Exercise fear and intolerance

[RyzzleT]

Hello all,

I'm new to this forum and I'm still trying to completely accept TMS as a proper diagnosis, so bear with me.

Over the past few years, I have tried to use exercise as a way to deter emotional trauma. For example, if I was having relationship trouble, I would use exercise as a means to both blow off steam and as a way to make myself more desirable. The first time I used this strategy, I developed "plantar fasciitis"...except it never went away. Fast forward a year or so and I got back into swimming and developed "swimmers shoulder"....and it never went away. Ever since I started exercising, no matter how slow I would take it, my joints would eventually start bothering me. A few months ago, I started running ONCE A WEEK and developed hip pain that would start at the beginning of the run, and last for a few days after. Each week it got worse and worse, but x rays show no sign of injury or impingement. Last week I started Insanity to whip myself back into shape and the first day was great. The second day my knees started hurting and throughout the week they have gotten worse and worse, but again, x-ray shows no issues. The pain usually only lasts for the first few minutes of the workout and then fades away, only to return slightly the next day.
However, because of fear of my body degrading, even without evidence of it doing so (I've been tested for pretty much everything you can name), I am constantly thinking about my pain and worrying about how much worse it will get. I guess my question is, does this sound like TMS to you guys and how can I calm myself down and work through it? I want to be able to actually stick to an exercise regimen for once, but every time I try something new, I give up a few weeks in because the pain gets worse and worse.

 

[Walt Oleksy (RIP 2021)]

Hi, Ryzzle. TMS pain comes on because your subconscious wants you to discover its emotional causes. The subcon will send pains to different parts of the body until you discover the harmful emotional causes and won't stop this hurting game until you believe 1o0 percent that your pains are TMS from your emotions and not from anything structural. You have had medical exams to prove your body is fine. You may have conditioned your mind to expect pain when you do any physical exercise. If so, you can easily change that by telling yourself your pains are not structural but are emotional. That is the whole idea behind Dr. Sarno's TMS MindBody philosophy. His 12 Daily Reminders in his book Healing Back Pain are the bedrock of TMS acceptance and healing. Another TMS friend of this web site, Herbie, wrote an extended version which I suggest you study and keep foremost in your mind about your pains.


Herbie’s Extended Version of Dr. Sarno’s 12 DAILY REMINDERS

1. The pain is due to TMS. This is real pain or anxiety but it is caused by subconscious tensions and triggers, stressors and traits to your reactions and fears and also when at boiling point your conscious tension can and does also cause real pain.
2. The main reason for the pain is mild oxygen deprivation. This means that when you get in pain or anxiety then the blood is restricted from going to your lower back, for instance. The blood being restricted causes oxygen deprivation which causes the pain. Remember, where there is no oxygen then there is pain in the body. Also, the pain stays because of fear.
3. TMS is a harmless condition caused by my REPRESSED EMOTIONS so even though you think you can harm yourself from the years of pain you have felt and how you feel in general -- so far no reports have been heard from TMS healing knowledge causing damage to anyone, it only helps.
4. The principle emotion is your repressed ANGER -- this means under your consciousness lies something that happens automatically to everyone. TMSers have repressions that are stored because of our personality traits, traumas, stressors, fears, strain, etc... When these stored repressions build and build, then eventually they cause the brain to send pain into your body to keep you from having an emotional crises. The mind-body thinks it is helping you.
5. TMS exists to DISTRACT your attentions from the emotions, stressors, tensions and strains of your personality traits because if you can get distraction then you won’t have to be in emotional turmoil. When you don't face and feel your emotions and they get repressed because you didn't want to deal with something -- they are just adding up in this beaker, ready to pour over and create real pain and anxiety in your body.
6. Since my body is perfectly normal, there is nothing to fear. So in reality when I fear the pain or anxiety I just cause myself undo strain and tension adding to the beaker of pain. If I fear, then I feed the pain, If I fear, it’s impossible to recondition. Fear keeps the pain and anxiety alive in the body through focus.
7. Therefore, physical activity is harmless. If I want to work against the pain I could but it’s better to lose some of the pain so when I start my life over I have to be in pain trying to heal because facing the repressions and all the other activities that cause the pain and reversing my fear and focus to them, then I can heal.
8. I am resuming all normal physical activity. I don't fear moving anymore. I believe in my body’s ability to heal now. I can move as I want. I will not fear moving with a bent back anymore. I will also practice going out and acting normal again, not in fear of what pain might do to me.
9. The pain is unimportant and powerless. Its only power is how it is hidden -- its illusion, its fear.
10. I will keep my attention on the emotional issues. I will think about my emotions and feel my emotions throughout the day. I will not judge, criticize or fear my emotions. I will not run from my emotional issues but face every one of them. I will feel my emotions fully and cry if I need to. Then I will release the emotion and get my mind and thoughts back to my life and living in the present.
11. I am in control of all of this. This is how I recover.
12. I will be thinking PSYCHOLOGICALLY AT ALL TIMES. This means I will keep my thoughts on psychological issues like happiness, fear and anger -- traits and triggers, conditioning and journaling -- The science behind mind-body/TMS healing, etc.... This way I will not feed my thoughts to the body -- that is a trick of TMS. TMS will always try to get me to focus on the body caused by the pain until I break its show and flair. When I get my attention off physical symptoms and on to emotional issues and psychological issues then I will not feed the fear of the physical issues anymore, thus making the TMS of no pain effect on the body. This will in return, give us the cure and become pain-free.