Any young TMSers?

My TMS issues began when I was 18 years old (I'm 19 now). Has anyone else started this young or am I just weird?

 

Yep...exactly same. Struggle for 6/7 years with no idea what was wrong with me but eventually Mae this breakthrough

 

You're not weird, Snickers. I've seen others post about their TMS who were in their late teens. You may not agree, but consider yourself
lucky to have discovered TMS so young. I am 85 and didn't learn about it until three years ago. I healed from severe back pain and am a much healtheir and happier camper now.

I suggest you start the Structured Educational Program which is free in the subforum of this web site. It will help you heal your symptoms.

Have a happy holiday and a pain-free new year!

 

I started having migraines (TMS) at 4 years old. It can start at any age.

 

As I mention in the introduction to Rapid Recovery from Back and Neck Pain 4 out of 10 teenagers have back pain. As you can imagine teen years can be quite stressful filled with doubts, insecurities, low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence.

I remember my allergies were really bad in college and used to get a weird pain in my right forearm (I am right handed). Lots to be angry and stressed out about. I started wearing reading glasses when I was in college. Interestingly enough once I recovered rapidly from TMS my allergies and glasses went away too!

So you are not alone in this.

I will talk about these and other interesting facts on TMS, as well as how to design and implement your own Rapid Recovery plan on 01/13/16. See the link below for more info.

 

no mine began 18 I'm 20 now

 

Mine began at 19 after a work accident. im 21 now. still struggling looking for help. I am unable to work, hold a relationship, or do anything I used to do..... doctors cant tell whats wrong with me but my pain is 10 out of 10... I fit the TMS characteristics. I've suffered from mental physical sexual abuse and also drug abuse.

 

I developed back pain at 25 :-/

 

I believe my TMS symptoms started age 5 after my parents divorced! Started getting back pain in my teens. Well done for sussing it out so young. I wish you the best of luck with your recovery.

 

Looking back it's obvious I had TMS all my life, including life-long anxiety which started at a very young age, a couple of periods of OCD in grade school, digestive issues just before leaving home to go to college, and multiple symptoms that came and went over the years. Every time a doc would tell me there was nothing wrong, the symptom would go away to be replaced by something else. I didn't have back pain until I was almost 60 although I'd had twenty years of neck spasms after a skiing accident and whiplash. It was the buildup of multiple symptoms after I hit age 60 (about four years ago) that really got my attention and resulted in finding Dr. Sarno and this forum.

I will join the others who say Hooray to you for discovering TMS so early in your life! Gotta love the Internet, yeah? (That's how I discovered Dr. Sarno -via a migraine forum).

~Jan

 

Hey everyone,

My TMS also began at a young age, when I was 19 or 20 in college after injuring my lowering back. I am now 23 and still have pain on and off again.
After injuring myself, I waited for the pain to heal which ended up taking quite a few months. After 5 months of waiting and still being in pain, I sought help from multiple doctors who tried to convince me I had "pulled a muscle" which still wasn't healed months later. They gave me a stronger form of Advil that was prescription only, and tried to tell me to just continue resting.
The pain never fully went away. Almost a year later, I began physical therapy for my lower back and leg to help with the pain and find some sort of solution. I also got an MRI on my back done, which allegedly showed that I had a herniated disc (which at this time seemed very serious to me and unhealthy). I thought my back had a lot of issues and became even more stressed that I couldn't control my body and its pain. It became engraved in my head that the more I rested the better I would feel. So I would wake up in the morning feeling no pain, but by the end of the day after lots of physical activity and movement, would be in more pain than I could imagine, to the point where I couldn't wait to get to sleep every night.

After a summer of PT, which ended up being somewhat helpful and teaching me the importance of stretching and continuing to do physical activity, I began seeing a pain management doctor. I was told about cortisone shots and decided to give it a try. It was painful, scary for me, and uncomfortable, but in the end helped the pain quite a bit. I couldn't believe that the a shot existed to help my pain that usually started in my lower back and shot down my leg. I continued to have cortisone shots every 6 months for about a year and a half (so three in total), before I discovered Dr. Sarno's Healing Back Pain on Amazon when browsing for self help to treat the pain that still came back.

The book has been a huge help in my life and helping me emotionally as well. I haven't gotten a cortisone shot in about 10 months (and don't plan on any in the future). I still have pain that returns to my lower back quite often, usually after working out and at the end of a long day. The pain also seems to increase/decrease based on the weather and seasons of the year as well.
I'm worried it might never go away completely for the rest of my life, which at this point, isn't the worst thing to me since its toned down quite drastically in the past year.

This is my first post so sorry about going too in depth. Bottom line: I'm young, I have TMS, and you probably wouldn't ever guess it from talking to me in real life. But I'm not ashamed of it, and I want to continue learning about ways I can improve my thoughts, heal my brain, and overall help my body in the long run.

