Fascial restrictions

[jcf254]

Hi everyone, I've posted before about my struggles with chronic muscle tension, hip impingement and pelvic floor dysfunction.

I've always struggled with the question of if my issues are structural. It's immediately obvious (visually) that my body is compressed on the right side, with a twisted ribcage and pelvis.

I am currently having two weeks of intensive myofascial release therapy, following the John F Barnes approach. The practitioners are finding severe tightness and restrictions in my body, including my sacrum which is basically rock solid and not functioning as a sacrum should. This then causes other parts of the body to compensate. They are trying to unravel where the myofascial restrictions are coming from and what the ultimate root cause is. Many people experience emotional releases during the treatment but I haven't as yet.

Undoubtedly these fascial restrictions have been in place for many years and have spread throughout the body. Arguably this is my body tensing up in response to a perceived threat, and the pattern staying in place chronically. But can the restrictions be loosened by TMS methods or is bodywork required? Maybe both?

I hope you can see my dilemma about whether the issues are structural - clearly the fascial restrictions are impacting the way the body is structured and how it functions. But there is also a possibility that the fascial restrictions are an example of TMS. If I simply had lower back pain or chronic fatigue then I'm sure I would fully commit to TMS, but mine is not a case of pain signals being sent by the brain. The pain and tightness is because of the dysfunctional structure of my body. The question is whether that structure is due to TMS. The myofascial release practitioners are also interested in my birth and the stressors of my parents at the time.

I am also starting to see a somatic experiencing practitioner to explore why this tension built up in the first place, and also why I feel so anxious for no apparent reason.

I'm not actually sure what my question is, I just felt the need to write something about this. But I guess if anyone has any experience of fascial tension being relieved with TMS methods I'd be glad to hear about it.

 

[Cactusflower]

Dan Buglio, a tms coach had this sort of severe restriction and healed himself only with TMS work.
My main symptoms sound similar to yours. I am finding just using a tms approach, for myself has not been the only answer. I believe it is, however the answer and the cause of so much physical tension. I just need a little extra help and time for this pattern to let go.
I find restrictive patterns of the mind (anxiety) translates to restrictive patterns in the body: we are one unit.
It is an excellent choice to use a Somatic Therapist.
How do you know this is “Fascial tension” - I mean it really doesn’t matter what kind it is but believing some label someone *thinks* might be the issue keeps our minds stuck there - a mindset shift from the physical to the emotional causes of tension is Dr. Sarno’s theory. Physical tension is simply a by product of emotional tension.
My suggestion is to do more reading about tms like reading a book by Dr. Sarno. The Divided Mind is a great book to illustrate that all physical tension ( unless a disease, chromosomal difference or difference presented at birth) is almost always generated by the mind.

 

[jcf254]

Thanks for the reply. I'm calling it fascial tension as shorthand, but it's not necessarily that simple - basically it's my body being pulled in certain positions, certain muscles compensating for others, severe tightness in certain spots (like the sacrum which I mentioned earlier), and things being badly out of alignment, so bad that it's visible to the naked eye.

On top of this my nervous system is very dysregulated and I have a lot of childhood trauma (not severe in the objective sense but felt severely by me as I'm very sensitive). Maybe my body has held itself in this position as a defence mechanism and now it's stuck.

I think perhaps you're right that a TMS approach and introducing safety into the nervous system is a key part of this, and nothing else will work without that. And maybe adding in bodywork and somatic work are needed for this specific situation.

I am familiar with Dan Buglio and have watched some of his videos. My current shape is similar (but not quite as bad) as the 'before' photo on his website, with the right hip pulling up, right chest compressed and right neck pulling down.

 

[JanAtheCPA]

I'm calling it fascial tension as shorthand, but it's not necessarily that simple -

As @Cactusflower said, the details don't matter - and yet, notice how your TMS brain just had to respond with details! As if by doing so you are accomplishing something! This is your brain on TMS, my friend - because it accomplishes nothing except to keep fooling you and underscoring your doubt.

Plenty of "obviously physical" conditions turn out to be based in emotional dysfunction. Nicole Sachs has personal examples - listen to her latest episode which just dropped yesterday. I actually consider this episode to be a MUST LISTEN and I'm about to post it separately.

