Is my post tib tendonitis TMS?

1 year ago in September 2021 I was training for a half marathon and admittedly got too obsessed with training that I suffered an injury. When I went for an MRI I was told my post tib tendon was inflammed but in tact and to continue with day to day life. After that I developed bursitis in my big toe pad and plantar fasciitis. The plantar fasciitis calmed down and I had an injection for the bursitis in December, but felt the pain spread to other toes. I was in such a state, constant fear and obsession with the pain. I went to see a top specialist who actually said he thought I was fine and that was TMS. So in Jan/Fed continued to normal life and tried walking 10,000 steps but then my plantar fasciitis flared up. That has now calmed down through shockwave therapy (not sure if that was placebo) however I now suffer from my post tib in day to day life. That was the one area I was told they wouldn’t inject as it could make it worse. I am not in pain walking around my flat or a short walk of 5000/6000 steps but I can’t go on my peloton for no resistance 10 mins without it hurting (badly for one week or two weeks) or if I walk further than 10,000 steps it flares up. However i can do reformer pilates and it is fine. I know it can be worse if I am stressed so trying to meditate and control that side. As a person I am a perfectionist and put a lot of pressure on myself - and I have had a history of worrying about every sensation in my body. Looking back I was obsessed with exercise and I’m starting to believe that was my strategy to deal with emotions. Since summer this year I made a pact to myself not to let it stop me socialising and seeing friends as I used to shut myself away due to it. I don’t know if I do have tendonitis or if it is TMS? Any advice would be much appreciated, feeling like I’ll never exercise again.

 

I'm going to assume that you have at least read at least one of Dr. Sarno's books, which is kind of a prerequisite, even though some aspects of his theories are a bit obsolete now, thanks to much greater understanding of the neuroscience behind chronic pain vs. acute (injury) pain.

Since you've been seen by medical experts, at least one of whom believes that your issues are psychological in nature, our advice is to immediately start doing a structured program, which could be one of our free programs. TMS knowledge is only the start, because so-called 'book cures", while common, are not typical for someone with anxiety and obsessive behaviors. And a lot of "book cure" folks end up coming back to do the deeper emotional work sometime down the road.

So you gotta do the work, and you need to start now. There is no reason not to.

You have to do the emotional work with commitment, and you have to understand that your TMS brain will try to convince you that you do not have to do it meaningfully. Don't be fooled. You have to stick with it even when your symptoms get worse (and they will, if you are actually approaching your repressed emotions). You have to do it with intent - you can't skim or rush through the "days", and you can't skip something that makes you uncomfortable. If the work doesn't make you uncomfortable, you're not really going deep enough. During the writing exercises you have to force yourself to write down things that come into your head whether you think they are meaningful or not (your brain will try to get you to skip things, especially if they are even slightly embarrassing or guilt-inducing).

Our two free programs are the SEP: Structured Educational Program on the main tmswiki.org site, and Alan Gordon's Pain Recovery Program, here on the forum. No signup or registration needed - you are on your own to just do them.

You also have to deal with your anxiety, which will impede your progress if you don't get it under control early on. After I read The Divided Mind, the book that really reduced my lifelong anxiety was Help & Hope For Your Nerves by Claire Weekes.

Good luck!

 

Thank you so much for the above response so helpful, I am going to start with this right away. I have already read Dr Sarno & Alan Gordon’s books. I am in pain currently. I had a friends wedding last night and wore small wedges (I wore them in summer for a wedding and had mild discomfort after). I woke up this morning and can’t walk. Instead of the usual pain on the left hand side with my post tib and plantar fasciitis , it is all the right hand side of my foot. I just have no idea whether this is real or TMS I know being scared and fearful doesn’t help but it is worrying me

 

I think I recall that the SEP asks you to start an "evidence sheet" for signs that your symptoms are purely from your brain's TMS mechanism, rather than from tissue injury. Symptoms that completely disappear, only to show up elsewhere, or new symptoms you've never had before - for no reason - this is classic TMS.

It is a scientific fact that all physical sensations are created in the brain, usually in response to something happening in a body part that causes neurological messages to be sent to the brain which then creates a "danger!" symptom. That's called "acute" pain (or other symptom). In chronic pain, the brain can create the same sensations for non-acute, emotional reasons.

Dr. Sarno used blushing and stage fright as examples of how emotions alone can cause physical responses in the body. More proof of how the brain can create "real" physical pain lies in the phenomenon of phantom limb pain - which after many years and a lot more neuroscientific knowledge, is finally accepted by the medical community as being just as real as the pain that occurred when the injured limb was intact. And they now have brain-retraining techniques to conquer it - it's pretty fascinating stuff.

The TMS mechanism that creates chronic symptoms is a primitive survival mechanism in our brains, designed to keep us worried and alert in the primitive world. It doesn't work at all well in the modern world, and it's severely exacerbated by the anxiety that has become epidemic in the modern world. But we can learn to control it and get our lives back. Many of us have done it, in spite of lifelong anxiety.

Remind yourself of this every day: doubt is normal, but the medical community has nothing to offer, and doing emotional work can't cause you any physical harm, so what have you got to lose?

Remember that I said above that doing the work might temporarily increase symptoms or give you new ones as your brain fights back - but with your new mindset, you can treat that as good news, and another item for the evidence sheet. Your doubt will recede as you do the work - as long as you do it with commitment!