Quotes About TMS

TMS is a strategy of the brain to keep unpleasant thoughts and emotions from rising from the unconscious into the conscious mind. The brain, through established physiologic pathways, creates pain as a distraction. By focusing our attention on physical symptoms, we keep these painful thoughts and emotions repressed. This is a very effective strategy, as there is an absolute epidemic of mindbody disorders in our society.

What this means for the etiology (cause) of TMS, as I have long maintained, is that fibromyalgia, also known as fibrositis and myofibrositis (and to some as myofasciitis and myofascial pain), is synonymous with TMS.

These statistics suggest very strongly that the cause of most back pain is emotional, for the years between thirty and sixty are the ages that fall into what I would call the years of responsibility. This is the period in one's life when one is under the most strain to succeed, to provide and excel, and it is logical that this is when one would experience the highest incidence of TMS.

The pertinent bias here is that these common pain syndromes must be the result of structural abnormalities of the spine or chemically or mechanically induced deficiencies of muscle. Of equal importance is another bias held by conventional medicine that emotions do not induce physiologic change. Experience with TMS contradicts both biases. The disorder is a benign (though painful) physiologic aberration of soft tissue (not the spine), and it is caused

The pertinent bias here is that these common pain syndromes must be the result of structural abnormalities of the spine or chemically or mechanically induced deficiencies of muscle. Of equal importance is another bias held by conventional medicine that emotions do not induce physiologic change. Experience with TMS contradicts both biases. The disorder is a benign (though painful) physiologic aberration of soft tissue (not the spine), and it is caused by an emotional process.

Many TMS patients are the antithesis of hostile; they often have a strong need to be good, nice, pleasant, accommodating, and helpful. Though they may be ambitious and often very accomplished, they do not necessarily pursue their goals with the intensity that seems to be characteristic of the Type A person.

TMS patients cope only too well in reality; it is their unconscious minds that are cowardly. The best evidence of the validity of this concept is the fact that patients are able to stop the process simply by learning about it.

The study of psychoneuroimmunology is highly scientific and will play an important role in our understanding of many serious disorders, such as cancer and the autoimmune diseases (like rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes), but in my view it is but one segment of a larger study of how emotions may influence any of the organs and systems of the body. TMS

Studies and clinical experience of many years suggest that these common pain syndromes are the result of a physiologic alteration in certain muscles, nerves, tendons, and ligaments that is called the Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS). It is a harmless but potentially very painful disorder that is the result of specific, common emotional situations. It is the purpose of this book to describe TMS in detail.

Those that involve the back of the head are clearly related to the posterior neck muscles that are part of TMS. Some patients report pain all over the head; others have it in the frontal region. A common complaint is of severe pain "behind the eyes." When they are unilateral (involving one side only), severe, and are accompanied by nausea, people are inclined to call them migraines. Tension headache can be as disabling as the worst neck, shoulder, or back pain.