Advice - Resuming Full Activity

I resumed full activity 8 weeks ago ie playing football for 60 mins per week.

All my original usual symptoms remain the same, maybe a bit worse but now I have knee pain, lower leg pain, extra glute pain

Would you give up running and sports? I’m 35. I don’t feel like it’s good advice this because it’s making me worse. I’ve not played for 2 weeks now but I’m still sore.

I think I’m just too old for sports now sadly. I thought the human body might be capable of 60 mins a week but obviously I’m not.

I feel like I’ve been hit by a bus this morning. I fell asleep doing a Howard Schubiner meditation which I’ve been doing for a few days now. Obviously it’s not working.

So should I give up the resume full activity advice? I’m thinking yes..

Chronic pain and fatigue has taken away all the activities and fun activities from my life. I’m a music producer and sports fan. When I get home from work at 5 then do the parenting and cooking etc I just want to collapse. And that I do. Then I beat myself up for not working on my music or exercising.

A very viscous circle indeed. I am absolutely battered physically and mentally. Dragging myself through the day from 6am until 11pm.

Guess that’s life. It was always nice to work on music a couple nights a week or look forward to a game of footy but even that’s gone now.

Maybe I should double my pills again…

 

I think you are reading more into "normal" pain and attributing it to being a crisis. Those without our condition, go play football for an hour, wake up the next morning sore and feel GREAT that they are sore. They say, "wow, I got a good workout yesterday, I'm sore as f---!" And then next week they do it again. Maybe even brag about their soreness to their friends. Those of us with TMS do the opposite. We feel sore and our brains say, "Warning! Warning!"

So it's really up to you. At age 35, you can go play and get sore and be 100% FINE. If you enjoy playing, play! Welcome the soreness as a sign of a game well played. Or you can do the opposite and say, nah, it's not worth it for me as I can't get over this mental hurdle.

For the record, age 35. You are YOUNG. Don't start letting your brain tell you otherwise.

 

Thanks for your encouragement. It’s hard because when I read all the success stories (before I stopped because they add to my depression) people are resuming full activity and are like “hey I just finished my run and my knee pain totally went away!!”

I am well aware of post exercise soreness. This is different. I had the post exercise soreness stage for a couple of weeks then got over it. I’ve not played for 2 weeks now and my knees, shins and glute are still very sore and painful. This pain isn’t going away. These pains have been with me for weeks to months now since I resumed activity. They’re not 2 days of not being able to sit on the loo.

However, I know that my pain fluctuates. For example today I feel like I’ve done 12 rounds so my whole body aches. Yesterday it was mostly back / side pain.
2 weeks ago it was mostly knee, ankle, glute pain. Etc etc. I have symptoms all over but it’s as though my brain can’t process all of them at once. Or it doesn’t need to in order to achieve the distraction from my repressed emotions. The repressed emotions that I have zero clue how to express and it appears all TMS counsellors don’t have a clue either.

but again, thanks for your encouragement

 

It's a matter of focus, Patrick. You are checking your pain levels. It's what we with Health Anxiety do. Anything you focus on will be exacerbated. It feels like you are looking for confirmation that things are different for you. That you are physically sicker than everyone else. I get it. It's a hard truth and again, a normal health anxiety reaction. (I've had health anxiety for longer than you've been alive so I know of what I speak....)

What are you worried about in regard to the pain? For me if the pain isn't going to kill me (like an infection) then I don't really care. It's only when I think it will kill me if I don't attend to it that I worry and focus on it.

You mention that you have followed TMS for 2 years. What have you done? Can you tell me about your journaling and how that went?

 

I know it’s the health anxiety I’m obsessive over all my symptoms. It feels impossible not to be. Currently I’m back on the Dan Buglio videos where he recommends to accept it and stop being afraid of it. But I am afraid of it. I’m scared of waking up in pain for the rest of my life and not achieving the things I want. And being miserable. And not being able to have fun with my family and friends.

I have a session booked with Dr Tovah and Rose Hoey of the TMS round table on Wednesday if you know them. And a one to one with Rose on Tues 18th. They’re method is all about repressed emotions and digging deep into my trauma.

Sorry about your health anxiety. Horrible isn’t it…

My journaling went ok. I did the Nicole Sachs method for just over 3 weeks everyday. It made no difference then I got bored of it.

 

Good luck!

Note that health anxiety rarely goes away completely but it can lay low for years at a time. Overtime you learn tips and tricks to manage it. Most of the folks I know with health anxiety are the smartest people I know so I take it that we all have a super power brains with the unfortunate side effect that we can see potential catastrophes, even though 99% of the time those catastrophes aren't going to happen.

 

@Booble
I suspect folks you know have not done TMS work? Basically it is all about anxiety and MANY people have put it to rest, there was a study done about it. Are you yourself familiar with Dr. Sarno’s work and have done tms work?

 

That's right. My Health Anxiety friends are friends from way back long before I found Sarno.
Yes, I'm familiar with TMS. You can read my previous posts.

TMS work has done wonders for me. That said I personally believe that when major health issues come up, those with health anxiety are likely to react in certain ways that differ from those without, requiring them to continue to use TMS and other techniques. My point being that you can work through to rid yourself of all the symptoms of TMS and health anxiety, but it's something that may continue to pop up requiring additional work.

For me, I was one of the lucky ones where watching Sarno's videos and understanding of his concepts provided immediate relief to very bad long bout of throat pain and laryngitis.