 

Snickers - My earliest TMS symptoms began as a very young girl - like around 4. When I was 18, back issues kicked in. BIG time. You are not alone with your early onset. I wish I had had the knowledge you have. You hold in your hands the opportunity to miss years of suffering.

 

Actually come to think of it I had TMJ and hay fever as a child and used to grind my teeth in my sleep. All TMS equivalents.

 

Walt you are an inspiration!

 

Hi Snickers, I am 26 and new to this too- here is my story!
Hi all, my name is Kristy and I am very new to TMS and feel compelled to share my story. I am 26 currently working as close to full time as possible while going to nursing school full time to pursuit a career change. Last April I got off of the most terrifying plane ride and felt like I was walking on a boat for 3 weeks solid. It was right at the end of the semester and I eventually went to the Dr. to rule out stroke, clot, etc. After school ended and my Dr. visit it just magically went away and I never thought twice about it. On Halloween weekend, in the middle of an extremely hard semester I woke up one morning just completely dizzy again. I immediately panicked thinking something sinister must be wrong for this to come back. That was a Friday. On Saturday and Sunday I suffered two debilitating panic attacks because I started googling my symptoms, PLUS I was studying nursing and learning about all of these chronic diseases with no cure. I knew that leading up to this I was clenching my jaw at night from stress but thought nothing of it. There is no way stress can cause dizziness. So since the panic attacks, my head and Neck muscles have been in chronic spasm. I kept down this dark path, went to an ENT who left me with no advice and the parting words of "I won't tell you not to worry." This set off another downward spiral. So I invested in a brain and IAC MRI which came back completely normal. I overcame my fear of multiple sclerosis, chiari malformation, and brain tumor which had been plaguing me for the past month. All the while I am still clenching my jaw in my sleep. I had about one week of feeling like I was about to kick the dizziness, it was very mild when walking compared to feeling like I was walking on a boat the whole time. I decided to give the ENT one more time and went to a dizziness specialist. He said, "no way is this your ears, do you clench your jaw?" to which I replied "yes." He said I have upset my inner ear by clenching and referred me to a TMJ specialist. The specialist is very convinced that I have very good chance at getting better by wearing a splint to help with relaxing my jaw and prevent the constant clenching. I listened to Dr. Sarno yesterday and realized that I was internalized absolutely everything I was going through emotionally (probably since I was in my teen years) and this manifested in chronic jaw clenching and inflammation which is causing this relentless imbalance. Since my TMJ appointment I have now become so scared that it will never go away, I unfortunately got on google to understand more of the diagnosis and that lead me to a bunch of horror stories. Now I have added eye strain and floaters in my eyes to this dizziness. I never had this until TMJ was put into my mind. I know this sounds like such a sob story but I am writing because I KNOW Dr. Sarno is the answer. I just need help in not being afraid of the dizziness and eye strain. My suboccipital muscles are still spasmed so I develop a tension headache when I go for a run (I love running and triathlons) so I only walk now. Do any of you have any guidance as to how I can develop my confidence that I am only experiencing these symptoms because of everything I repressed. I have the MRI proving that there is nothing wrong with me but I cannot get the picture of my jaw being inflamed out of my head (it's hard when you are surrounded by western medicine as a nurse). I really appreciate you all and just know that your stories are so encouraging to me and you leave me filled with hope!
Thanks for reading this lengthy story,
Kristy

 

this is kind of an old thread but yes I was 17 when my pain started and by the time I was 18 it was constant. however when i was 3-5 I was severely anxious and emotionally 'unstable' as my parents put it so perhaps I was suffering from some form of it even back then--or it was just a component of why I developed it later in life.

 

Hello,everyone.

A real good exchange of posts.

I healed from severe back pain after journaling and discovering I was repressing anger and other emotions after my parents divorced when I was seven.

Susan, thanks for the kind words. I'm 86 now and think of myself as a human Duracel battery. I am just determined to keep going.

 

Retrospectively since age 9. Details of family situation and reality of being an emotional caretaker for a depressed mom all make sense now. At the time I had headaches. Then as a teen I had some reprieve as I began to have a life of my own....then it all got worse in my 30s. The whole time I've actually been perfectly physically healthy.

 

The longer i've known about TMS the further back i recall stuff that's been bothering me health wise that could have been TMS.

I now remember TMS symptomd around 14-16 years old and now when i think about it that's just after my parents divorce.

I've tought about it being a big factor of me having TMS and i've tried to confront the feelings i have bout what happend during that time but still i have TMS pain.

I have basically never spoken to my parents at all about it but it kinda feels weird talking to them about it now, i'm 26 now btw.

Maby i should consult a therapist about it?

 

I have always been sensitive and a goodist. My mom said I used to get stomachaches from doing speed math facts at school. But my headaches started around junior high and my RSI when I was a late teenager. I discovered Sarno in college.