MSZ812
Well known member
I've been suffering with chronic pain for about 4 years now. My pain has been in my shoulder/upper back (until it moved yesterday to my neck). I'm a couple weeks into the SEP, and the journal writing I've done has brought up an interesting thought: did I get my TMS from other family members? I'm the youngest of 3. My oldest sister has back problems (surgery failed) and fibromyalgia. She has been on disability for many years (and she's only 33 years old). My middle sister also has back problems, hip problems, and severe eczema on her hands/fingers. She hasn't worked since giving birth to her first child 6 years ago (she's pregnant with her 3rd right now). She is convinced that her pain is too severe to work. My mom has had neck and shoulder pains for over a decade, and it's caused her to miss work sporadically. She has a ritual of using heat packs on her painful areas multiple times a day. My dad is probably the healthiest of us, but I remember many times during my childhood that he complained of chronic back pain. He even had to quit a job because of it. Even today, he ponders whether he should find an office job because he doesn't believe his back can handle many more years in his current line of work. I don't see him very much, so it's possible that his pain is as constant as the rest of us. I was the last of our family to develop chronic pain. I don't know any other families that all deal with chronic pain. Are we learning it from each other? Was there an event that happened to all of us that is causing us to repress our emotions? The newly developed neck pain I'm having sounds very similar to the pain my mom has been describing to me for many years. We all can develop TMS and it's clearly not a genetic issue. But can it be learned?
