There's no one way to overcoming chronic pain or Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS), each person will have their own unique journey and recovery will look different from one person to another. What I describe below are the major guidelines of the approach, however, the details of recovery are very person-specific. So, it is important to embrace your own journey, wherever you are and respect your own way of doing. I also invite you to be kind to yourself during this journey, to be as accepting and understanding as possible with yourself and to remember that you are the only one who knows what feels good to you, what is realistic and what is doable for you.
Another important point to keep in mind - what others with the same conventional medical diagnosis form of TMS did to recover, what helped them, or how long it took them to heal will not be indicative of your journey. While it is great to discuss, read success stories and hear from people who have recovered, as it gives us hope and helps us move with conviction, it is important to refrain from comparing our journey to others' or to expect similar paths. At the end of the day, with TMS, whether it is medically called fibromyalgia or migraine, the root cause is one and the same - repressed emotions and perceived dangers - but to each their own!
The essential place to start is to understand, accept and believe in the actual - psychological - root cause of symptoms. Doing that is very important to start believing that you are actually healthy (as you were all along) and consequently start thinking, feeling and behaving in a safe way.
Look for hints of that in your condition - e.g., symptoms increasing when stressed or after a stressful day, symptoms decreasing when more relaxed usually on holiday or weekends, initial symptoms started during a stressful time or after a major life event, symptoms complicating very simple tasks, or disliked tasks, but allowing more enjoyable tasks that require similar activity, symptoms moving from a location to another..
Major guidelines to follow to help you recover from chronic pain and some questions to consider:
- Shift focus from the symptoms to the emotions; think psychologically and not structurally - Where am I not being transparent with myself and true to myself, which is causing a build up of emotions that I'm not processing in a healthy way? What emotions am I not listening to and allowing to exist, now or did not do so in the past? What are the symptoms trying to distract me from emotionally?
- Replace misinformation regarding perceived dangers with more accurate knowledge - What am I telling myself to justify the existence of my chronic symptoms? What am I perceiving as a danger? Is it an emotion, a situation, my age, an object, the weather, an activity, food, timing, or the symptoms themselves? Are those really dangerous or are they only perceived as such, and because of that, symptoms are falsely created due to increased fear, hypervigilance and conditioning?
- Shift from a continuous "fight/flight" state to a more consistent "relax and repair" state which promotes healing and optimal functioning of organs by cultivating feelings of pride, safety, confidence, happiness, health, abundance, freedom - Am I actively and consciously trying to feel good, happy, relaxed, confident, safe, proud, healthy and free or am I stuck most of my time with responsibilities, living a life I don't agree with, lacking balance with pain-prone personality traits and letting my symptoms dictate my life? How would I be feeling if I had no symptoms? How can I get to these feelings despite my symptoms?
- Create new neural pathways around the symptoms, by thinking, feeling and behaving differently, enough for the brain to feel safe and eventually stop creating symptoms - How am I talking to myself? How am I describing my symptoms? Am I reassuring myself or am I scaring myself? Am I reassuring myself that I am healthy or am I creating doubt over and over again believing I am broken and I need "fixing"? Am I reassuring myself or am I so frustrated that I convinced myself that there is no way out of this? Are my behaviors reassuring or concerning? Am I behaving as a safe and healthy person or as a broken-for-life one?