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Could my massage be making me more pain-sensitive?

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stayfit65

stayfit65

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Hi All,

I have been here for a while, mostly because of back and butt pain. My back is doing much better these days, but I’m still experiencing pain in my butt and back of my legs. It’s like a burning feeling. I am a fitness instructor and work out a lot. I started going to a massage therapist for some of the pains. Last Monday she did some intense cupping work and I have been suffering more ever since, with aching and burning. I work at a desk job also and this pain makes my days so difficult! For those of you who have experienced burning pain, do you think I’d be better served to get relaxation massages? Im having so much trouble sitting right now. Thank you, Stayfit
 
Depends on your relationship with massage. Do you enjoy it? Do you believe in it? Probably more relevant if your issue is TMS. If you have accepted you have TMS, why the heck are you getting a massage anyway!?! You're not going to find any permanent healing on the table.
 
Sheltered has made a good point.
You should only be doing massage if you really enjoy it as a nice treat for you, and NOT to get rid of pain. Unfortunately, the techniques used in massage as well as the words that the masseur sometimes uses serve to reinforce the idea that there is something structurally wrong with the body.
In my case, when we used to have free massage at work I used to feel worse as well. The masseur used to comment that my muscles were tight and that made me lose confidence in my body. In reality, they got tighter during the massage so much so that one day he pressed too much and I got pain for two months (could have been a real injury from the massage itself!)
A hot shower or bath, a good meal and perhaps meditation or a relaxation exercise are all you need after sports. I am a rock climber and also work my muscles quite a lot.

Hope this helps

Miriam Gauci Bongiovanni
TMS Coach
 
TMS can make you hypersensitive to random things. When I'd get acupuncture, sometimes I'd get a sharp burning sensation or a little numbness. Message generally isn't too bad as long ass the masseuse doesn't press too hard and doesn't say much. Cupping looks really scary and unnecessary I don't even have the courage to try it haha
 
I went to a chiropractor once to make enquiries. Without even examining me or taking a history, he wanted to sign me up for months of treatments, and first to take x-rays. I told him I'd already had x-rays and didn't want any more radiation. He told me that I HAD to have x-rays 'in case you have a hidden cancer'! (Nice scare tactics there). I said I'd go away and think about it. He wanted to sign me up anyway 'and you can cancel if you change your mind'... I practically ran out of there, and his secretary tried phoning me several times after that to sign me up, which made me all the more determined to refuse...

A couple of years later, he was in the newspaper, having been found guilty of over-x-raying people and advising them against vaccinations and chemotherapy and other medical misdemeanours. I would not rush to recommend you see a chiropractor...

Especially as my back got better on its own - no, not on its own - through embracing Dr Sarno's theories! :)
 
Similarly, @stayfit65 , I've spent years and £££ on massage which never did anything except allow me an hour to relax and chat to someone sympathetic. In my experience, every masseur comments that 'your muscles are tight', as @Miriam G. Bongiovanni says... Some of them were lovely people, but none of them made any difference whatsoever to my back...

(BTW I speed-read your question as 'could my MARRIAGE be making me more pain-sensitive'! And that, I believe, could be the case for some people! :D)
 
If folks are anything like me, after you recognize TMS in yourself and start your journey to recovery, you end up not spending much time on TMS forums reporting progress so I'll jump in here and say from my experience and research, everyone has a slightly different story with how they recover. For me, it was Sarno appearing at the exact right moment. Preparing required meditation and then hitting bottom and having that moment of surrender. I don't take much credit for this, something divine at work but it did require lots of work on my part to get to 100%.

Massage Therapists, Chiropractors, Physiotherapists, etc likely have good intentions but my opinion is there is a giant industry built to keep people in pain. No lasting healing found with these modalities.
 
Sorry to hear about the pain you're experiencing. I'm actually here reviving an old thread because I'm looking for similar information. I'm no expert, but it's possible that the intense cupping work could have caused more pain for you.
 
It is a delicate balance. Most of my chronic conditions are TMS equivalents. In 2015 I discovered Sarno and boom, my back got better. I have been assuming that other tams equivalents are just that, and that I can tough my way through them. Hence I have been walking on a badly arthritic hip- limping, actually, increasing in the past 2 years. The exray corresponds exactly to where I feel the pain. After much thought, and some feeling that I am going out of Sarno's Magic Paradigm, I realized that my deteriorated hip needs replacement. Before you all gasp and say But it's TMS! I have to say that some pain needs to me addressed medically. I made my orthopedist get familiar with Sarno, of whom he'd never heard, and he was impressed.
As soon as I made the decision that I need a hip replacement before the muscles atrophy and so that I can dance without pain, my other Mind Body symptoms abated. That is not to say that I don't have gastritis. The tricky thing with all this is that there can be two processes going on, a physical deterioration and a catastrophizing, frightened mindset. In that I probably was a TMS -prone child, and my mother as well. But that doesn't mean she didn't have cancer and heart disease. Sarno isn't an ideologue. Fear makes everything worse. But sometimes there IS a thing that can be checked out medically.
p.S. I find a good massage satisfying.
 
Well, this thread was revived yesterday by what is probably a non-genuine participant (with a bland off-topic comment) who is planning to insert spam links later (being evaluated and queried, will probably be "disappeared" tomorrow).

Nonetheless, I want to point out that, completely unlike back surgery with its abysmal rate of satisfaction or success, hip replacement surgery is one of the most successful operations there is, and the diagnosis leading up to the recommendation is not in doubt. I've never seen an unsuccessful outcome - amongst my family and friends who all follow pre- and post-surgical instructions to the letter, who are rigorous about their PT, and who can't wait to use their new hips to resume their active lives.

My otherwise extremely healthy 85 year old half sister is FINALLY getting hers done - she kept thinking she could "Rolf" away the pain like she did with her back pain twenty years ago. She is inordinately proud of, and attached to, her track record of never having had any surgeries and never being in hospital except for three births - so she's been in severe pain for two years, which is a sad waste of time at her age. Oh, and apparently she was avoiding the horrifying thought of having to use a walker during recovery. Too bad she outlived her hips, I guess :hilarious:

So @riv44: you go, girl!
 
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I'm scheduled, babe, July 16! The whole thing has worsened since the pandemic- when I recovered from COVID 2020 I could hike around the nearby campus, which is hilly, and now I can barely walk ten minutes. I don't know what I was thinking...this is the perfect time. I'm 67, and was active before the pandemic. I've become a bit of a hypochondriac, but have been diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease stage 3a (which is not dire, and I already eat a kidney friendly plant based diet.) Pre-diabetes requires no changes that I haven't already made. Change of blood pressure meds. I have a good care team, and some real chronic conditions... One thing I've learned for all you worriers out there, DO NOT LOOK at your lab results before your doctor has seen them. DO NOT google your symptoms. Rabbit hole.
 
@riv44
Although my Mom definitely has TMS - she also had double hip replacements at the age of 50/52. She was one of the first recipients of a titanium implant - and it changed her life for the better!! She is 95 and STILL HAS THOSE IMPLANTS! Her recovery took time because of undiagnosed TMS, anxiety and a lot of fear but she never looked back! Good luck!
 
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