Chronic neck pain

Hi everyone, just looking for some support and guidance! I was in a car accident in jan 2015. My neck pain didnt start until 4 months later on the left side. Then 6 months after that the right has started hurting. Doctors have told me the cause of my pain is myofascial pain. Has anyone been told their neck pain is due to this?

 

What the doctor basically tells you is that you have triggerpoints. Triggerpoints imho are simply TMS symptoms. I never heard a medical doctor use this diagnosis, only PT's and other therapists, so I wonder what kind of doctor told you this.
The triggerpoint people have no good explanation why triggerpoints exist. There is no logic to get pain 4 months later and even less logic that it happens on both sides. The only explanation is that the brain creates the triggerpoints and keeps them alive.

I suffered from neck pain, had triggerpoints everywhere and treating them didn't resolve anything, sometimes they even got worse; it is a dead end in my opinion.

 

So if treating them did nothing what did you do??

 

Treating them did nothing... in the long run. That's what makes TP-treatment so deceptive. It may temporarily give relieve, but it seldom sticks. When I discovered TMS I kept applying the TP-treatment at first, but soon I had to conclude that it wasn't helping me at all, it only distracted me immensely from the real cause; my brain!. After that I only applied what is recommended for TMS: Think psychological instead of physical.
I strongly recommend reading Alan Gordon's New Program on this forum. He gives you good insight in why chronic pain happens and gives you various tools to work on your own chronic pain.

Btw, I am not a doctor, simply an experience expert

 

What did you do to get control of your chronic pain? Any specific program, mantra, line of thinking?

 

Alan, in the last day of his program, suggests to take a pick out of the mentioned techniques and see what works well with you. Every person is different, there is no one-size-fits-all recipe.

That said, I have tried to create an image of what I did in my profile page.

Do you have any idea about if your symptoms fit the TMS glove and if it is something you want to try?

 

I have no idea if it fits the glove. My ct scans and neck MRI appear to be normal. Docs tell me I have myofascial pain. I really would love to get better just feel confused on where to start, what program to start and what process to do daily.

 

I understand your confusion. We all came here confused I personally googled for 'MS' and made a type-o , the best mistake I ever made because I ended up on a TMS-forum. I then bought and read Dr. Sarno's 'Healing Back Pain' and slowly started with things he suggest, like being physically active, journaling, etc..... I slowly gained knowledge and it took me time, because I am pretty pigheaded, wanting to invent the wheel myself and so on.
Maybe the easiest way is to contact Alan Gordon, he is a good therapist, active on this forum, who is open to questions and in the meantime you can start reading his pain recovery program (the one I already linked). I believe you like a bit of structure, so that's why I think it is good for you.

 

Hi Marine89,

Welcome to the forums! As a PT I see this type of chronic pain years after accidents very commonly. If all of your images are negative for injury and your doctor says "myofascial pain" this is really code for TMS in its chronic version. It basically means muscle tension. I've gotten many patients who come in with that same diagnosis for neck or back pain. You should be able to safely conclude your situation is TMS and if you are interested you can start using the Structured Education Program on this website, Alan Gordon's programs, and/or reading Dr. Sarno's books and other TMS books to address the pain. Educating yourself about TMS and why/how it occurs and the emotional work behind decreasing your pain should be very helpful! Let me know if you have questions.

 

Actually, I think neck pain has nothing to do with your car accident. The two things are too long apart. Most neck pain is caused by incorrect posture, so I think the first thing you should consider is how to maintain a correct sitting posture. Secondly, you can use physical therapy, such as massage or heating pad to relieve chronic neck pain. Hope you get rid of the pain soon!