Could use some support: pain from our of nowhere-

[avik]

Hello all-

Hope this message finds everyone healthy and pain-free.

So I feel almost a little embarrassed posting about this right now as I pride myself on being such a firm TMS/Sarno believer and propagator but I guess my feelings of embarrassment tied to perfectionism is why I have this thing in the first place!

So I've dealt with many a TMS iteration, but not one of them "had my number" quite like neck pain. Sharp, out of nowhere neck spasms that put me down for the count.

I haven't had one in a very long time and then last week while washing my face in the morning...boom!-I get struck with a spasm in my spine. I follow this with some journaling, meditation and just taking care of myself and it actually was not as bad os a spasm as I normally get, as a result.

Also, I pushed myself to go about my daily activities and not become outcome dependent. Part of these activities was me forcing myself to go back to the gym, even though my neck was in a little bit of pain.

I wake up this morning and my left arm is numb and tingling.

I've had this before...I've gotten through it...but id be lying if I said I wasn't a little concerned, as this occurs right after going back to the gym. It's like "how does TMS know how to scare me so effectively?!" Its also hurting on both sides of my neck, which usually does not happen. It seems to have "evolved" in its ability to scare me...

So now I want to just ignore the tingling and go back to the gym but again, the pain is "disturbing" and I haven't experienced this in so long that I've almost forgotten how to deal with it!

Any words of encouragement or reminders here that this nerve thing is TMS and that there is no tie between this and me going back to the gym would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance...

 

[stanz]

Having grappled with TMS since the late seventies, and having overcome 14 years of increasingly intractable back pain, cured by Sarno in 1993, I have had to deal with pain migrating all over my body and taking different forms each time since the first victory. Sometimes, the new pains are musculo-skeletlal, at other times gastric, and then on to heart palpitations and even panic attacks.

I have always been very active physically, running, cycling and working out since 1970. It gets very hard to always remember that 99% of my pain derives from TMS, not from anything I'm doing.

The key for me is noticing patterns. For example, I teach, and this time of year is very stressful what with the return to HS instruction in early September. Two years ago, at this very time, I had a patelo-femural pain issue with my right knee. Now, I have a tendon issue with the posterior left knee. Is it running/cycling related? Most likely not. It's almost certainly stress over the return to work and my unwillingness to confront those unpleasant feelings.

You are concerned about this occurring "right after going back to the gym." So, the activity is the trigger. The question, as always with TMS, is what else is going on in your life? One way of framing this is:

What would you be thinking about or feeling if you weren't focusing on your neck pain?

Yes, it sucks to be us, but it's better than being afflicted with something truly catastrophic, right?

Anyway, best of luck with the latest TMS iteration.

 

[JV63]

Feel your pain. Just posted on how I had a handle on this for years and am now having back pain after buying a new car this weekend. Funny thing is I posted about back pain 5 years ago over buying a new car then.

The seats are causing me pain but I know it’s not the seats. It’s the “what ifs”. What if I made a mistake, what if it’s not a practical purchase, although it’s my dream car and so on.

You know the drill so I’m sure you’ll get through this bump just as I will.

Feel better.

 

[Baseball65]

"how does TMS know how to scare me so effectively?!"

what Up Bro!

I had some 'stuff' lately so I re-read mindbody prescription. One of the things Sarno stressed as a point but maybe not hard enough was the fear portion which to me is PROOF that this is a mental-need-distraction thing.

The average person- "Hmmm . I have a lump over my ear... I better get that checked out"

TMSer- "OMG wtf is that thing over my ear? I am gonna DIE!"

This observation is mentioned by Sarno,and in my own experience and all of my friends and family who are having mindbody-psychogenic symptoms. In fact I would go as far as saying the More scared I am of something, the more likely it is TMS.
Working in the trades I am always nursing small injuries.... cuts, bruises, bug bites. People drop shit on us, getting pinned by a falling board...that kind of crap. After Sarno, I got almost cocky and ignore virtually everything...
...and yet a strange numbness in my arm can occupy my attention all day long, to the exclusion of everything.

The bitch about that is, like eckhart tolle once said, it's like the chief of police looking for an arsonist when the arsonist is the chief of police. So..when I catch myself looking for the arsonist I say to myself "Hah... got me again...this is TMS.". ...

That's what fear does to us and it is proof that your having an episode. I have used that as my measuring stick for several years and have come to no grief over it. I always recommend plowing through, especially for someone like you who knows this stuff well...

peace

 

[plum]

The average person- "Hmmm . I have a lump over my ear... I better get that checked out"

TMSer- "OMG wtf is that thing over my ear? I am gonna DIE!”

This is so true. I see this tendency in myself and in others.

In fact I would go as far as saying the More scared I am of something, the more likely it is TMS.

Yup. This I also find to be true.

 

[Sammie]

JanAtheCPA has recommended episode 85 with Howard Schubiner, i am so glad I took her advice. This was awesome! If you need hope and encouragement listen to this. I listened on PlayerFM. I have really been going through a lot of depression, insomnia, and lots of body wide pain daily with no let up. Still going through this, but having hope!

Thank you JanAtheCPA for this wonderful advice, so appreciated.

 

[Jacqui71]

Hi am new hear and just at moment reading through posts I have been having lower back pain and sciatica very painful it’s been going on for 18 months prior to this I had a very stressful time lost my brother to cancer had a break up lost my home moved in to my new place first time on own all within 6 months am hoping I can find answers here to deal with all this and put me on road to recovery not had a mri yet but my mind jumps to all sorts of things going on in my body as the pain can feel so bad at times I just want to curl up and cry which I can’t do not cryed in years any support would be most welcome

 

[Jules]

Hi am new hear and just at moment reading through posts I have been having lower back pain and sciatica very painful it’s been going on for 18 months prior to this I had a very stressful time lost my brother to cancer had a break up lost my home moved in to my new place first time on own all within 6 months am hoping I can find answers here to deal with all this and put me on road to recovery not had a mri yet but my mind jumps to all sorts of things going on in my body as the pain can feel so bad at times I just want to curl up and cry which I can’t do not cryed in years any support would be most welcome

This is the problem - you can’t cry, so all of those bottled up emotions are stuck inside. As long as you keep them there and allowing the brain to control that, you will have a hard time healing. TMS has distracted you quite well, me thinks. Find out why you can’t cry. Maybe a therapist would help you determine that and get those emotions processed. Losing someone close, as well as losing your home is traumatic. You need to process those traumas and allow yourself to feel those feelings, no matter how painful they may be.