Can it be TMS if some things give relief? I.E Inversion

Hi everyone,
Im almost 90% sure I have TMS. Quick background of my problems:

Hurt my back deadlifting 5 years ago, felt it straight away, felt like a slight muscle strain. It never went away so went to the doctors. Basically over the last 5 years ive had two MRIs which both shows minor disc bulges and DDD at L4-L5 and L5-S1 with NO never root compression.

Nowadays the pain has involved to a kind of burning in my back, bum and legs & feet, completely different to the initial pain. Also, I have lots of TMS triggers, im unhappy with my job, feel like a failure, have no real direction in my life.

However, there are some things I do which give me relief, mainly I hang upside down on an inversion table. Im having trouble 100% commiting to TMS as I cant help but feel it must be a mechanical disc issue if decompression therapy eases the pain.

Would be amazing if some of you lovely people could share your thoughts with me on this.

Thanks a lot!,

Jonathan Scott

 

Just my thoughts, which may not be right...but maybe the relief isn't from decompression of the spine, but from the muscles in you lower back having a break, i.e. relief, from needing to work like they do in order to support you when standing and sitting upright...And the blood flow is likely to be altered in some ways temporarily too while you are upside down - Dr Sarno said that the pain in TMS is due to the brain causing slightly reduced blood flow to the muscles, tendons, and other tissues in the affected areas; this reduction in blood causes mild oxygen deprivation to those muscles, tendons and other tissues, which results in pain (that can be burning in nature).

 

Thank you for responding to me. I definitely can understand how that could work. The reason im confident it is TMS is the nature of the pain. I never get sharp / sudden / excruciating pain but I have a constant soreness. It literally feels like my muscles are super sore and not getting enough oxygen. I can definitely feel them stretching out when I hang upside down

 

Bloodmoon, I think there may some truth to what you're saying. Circulation always seems to help with pain, through massage, etc.

And, jonathan93, I want to point to a more basic understanding about the TMS approach practiced here. You are probably suffering from a conditioned response: When I do ___________, then the symptoms respond by _____________. Fill in blanks. Our expectations, either based on what others have told us, or by one single experience create patterns which seem to point to the physical. If I think these shoes cause pain, and these shoes help me get out of pain, I am caught.

Your work is to see through these expectations to the real source which is emotional. Nothing in our environment or society, or medical support points to what Dr. Sarno showed us. This work of understanding the real cause of pain is left to you.

 

Agree with Andy B. Your expectations are the greatest placebo.