Earache, tinnitus, tension headache and more, am I having TMS

[hawaii_five0]

Hi I am new to this forum and the TMS concept and I feel grateful that I have found this place to see some light.

I entered a dark loop about 2 months ago. I am in my late 30s and have a family with 2 kids(10 and 6) and a good job. Due to the pandemic, I've been working from home with kids doing remote school from home since last spring. That had definitely given me some pressure but by this spring when my symptoms started I thought I've got used to the routine already. I've been doing fitness group training with a group of ladies that I quite enjoy and increased my activity level tremendously since last November. Meanwhile, I've been following a low carb diet and doing 16/8 intermittent fasting. I felt quite happy about my life.
Until one day in April I felt there is a lump on my neck. I got an appointment with my family doctor within the same week. I am in Canada and during Covid all doctor appointments are provided over phone call only so the doctor cannot do any actual examination. He said it might be a small tumor or something and ordered an ultrasound for me. I felt quite healthy physically but the lump scared me once I started googling about it. Had the ultrasound done the following week, but here in Canada the medical system was so slow that another week later I got a call from doctor's assistant to schedule an appointment to go over the results in another 2 weeks, so 2 weeks after the exam I still didn't know what it was. 2 days later when I was reading the bedtime story to my son, I noticed there was some white noise going in my ear or head. Next day at work I find that noise quite disturbing so went on youtube to search for some background music. I found some good therapy music but unfortunately, I also went on to read the comments and saw many people suffering tinnitus for years and realized there was no easy cure. I was totally freaked out and scheduled an appointment with my family doctor asap. During the phone appointment, the doctor didn't seem to feel my suffering, all he asked was "Do you have hearing loss?" and asked me to book a hearing test on my own as it's not covered by the public health care system. Not sure about other countries but in Canada, any medical appointment is in the term of weeks if you're lucky. So I called to get a hearing test booked in the following week, and meanwhile, I flipped my lifestyle greatly doubting that's to blame. I stopped exercise worrying that might have put too much stress on my neck which triggered the ear issue, stopped drinking coffee, which was a big fun of my life, and stopped intermittent fasting. I was searching crazily online about tinnitus, trying different techniques on Youtube, but only to see my problem getting worse. It went from only noticeable in a quiet environment to high-pitched 24/7, from only my right ear to both ears. And I constantly feel the clogging sensation in my ears. To my "disappointment", the hearing test find my ears quite normal, no hearing loss or ear infection. My doctor prescribed nasal spray and allergy drugs for me, not helping. A month later I got a head MRI, which was my big hope of finding out the cause, but the result came back normal.
So nothing wrong with all the tests I've done, but I started to have more and more symptoms. Every week I wish I could go back to the week before. Here is a list of my symptoms in the order of they appeared:
Ears ringing
Ear fullness
Occasional numbness in scalp, foot and tongue
Lots of tension headache, the whole head is so tight that even swallowing is not easy
TMJ (1 month after my ear issue started, I suddenly found I cannot open my month big and my bites are weird)
Pain in face and ears, sometimes like big pressure pressing sometimes like someone pulling from different directions
Burning/cold sensation on lips
...
I'm about 2 months in this endless loop now and don't see the way out. I've been acupuncture, chiropractic and massage, nothing helped. By now tinnitus is no longer bothering me that much as I've got used to it, but the pain in the ear and face, and the headaches are greatly impacting my work, daily life and sleep.
I have an appointment with TMJ specialist for assessment in August, and on a 12 month waiting list (ridiculous right) to see the ENT specialist .

I came across the concept of TMS 2 days ago, but feel like a textbook example. Am I having TMS? Anyone has similar symptoms and recovered?

hi JoySeeker:

welcome to the forum. What you have been going thru sounds very similar to my story, although I am in the States and can get health care maybe quicker (albeit at a considerable cost - I am coming up on having spent $10k on various specialists and treatments). So if nothing else maybe it helps to know other people in the world are in the same boat.

My story was (in brief): like your worry about your lump, I had a worry about an annoying but painless low back disfunction (a loud clicking and feeling of something "loose"). I unfortunately also started obsessing about it, seeing doctors who had vague ideas but no resolution, nor the Xrays or MRI showing anything, months of PT, chiropractor, etc. I visited Dr. Google 20 times a day I suppose. About a month after starting to obsess about it, it started to hurt, then pain radiating into the left butt/leg, then tinnitus, which I never had before. I know in me the tinnitus is definitely nervous-system related, and my guess it might be for you too.

I am not a success story (YET!), but am trying to work thru it by a) fully accepting that my discomfort is pyschosomatic and nervous system hyper-vigilance/TMS, and repeating that, b) leading my previous normal life as fully as possible, including exercise, or at least moving in that direction, and c) trying to focus on others, not myself, d) "active meditation": taking many short breaks in the day, like a minute, where you take some long slow breaths and really focus on some sensory input - look at what is around you, observing details, listen to all the sounds you can hear, taste, etc. David Hanscom describes how he made himself better in his book "Back in Control", with this and journaling among other things. He has a web site too if you don't want to buy the book. I found his description of his own situation to be really similar to mine.

