Can you explain how tendonitis is not a physical condition?

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Doesn't tendonitis have visible changes on surgery and dissection?

How could it be TMS?

Tendonitis is famous for taking great lengths of time to go away. Tendons get lesser supply from veins. This is the reason it takes them so long to recover.

With such an established process how can it be TMS?

Tendonitis doesn't !go away! when you resolve your emotional troubles.

I suspect if your tendonitis resolves after repairing your repressed problems, it wasn't tendonitis.
 
The issue isn't tendonitis but .... "chronic tendonitis", a myth, a legend as "chronic Lyme" or RSI (repetitive strain injury).
RSI could/should be renamed RSP (repetitive stress pain) or better, according Dr. Sarno, RRR (repetitive repressed rage).
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Tendons and ligaments are slower to heal but they still heal. Surgery would only be indicated in the case of a tear or rupture I believe. I actually have a long history of achilles tendonitis (since I was 19) but I know when it's just TMS. Once in awhile they act up when I wear really high heels (which is rare lol) but it always goes away.
 
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miffybunny said:
Tendons and ligaments are slower to heal but they still heal. Surgery would only be indicated in the case of a tear or rupture I believe. I actually have a long history of achilles tendonitis (since I was 19) but I know when it's just TMS. Once in awhile they act up when I wear really high heels (which is rare lol) but it always goes away.
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If it happens when you wear heels that sounds structural not feelings.

Unless you wear heels when you're stressed.
 
Yes that was my point. The rare times my tendons flare from high heels it's acute(ish) pain that passes quickly (within hours or a day). It doesn't go into the chronic pain zone of TMS. Acute pain and chronic pain are 2 different animals and we have to make that distinction. Acute is in the body tissue and chronic is brain based (signals from the brain).
 
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Sounds like you caught it early then and it didn't have time to become chronic. Your point doesn't prove tendinitis is stress.

I've had tendonitis that lasted for months and months. Differently, I've felt the beginning of it and caught it and it didn't develop into anything.

IME if tendonitis appears out of nowhere it's going to be chronic.

The two worst cases I've had appeared out of nowhere at full pain levels.

If it SLOWLY comes on, you can heal it quicker if you stop doing whatever it is that caused it.

The cases that *felt* like they *might* be tendinitis disappeared within a day or two of me stopping the bothersome motion and treating it.

I consider that some people may be uncertain that what they have is tendinitis.
 
There are at least 8 misunderstandings of TMS in your post so that tells me you need to gain the basic knowledge first. The first pillar of the mind body approach is "Knowledge". I highly recommend "Unlearn Your Pain" by Dr. Schubiner and anything by Dr. Sarno (The MB Prescription is great to start with). Without a baseline understanding of the cause of chronic pain, the mb approach ,and how the brain works, you won't glean very much from the message boards, and you risk becoming more confused. By reading these books you will also accelerate the process.
 
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The others already clarified it but I would like to add my experiences with tendonitis:

For years during highschool and university my forearms and wrists hurt and I was multiple times diagnosed with "chronic tendonitis". Not doing certain movements and resting would lessen the pain but as soon as I started it very slowly again the pain immediately returned with the same intensity. The pain also came with a little less intensity to my left hand (right is dominant), which didn't make sense since I did most of the bothersome movements with right (clicking, writing etc.). The explanation I usually got was that it comes from bad posture (shoulders too far in the front) which didn't make sense to me because I saw other people sitting like a croissant typing all day long more than I did. I couldnt accept that my body should be so much more fragile than theirs. When I learned about TMS it all made sense to me and the pain went 95% away in a matter of weeks and didnt return for more than 5%. When I noticed the 5% slowly coming back, I just didnt care for the pain (before I learnt about TMS I was very afraid of the pain) and applied TMS techniques which made the pain vanish in short time. That was 5 years ago. No relapse. You couldnt explain that "physically".

That doesnt mean that there is no tendonitis however. As I am writting this with my left hand I have a "real" "physical" Tendonitis in my right wrist. Not from typing or some other repetitive every-day activity with little force but from archery. I pulled 25lb with two fingers while my wrist was bent (instead of straight, for some reason I changed my movements) for 2 hours. That is a big strain, thats how "physical" "acute" Tendonitis happens. And it actually feels very different than what I always felt during the "chronic" Tendonitis. Now it really feels like an injury and it is swollen. The pain is constant on certain movements and doesnt wander around - two things TMS pain does. Good thing is that I know of TMS and thats why I am not afraid of it. I know it takes some 1 or 2 more weeks of rest untill its good again. If the pain then, after recovery, tries to come back again, then I know its TMS, cus thats what TMS does (look up the "Whiplash" Syndrome).

