Facial nerve pain

Hi there,
This is my first post, but I've known about TMS for a couple of years and successfully healed from back pain that had been troubling me by applying Dr Sarno's methods.
I'll give you a brief history to put you in the picture. I fit most of the personality traits for someone who would be more prone to TMS symptoms - perfectionist, goodist, conscientious, worrier, anxious. Could go on.
I've also suffered in the past decade or so with a long list of symptoms which, only now looking back, I can probably attribute mostly to TMS, though didn't know it at the time. For example:
A spell of severe tingling and numbness in hands and feet that I was convinced was MS until a clear MRI scan ruled it out, a sudden bout of interstitial cystitis that disappeared after a couple of months as bizarrely as it had arrived, random pains that came and stayed usually for a few weeks and then disappeared, burning in eyes that came and then disappeared, pityriasis rosea rash....the list goes on. Every medical test always came up with a blank. Usually these symptoms would arrive and trouble me greatly to the extent that my quality of life was severely impaired, then just disappear as quickly as they had arrived. I didn't know about TMS, as I said, until a couple of years ago, so I couldn't attribute the resolution of these symptoms (until the back pain) to any knowledge of the process, they just seemed to fizzle out and then something else would happen.

Anyway, hopefully this gives you the background. My current issue is that I had root canal surgery performed on a lower left premolar 2 weeks ago. I was quite annoyed to have to get this treatment due to my dentist making an error when she replaced a filling and went too far and disturbed the pulp and nerve. This is beside the point though. I had the root canal and I am allowing it to settle and will get a permanent filling in 2 weeks time. In the period since the start of these dental problems, I have been in quite a bit of dental tooth pain - dentist x-rayed it again today and can find no reason for this continued pain, but more worryingly have also developed facial pain that feels neuralgic.
I have pains that come and go on my forehead, beside my eye, temple, cheek, jaw, even neck, under tongue and throat. It's not constant, it's intermittent and rather frightening. I also have a tingly feeling in my scalp on and off. It's worse on the side of the dental surgery but am also feeling twinges in the right side, which doesn't really make anatomical sense as the left and right nerve branches are separate.
I'm incredibly worried and fearful of this as my great aunt had trigeminal neuralgia and I witnessed her in great pain and have always been scared of it. I've googled this and have frankly scared myself senseless.

Then I came here and I'm wondering if all these pains are a TMS exacerbation of my fears about the root canal and trigeminal neuralgia. I obviously expect some pain may be mechanical as I've had dental work done, but I'm now feeling trapped in a cycle of despair about this.

My personal life is also rather stressful at the moment, however felt I was coping well before this happened, but now feel rather overwhelmed with everything.

Wondering if anyone has any success stories with facial pain or neuralgia as TMS that may help me focus my mind on this being a TMS issue and will hopefully kill the fear, allow me to focus on getting to the root (pardon the pun) of any emotional issues and help the pain to dissipate.
Many thanks for reading.

 

Hi, Zaria. I had some facial pain along with severe back pain two years ago and both symptoms went away when I believed 100 percent in TMS emotions causing the pain. You healed before from back pain by following Dr. Sarno's philosophy of TMS healing, and you can do it again.

If you haven't done the Structured Educational Program, free in the subforum of this web site, I highly recommend it. It helps us to discover the emotions causing our pain. You know you are a perfectionist and goodist person and prone to be anxious, which are common causes of TMS pain. The SEProgram will help you to modify those traits.

You probably are doing too much thinking about the root canal work and it causes emotional stress. Maybe try to put it behind you, that it is an
unfortunate thing that happened, and go on from there.

 

Hi Walt,
Thank you so much for your reply. You are such a wonderful person on this forum, I've seen some of your input on many different threads and reading that has already been immensely helpful to me.
I agree, I tend to dwell on things and made them the focus of my anxiety.
I'm going to commit to the SEP program and get to grips with these traits and hopefully will be able to deal with this the way I did with my back pain 2 years ago.
All my best wishes to you.

 

Thanks for your nice reply, Zaria. Our character traits are very similar and think they were the main causes of my back and facial pain.
Even an old geezer like me can learn to let go of things. I tend to laugh the problems and worries off. Laughing releases calming endorphins
that are very helpful in healing.

Have a relaxing weekend.

 

Welcome, Zaria. I agree with Walt that the SEP is a great place to start. I'm a TMS program repeater, too. I healed from back pain in the early '90s, then had a severe bout with horrible foot pain starting in 2011. The SEP was available for that second round, and I found it to be a life saver.
Blessings to you!

 

Thanks Gigi,
It's so encouraging to read success stories, especially ones where the pain was so real and debilitating, and yet a full recovery was made once TMS diagnosis was fully accepted and internal work done. I've started the program today and will be journaling. I do acknowledge there has been a lot of emotional upheaval in my life over the past couple of years. Thought I was dealing with it pretty well, but maybe that's all superficial and there's a lot I have been pushing to the side.

I also love Walt's suggestion to see humour in things, lighten up and laugh. Laughter is a wonderful medicine and helps to take the fear away.

It's so good to be amongst people who are so supportive. Very much appreciated.