So for me obsessing and overthinking it was a major factor, so anything that moves you away from that and back to your previous normal life would seem to be good steps.

hope it helps

 

[JoySeeker]

Many thanks for sharing your experience. I'm literally writing down your suggestions on my notebook.
I think my biggest mistake is being so freaked out by the onset of all the physical symptoms and so eager to get the structural reasons to them. That not only increased my anxiety significantly also made me obsessed with any physical sensation, and as a result introduced more symptoms. Now I come to understand that they are just sensations and are not dangerous. It is not easy to get out of the "fight or flight" situation but you've provided a very practical list of exercises that I can work on. Big thanks and wish you a fast recovery.

hi JoySeeker:

welcome to the forum. What you have been going thru sounds very similar to my story, although I am in the States and can get health care maybe quicker (albeit at a considerable cost - I am coming up on having spent $10k on various specialists and treatments). So if nothing else maybe it helps to know other people in the world are in the same boat.

My story was (in brief): like your worry about your lump, I had a worry about an annoying but painless low back disfunction (a loud clicking and feeling of something "loose"). I unfortunately also started obsessing about it, seeing doctors who had vague ideas but no resolution, nor the Xrays or MRI showing anything, months of PT, chiropractor, etc. I visited Dr. Google 20 times a day I suppose. About a month after starting to obsess about it, it started to hurt, then pain radiating into the left butt/leg, then tinnitus, which I never had before. I know in me the tinnitus is definitely nervous-system related, and my guess it might be for you too.

I am not a success story (YET!), but am trying to work thru it by a) fully accepting that my discomfort is pyschosomatic and nervous system hyper-vigilance/TMS, and repeating that, b) leading my previous normal life as fully as possible, including exercise, or at least moving in that direction, and c) trying to focus on others, not myself, d) "active meditation": taking many short breaks in the day, like a minute, where you take some long slow breaths and really focus on some sensory input - look at what is around you, observing details, listen to all the sounds you can hear, taste, etc. David Hanscom describes how he made himself better in his book "Back in Control", with this and journaling among other things. He has a web site too if you don't want to buy the book. I found his description of his own situation to be really similar to mine.

So for me obsessing and overthinking it was a major factor, so anything that moves you away from that and back to your previous normal life would seem to be good steps.

hope it helps

 

[hawaii_five0]

Many thanks for sharing your experience. I'm literally writing down your suggestions on my notebook.
I think my biggest mistake is being so freaked out by the onset of all the physical symptoms and so eager to get the structural reasons to them. That not only increased my anxiety significantly also made me obsessed with any physical sensation, and as a result introduced more symptoms. Now I come to understand that they are just sensations and are not dangerous. It is not easy to get out of the "fight or flight" situation but you've provided a very practical list of exercises that I can work on. Big thanks and wish you a fast recovery.

You are welcome. You will get better. What you are going through is temporary. And remember you are not alone! Wishing you the best.

 

[LostinLA]

You are welcome. You will get better. What you are going through is temporary. And remember you are not alone! Wishing you the best.

Hi.

hi JoySeeker:

welcome to the forum. What you have been going thru sounds very similar to my story, although I am in the States and can get health care maybe quicker (albeit at a considerable cost - I am coming up on having spent $10k on various specialists and treatments). So if nothing else maybe it helps to know other people in the world are in the same boat.

My story was (in brief): like your worry about your lump, I had a worry about an annoying but painless low back disfunction (a loud clicking and feeling of something "loose"). I unfortunately also started obsessing about it, seeing doctors who had vague ideas but no resolution, nor the Xrays or MRI showing anything, months of PT, chiropractor, etc. I visited Dr. Google 20 times a day I suppose. About a month after starting to obsess about it, it started to hurt, then pain radiating into the left butt/leg, then tinnitus, which I never had before. I know in me the tinnitus is definitely nervous-system related, and my guess it might be for you too.

I am not a success story (YET!), but am trying to work thru it by a) fully accepting that my discomfort is pyschosomatic and nervous system hyper-vigilance/TMS, and repeating that, b) leading my previous normal life as fully as possible, including exercise, or at least moving in that direction, and c) trying to focus on others, not myself, d) "active meditation": taking many short breaks in the day, like a minute, where you take some long slow breaths and really focus on some sensory input - look at what is around you, observing details, listen to all the sounds you can hear, taste, etc. David Hanscom describes how he made himself better in his book "Back in Control", with this and journaling among other things. He has a web site too if you don't want to buy the book. I found his description of his own situation to be really similar to mine.

So for me obsessing and overthinking it was a major factor, so anything that moves you away from that and back to your previous normal life would seem to be good steps.

hope it helps

Hi Joyseeker,

Did you get better from your symptoms. I have exactly the same problem. Would love to hear a positive outcome.

LostinLA