TMS theory doesnt deny injuries like Tendonitis. TMS is about the chronic pain that is wrongly labelled "chronic" x. Our bodies are strong, resilient and quick to heal - the biggest bone, the femur, if broken takes 6 weeks to heal completely. Now imagine: If all the chronic diseases and pains which Sarno lists as TMS were "real physical", would humankind have come that far?
TMS usually happens when an acute injury or symptom persist after resting it for the appropriate time. Thats when the injury doesnt make sense anymore in a physical way but probably does in an emotional way.
 
miffybunny said:
There are at least 8 misunderstandings of TMS in your post so that tells me you need to gain the basic knowledge first. The first pillar of the mind body approach is "Knowledge". I highly recommend "Unlearn Your Pain" by Dr. Schubiner and anything by Dr. Sarno (The MB Prescription is great to start with). Without a baseline understanding of the cause of chronic pain, the mb approach ,and how the brain works, you won't glean very much from the message boards, and you risk becoming more confused. By reading these books you will also accelerate the process.
Click to expand...

Not sure what my misunderstandings are.

I'm a former powerlifter having much experience with tendonitis. It's real thing. There are placebo controlled studies for that. There is a developing list of things that work and don't work to treat it. It is caused by real physical modifications to the body. Rest does not heal tendonitis.

I'm not saying some chronic tendonitis is different from cognitive concerns.

More in the next replies forthcoming.
 
Latwalker said:
The others already clarified it but I would like to add my experiences with tendonitis:

For years during highschool and university my forearms and wrists hurt and I was multiple times diagnosed with "chronic tendonitis". Not doing certain movements and resting would lessen the pain but as soon as I started it very slowly again the pain immediately returned with the same intensity. The pain also came with a little less intensity to my left hand (right is dominant), which didn't make sense since I did most of the bothersome movements with right (clicking, writing etc.). The explanation I usually got was that it comes from bad posture (shoulders too far in the front) which didn't make sense to me because I saw other people sitting like a croissant typing all day long more than I did. I couldnt accept that my body should be so much more fragile than theirs. When I learned about TMS it all made sense to me and the pain went 95% away in a matter of weeks and didnt return for more than 5%. When I noticed the 5% slowly coming back, I just didnt care for the pain (before I learnt about TMS I was very afraid of the pain) and applied TMS techniques which made the pain vanish in short time. That was 5 years ago. No relapse. You couldnt explain that "physically".

That doesnt mean that there is no tendonitis however. As I am writting this with my left hand I have a "real" "physical" Tendonitis in my right wrist. Not from typing or some other repetitive every-day activity with little force but from archery. I pulled 25lb with two fingers while my wrist was bent (instead of straight, for some reason I changed my movements) for 2 hours. That is a big strain, thats how "physical" "acute" Tendonitis happens. And it actually feels very different than what I always felt during the "chronic" Tendonitis. Now it really feels like an injury and it is swollen. The pain is constant on certain movements and doesnt wander around - two things TMS pain does. Good thing is that I know of TMS and thats why I am not afraid of it. I know it takes some 1 or 2 more weeks of rest untill its good again. If the pain then, after recovery, tries to come back again, then I know its TMS, cus thats what TMS does (look up the "Whiplash" Syndrome).

TMS theory doesnt deny injuries like Tendonitis. TMS is about the chronic pain that is wrongly labelled "chronic" x. Our bodies are strong, resilient and quick to heal - the biggest bone, the femur, if broken takes 6 weeks to heal completely. Now imagine: If all the chronic diseases and pains which Sarno lists as TMS were "real physical", would humankind have come that far?
TMS usually happens when an acute injury or symptom persist after resting it for the appropriate time. Thats when the injury doesnt make sense anymore in a physical way but probably does in an emotional way.
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I 99% agree with you.

You say a broken leg takes 6 weeks to heal. Bones have a lot of veins. Bones heal quickly.

Tendons have terrible blood supply. This is why (even if you do things correctly) they take quite a bit to heal.

There is some great emerging research about tendonitis. Most of the standard advice of "just rest it" doesn't work. NSAIDs can make tendonitis worse because this affects the structure's matrix and cause the fibers to rebuild themselves incorrectly (observable on imaging and autopsy).

Perhaps not coincidentally, one of the treatments for tendonitis involves moving it (in a specified way, not just using it similar to being uninjured) which occurs similarly to the treatment for TMS. To be perfectly clear, using a joint with tendonitis the same as you did before the injury will likely make it worse. That isn't a "just ignore it" scenario. But keeping it immobile won't heal it, either.
 
You're conflating physical/ structural injuries or conditions that are temporary, with chronic MBS "conditions" that are psychogenic in origin. An injury can morph into an MBS scenario but the former is in the body tissue and the latter is brain based. The brain takes over due to fear and focus on the body and symptoms. It's highly frustrating for anyone to explain basic concepts over and over, when it is clear that you have not read Dr. Sarno's work. One's knowledge of physiology, anatomy, disease, surgery, injuries, fitness, nutrition, tendons, bones, body parts, etc., etc. etc. is irrelevant . If it were, we would not have a chronic pain epidemic and a medical system that is an epic failure when it comes to chronic pain. We would not have an industry dedicated to assigning a plethora of meaningless labels to symptoms, for the purpose of profit (useless surgeries, prescriptions, billing insurance companies). Apply your energy to actually "learning more" about TMS, before debating.
 
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