Advice for my chronic pain situation

L

lino1997

Newcomer
Hello Guys,

I am currently 23, and suffer from widespread joint pain since i was 16.
The onset of my symptoms began with taking acne medications, getting an ankle sprain, followed by a rotator cuff tear and a ganglion cyst operation.In the following months and ever since i struggle with episodes of depression due to my realization that my symtoms wont improve with time and continue to get worse.
Since those incidents I keep getting injured and my body remains in chronic pain after the healing process should be completed.
Since i keep spending too much of my time in doctors offices, am currently enrolled in university, and need to function, I could need some advice.

A few years back i read dr sarnos healing back pain, and the Great Pain Deception.
Since than i tried to implement the advice in how to heal chronic pain, but things keep getting worse.
I wonder if any of you guys think my case could still be TMS? I got in contact with a psychotherapist, but dont really know what to discuss with her, since my depression and bad emotions result mostly out of frustration with the pain plus the restrictions in my activities.
I am truly losing my appreciation of life and tend to become more and more hopeless as time moves on.
Any Advice would be greatly appreciated.
Im sorry if i made a lot of spelling mistakes, since english is not my first language.
Thank you guys in advance:)
 
It sounds like you are still harboring a lot of doubt about the TMS diagnosis, as well as faulty beliefs ..."My symptoms won't improve over time and continue to get worse". These negative thought patterns have become entrenched and that's what needs to change. Your symptoms are common and reversible but you need to stop listening to those negative stories your brain keeps creating. Nothing you listed above would cause chronic pain. It's simply your thoughts about those injuries and events that keep the brain in fight or flight and sending those signals. I suggest you read "Unlearn Your Pain" by Dr. Schubiner since it's been a few years since you read Sarno. You need to revisit those concepts because you are going in the wrong direction and probably getting more medicalized with every doctors visit. All that does is breed more fear which further fuels the pain strategy. The depression is also a result of emotional depletion , fear, and habit. It will pass, just as the symptoms will.
 
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First thank you for your reply:)
I was at a point several times in the last years where i accepted TMS completely before,. I tried to return to my earlier activities, and was ignoring my pain and focusing more on life and forgetting about my pain as good as i could do it. I was in that process a few times now, but in the following months or weeks of me feeling like i accepted my diagnoses as TMS I injure myself, and tear a ligament or brake a bone during sports or daily activities. Im easing back into my activities, so i dont really understand what my mind would want to tell me with that.
That process continues like that for a long time now, and i just accumulate more injuries and more painful areas.
I quit all physical treatments as soon as my body should have healed, but I am stuck at the point i was describing.
I did read unlearn your pain by Dr. Schubiner before.
So the problem could be me thinking that i accept TMS, but I actually still dont fully believe it?
My problem is that i cant wrap my head around how TMS can cause physical injuries?
 
When the danger alarm center is activated in the brain, symptoms and pain signals ensue. That is the nature of neural circuit pain (dynamic pain). WIth every injury or stressor you had, it reinforced this habit of the brain and body to produce symptoms that continued way past the time of normal healing. There are 2 kinds of pain: acute and chronic. All injuries heal and when it becomes chronic the brain has taken over. In fact 2 different areas of the brain mediate these 2 categories. The area of the brain involved with emotions and memory is the area of chronic pain (and depression) . The depression is actually a TMS equivalent. You need to revisit Dr. Schubiner's book to deepen your level of understanding. The tendency of the brain is to fall back into negative habits and thought patterns. Your brain did not cause injuries. You had injuries which triggered the brain to keep sending signals and symptoms. The injuries are not the problem. All injuries heal. It's your thoughts about the injuries that create brain induced pain.
 
So the big injuries should have healed by now and if they hurt again it is likely not due to reinjury but TMS?
I know there is a symptom imperative, but i keep getting pains that show up during or after activities in new locations or near old ones, that feel like partial tendon tears i had diagnosed before. They linger around most of the time, somtimes they go away with time, but i just cant seem to find a pattern to break out of that cycle. I dont go to the doc for those types of pains anymore since they are far too frequent, so I am not sure if it is a partial tendon tear, but from experience it feels like it.
Most of my pains set in suddenly at a concrete moment that i recognise mostly during sports or when im active.
I am really confused as to where TMS starts and when there is a real physical injury that needs medical attention.
 
Once you have ruled out the catastrophic and life threatening (tumors, broken bones, infection etc), it's time to rule in TMS (neural circuit pain). The fact that your symptoms come and go, wax and wane, shift, vary, and change locations are all evidence that it's just TMS. When symptoms show up, you need to stop giving them so much importance and meaning. See them for what they are: harmless and not dangerous. Lose the fear and focus on them. Minor aches and pains all go away. It's part of being human. If you keep monitoring and analyzing, it just reinforces the fear-pain-fear loop. Train your brain out of the negative cycle by shifting focus. Also re read "Unlearn Your Pain". Sometimes we need to remind ourselves and revisit the knowledge piece.
 
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