Day 6 Doubts

[Mountaingoat123]

My symptoms are fluctuating in terms of when I have pain and what kind of sensation (tingling, stinging, numbness, heat) I feel and in which area of my S1 sciatic Nerve I feel it. But on the other hand some things are very consistent. E.g. I always have pain when standing up in the morning or after resting for a little while, or when walking (but only in the beginning), sometimes but not always when sitting. So this consistency makes me doubt my TMS diagnosis. It is a back and forth of arguments for and against TMS in my head. This is annoying because I'd rather believe in it 100% and move on.
I avoid talking to friends or anyone else about it, since I always get recommendations (with the best intentions of course) for physical therapists, alternative healing methods etc... When I talk to someone about TMS (like today with my massage therapist), most of them will say..."yes sure there always is a psychological component, but surely with your history there is a structural reason...and maybe it is certain postures that are triggering yput nerve"... And then I start doubting... Does anyone have advice how to overcome this?

 

[Adam Coloretti (coach)]

E.g. I always have pain when standing up in the morning or after resting for a little while, or when walking (but only in the beginning), sometimes but not always when sitting. So this consistency makes me doubt my TMS diagnosis. It is a back and forth of arguments for and against TMS in my head. This is annoying because I'd rather believe in it 100% and move on.

Just as it relates to this - it hurt when I bent over for 5 years essentially every time, and it was TMS (nothing happens when I bend over now - but it didn't change until I started to treat it as TMS), so don't let the consistency dominate your thoughts too much - I understand where you're coming from but you need to look at the totality of the evidence (and the consistency, as my experience shows but also many like me, doesn't mean it isn't TMS, at best it's a neutral factor). As your belief grows and you start to gather more evidence (by looking at things from a psychological perspective), the conditioned responses will start to break up and that will give you even more confidence

 

[Volcano1963]

Maybe she is right, that certain postures are triggering your nerve, but what emotional experience is molding your body into those nerve triggering postures? And maybe she is wrong because she has not experienced the knowledge of how TMS works and hasn’t needed to (yet?). You have seen how TMS works and (but?) you are still learning and exploring. Don’t let other’s ignorance hold you back from a pain free future you.

 

[Stracksstory]

My symptoms are fluctuating in terms of when I have pain and what kind of sensation (tingling, stinging, numbness, heat) I feel and in which area of my S1 sciatic Nerve I feel it. But on the other hand some things are very consistent. E.g. I always have pain when standing up in the morning or after resting for a little while, or when walking (but only in the beginning), sometimes but not always when sitting. So this consistency makes me doubt my TMS diagnosis. It is a back and forth of arguments for and against TMS in my head. This is annoying because I'd rather believe in it 100% and move on.
I avoid talking to friends or anyone else about it, since I always get recommendations (with the best intentions of course) for physical therapists, alternative healing methods etc... When I talk to someone about TMS (like today with my massage therapist), most of them will say..."yes sure there always is a psychological component, but surely with your history there is a structural reason...and maybe it is certain postures that are triggering yput nerve"... And then I start doubting... Does anyone have advice how to overcome this?

I don’t have the wisdom of the others here-I’m still relatively new on this journey-, but I can relate to your experience. I also keep struggling with doubt about my diagnosis. I just keep thinking if I know what it is, why doesn’t it all go away? But I can’t deny that a lot of my doubt is motivated by wanting to get better faster than I am. So many on this forum and so many of the success stories I read about in books and hear about on podcasts took a long time to fully heal.

 

[Mountaingoat123]

Just as it relates to this - it hurt when I bent over for 5 years essentially every time, and it was TMS (nothing happens when I bend over now - but it didn't change until I started to treat it as TMS), so don't let the consistency dominate your thoughts too much - I understand where you're coming from but you need to look at the totality of the evidence (and the consistency, as my experience shows but also many like me, doesn't mean it isn't TMS, at best it's a neutral factor). As your belief grows and you start to gather more evidence (by looking at things from a psychological perspective), the conditioned responses will start to break up and that will give you even more confidence

Yes this gives me a lot of confidence... it probably is just a conditioned response. Thanks for sharing this!

 

[Mountaingoat123]

Maybe she is right, that certain postures are triggering your nerve, but what emotional experience is molding your body into those nerve triggering postures? And maybe she is wrong because she has not experienced the knowledge of how TMS works and hasn’t needed to (yet?). You have seen how TMS works and (but?) you are still learning and exploring. Don’t let other’s ignorance hold you back from a pain free future you.

Love this last sentence! I need to trust myself more than someone who has talked to me twice for 40min.

 

[Mountaingoat123]

I don’t have the wisdom of the others here-I’m still relatively new on this journey-, but I can relate to your experience. I also keep struggling with doubt about my diagnosis. I just keep thinking if I know what it is, why doesn’t it all go away? But I can’t deny that a lot of my doubt is motivated by wanting to get better faster than I am. So many on this forum and so many of the success stories I read about in books and hear about on podcasts took a long time to fully heal.

I understand that. I am also impatient, but after 1.5 years in pain I have finally also come to the conclusion that I have done everything I can and I will now take my time to explore the psychological side. And if it is not helping me, so be it. at least I will have dealt with my emotions and traumas by the time I finish this program.

 

[Adam Coloretti (coach)]

I understand that. I am also impatient, but after 1.5 years in pain I have finally also come to the conclusion that I have done everything I can and I will now take my time to explore the psychological side. And if it is not helping me, so be it. at least I will have dealt with my emotions and traumas by the time I finish this program.

Love this mindset! It was a big part of me getting better