 

Hi. I read your post yesterday and almost replied but then I was afraid if I described my past facial pain, it might come back! ha ha I have had occipital neuralgia off and on for over 20 years. My right shoulder is almost always tight and it is sometimes painful and in spasm on the right back side of my head and neck. Sometimes I get numbness in my hands. And often I have felt a strange tingley numness in the right side of my face, by my eye, my front teeth, my nose... I remember talking to my doctor about it years ago(I think he has known me for so long he doesn't take any of my symptoms too seriously). But I remember telling him that I thought the facial numbness might have something to do with the tightness/spasm in my neck and shoulder. He told me that was not possible. I have freaked out about it numerous times but it always goes away so I think it is just TMS. I have come to learn that whereever there are nerves(meaning everywhere) TMS can create strange sensations/pain. The more I focus on them, the longer they seem to last.

 

Anne....I have the same symptoms as you right now. I've dealt with TMS for other symptoms but not these neck, face, and back of the head pain. All on the right side. I haven't been back to this forum in a while, but I came here hoping to see a post like yours to reassure myself that it's only TMS again. It's scary though, my whole right shoulder up the back of my neck to my skull and around the side of my neck up into my jaw is hurting right now. I keep feeling like Im about to have an aneurysm or something. I am under an immense amount of stress in my life right now....probably one of the most intense times for me ever.....so there's no doubt that this shit would come creeping back in. As if life wasn't hard enough already. Good luck all.

 

You are not the only ones girls i ve been having these sensations from january off and on,some days they are strong some other days i can t barely feel them,but during my sleep i can wake up and and everything is fine,to go back to work the other day they come back,i am getting use to these sensation right now and they don t bothef me thay much but it is a wreck,i am sure they are tms cause they amplifi with stress.neck,shoulders,top of the head,temples,jaws,etc tingling and sometines hurting,like muscle spasm

 

Hi everyone, thanks for your replies to my initial post.
I just want to report that I feel as though my pain (although there intermittently) has been getting much better by reading Dr Sarno's books and applying his principles.
I am absolutely certain this is TMS and, as soon as I fully (took a couple of weeks) accepted that, I started getting better. Instead of stressing and worrying and focusing even more on the pain, I'm ignoring it. Laughing at it, as Walt advised. It helps.
I've also acknowledged that exterior life stresses and situations going on emotionally are of huge significance in the manifestation of this sort of pain.
In a month I've gone from debilitating teeth and face pain to intermittent twinges - haven't changed anything except accept its TMS. And believing fully that it's TMS and not permanent, disabling or terrifying means a
I've managed to successfully stop my brain from distracting me unhelpfully with this pain.

It may take a while for anyone to rid themselves of disabling pain, especially if chronic, but it honestly can be done. I'm definitely a lot better than I was only a month to or two ago.

This forum is a brilliant resource. I hope my post helps people. Thanks.

 

Please people you must listen to Roy Masters, he as help me more than anything go to FHU.COM

 

Oh my gosh. I haven't been here in awhile but have had a hellish few months with facial pain, tingling, burning. Have had a lot of tests already and they show some things, but not necessarily explaining everything. The fear and anxiety has been debilitating. I'm going to have to hang out here more!

 

I was the same. The fear and the anxiety take over and make things a whole lot worse, I didn't think it would get better. Had resigned myself to a life of debilitating pain was read horror stories online which made it worse again.

I feel better. Not perfect, but I'm hopeful I will. I stopped taking painkillers and I started journaling and telling myself over and over that it's TMS and its trying to distract me from other issues in my life and from anger and pent up emotions I feel.
I'm getting there slowly. Don't get me wrong, there are days of setbacks where the fear creeps in again, but I try to stay on top of that. I'll keep posting my progress. I think a lot of people on this site may get better and just never come back, because they get on with their lives and don't look back. And yet most of us really need those positive stories which help enormously.
One thing worried me was that I couldn't find many people with stories of facial pain, and even less of those who'd got better. I thought perhaps it could only be back pain. No. Pain is pain. TMS can be anywhere. And I'm definitely a whole lot better, thanks to this site and the wonderful work of Dr Sarno's and his peers.

 

Zaria I feel like you,everywhere around my head it s not pain all the time but tightness on top,around and back of my head even my face hurt sometimes,near the nose,jaws,and cheeks,and it get worse if I focus on them.

 

Zaria, I truly empathise. While not out of the woods yet I've seen enough to honour the roots of tms/facial pain. I'm in a very stressful situation (my partner has young-onset Parkknson's and I'm his fulltime carer/caregiver) and I was diagnosed with atypical trigeminal neuralgia and tmj.

I had my first bout with it around 16 years ago during a very distressing period of my life. As life settled, so did my pain. Officially a remission. Then 8 years ago my partner was diagnosed and the pain returned...classic tms.

I've wrestled such a lot with Sarno's ideas over time, and have done a huge amount of psychological work but have to recognise that my situation is harsh and presents ongoing challenges that most people my age don't face. It can be overwhelming.

I know the fear you speak of. I was so scared at one point I was having panic attacks whenever I was near a mirror or brushed my teeth. It was a circle of hell. Thank the gods I am free of that now.

My best advice is be gentle with yourself and know you are not alone. I have experienced much improvement during the past year and this gives me much faith. I have a jumble of thoughts I'd like to share but I must away for now. There are some good souls here who will help hold you safe while you find your way. The answer, the healing is there for you.

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