HABITS of going about your life. Positive ones.
If we approach the pain in the way we've always approached problems (and for TMSers, that's probably with a large measure of anxiety, obsessiveness and helplessness), we get nowhere.
As Mala says, we must commit to our TMS diagnosis and forget the medical doctors' diagnoses. You must BELIEVE THAT THE PAIN IS HARMLESS and a DISTRACTION from your emotions.
The next step is to rehabituate, or adopt new strategies for dealing with pain AND emotions AND everyday happenings and the way we obsess about it all. Reframe problems as "situations" (not catastrophes) that can be managed and then released.
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mala
Hong Kong
774 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2008 : 18:42:12
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quote:
we must commit to our TMS diagnosis and forget the medical doctors' diagnoses. You must BELIEVE THAT THE PAIN IS HARMLESS and a DISTRACTION from your emotions.
Wonderful winnieboo. Because the pain is a distraction, we must create a distraction for that distraction. Your list is a good one to work from.
When the pain is bad that is especially when you need to distract yourself from it and focus on something else even if it is for a minute. Do this often enough and you will see a big difference in which you perceive your pain and in the pain itself.
Creating new patterns is indeed as you said the next step after you have truly convinced yourself that there is nothing physically wrong with you.
I think staying focussed on these 2 steps is very important. It may take time for these new ideas and pattern to sink in so don't expect an overnight miracle but do expect to see and feel small changes and be encouraged by them.
Good Luck & Good Health
Mala |
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mala
Hong Kong
774 Posts |
Posted - 10/07/2008 : 03:58:37
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Fear is the biggest culprit and it is this fear that exacerbates the pain. Fear that the pain will never go away, fear that it will get worse with time, fear that we will injure ourselves if we make a wrong move etc- the list is endless. This fear projects itself & and extends into all areas of our life- our work, our play our family, our relationships our emotional well being everything.
This fear cannot and will not go away until we dispel it from our lives ourselves. No one else can do it for us. We can read thousands of posts about how other people got better but that is not the answer. We do not have to change ourselves and if that is what you are trying to do then that is why you are not succeeding. The id does not change. It is primitive and simple. That is why the treatment is also simple not complicated. Work on a conscious level not a subconscious level. Your emotions are stored on a subconscious level but the realization must be made on a conscious level.
Keep making that list of why you should not fear the pain. Make your own and add onto it daily.
Good Luck & Good Health
Mala |
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LuvtoSew
USA
327 Posts |
Posted - 10/07/2008 : 05:40:23
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Marla-You said it all.
Fear is the root, keeps our automatic nervous system on high alert,
always being in a fight or flight situation leads to anxiety, stress, and decrease immune system. |
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the first step to getting better. Pls add to list