One of the symptoms she doesn't mention in this podcast (she describes it in her book and in a much earlier podcast) is when she literally had skin peeling off the roof of her mouth. It was TMS. 100% emotionally-based. See @Dorado's success story for a list of many symptoms, including obviously physical ones, all of which turned out to be TMS.

Fortunately, the rest of your response is more appropriate - which is that you need to double down on the emotional work if you want the hands-on manipulation to have any lasting effect. No harm in getting a little help to start with - just as Dr. Sarno himself said that sometimes medications are needed to get to the point where someone can focus on the emotional work. In your case, I expect you also need to be willing to start taking physical risks by using your body without fear.

Regarding childhood trauma you said it was "not severe in the objective sense but felt severely by me as I'm very sensitive". This exact topic was discussed in detail in the last part of this excellent podcast episode also from Nicole Sachs from the week before (and you should listen to the whole thing): https://audioboom.com/posts/8387319-chronic-headaches-plantar-fasciitis-and-the-omega-experience-with-dana (The Cure for Chronic Pain with Nicole Sachs, LCSW / Chronic Headaches, Plantar Fasciitis, and The Omega Experience with Dana) (it's the November 3 episode for those of you who have a favorite podcast app).

Have you heard of the psychological study of Adverse Childhood Experiences, and the ACEs questions? More info here:
ACEs "quiz" - printable version | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome) (tmswiki.org)
(urgently recommended if you had childhood adversity, strongly recommended if you had any amount of childhood dysfunction, and highly recommended for everyone because it explains so much about mental health for so many.)

 

[Cactusflower]

@jcf254
My current shape is much worse than Dan’s in his photos.
@JanAtheCPA is absolutely right. You need to work on the psychological and go beyond the feeling of current physical vulnerability (especially your worry with your appearance) and see the lifelong vulnerability, feeling lack of safety and anxiety it created. For you it was major because I’d shaped your current situation.
I too seem to have no major trauma but it really stacks up. My therapist has helped me immensely by validating these experiences as a collective.
The hands on work needs to be looked at through a different lense. It will not cure you, but caring hands, and some support, someone who is simply there to witness your suffering may provide a sense of safety. A trusted partner in your journey to wellness, s space to chill out and self-care.
Know that I understand where you are at, that you are absolutely ok, and this can get better for you. It takes time, self-kindness and learning more about the mind-body connection.

 

[jcf254]

Fortunately, the rest of your response is more appropriate - which is that you need to double down on the emotional work if you want the hands-on manipulation to have any lasting effect. No harm in getting a little help to start with - just as Dr. Sarno himself said that sometimes medications are needed to get to the point where someone can focus on the emotional work. In your case, I expect you also need to be willing to start taking physical risks by using your body without fear.

The thing is, and I get that it's important to use the body in the way it was intended but the fact is that it's currently in a holding pattern which means it's working in a sub-optimal way, the wrong muscles are being used to compensate, things are super tight, alignment is off and so on. My concern is that using it in the way I would ideally like would make things worse. The trigger for the worsening symptoms was when I did heavy weightlifting for a short time around 6 years ago. Before then there were symptoms and I'm sure the fascial tightness would have been there, but everything's got much worse since the weightlifting. Again, if there were no structural component to this and it was purely pain without a physical cause, I would happily reintroduce physical exercise. Currently whenever I do exercise it causes my pelvic floor symptoms to worsen and my pelvic floor tenses up. Ideally I would be running and playing tennis, squash, football and so on. Maybe I just need to be brave and slowly reintroduce things.

You may think it's classic TMS thinking to say "this doesn't apply to me because..." but clearly there is a difference between someone who has unexplained pain or other symptoms, and someone whose body is being pulled all over the place (regardless of what has caused that) and isn't working as it should.

Have you heard of the psychological study of Adverse Childhood Experiences, and the ACEs questions? More info here:
ACEs "quiz" - printable version | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome) (tmswiki.org)
(urgently recommended if you had childhood adversity, strongly recommended if you had any amount of childhood dysfunction, and highly recommended for everyone because it explains so much about mental health for so many.)

Thank you, I have heard of ACEs but hadn't seen the quiz. I scored 2 but there are plenty of things that aren't on the list that would probably have had a similar effect.

 

[jcf254]

@jcf254
My current shape is much worse than Dan’s in his photos.
@JanAtheCPA is absolutely right. You need to work on the psychological and go beyond the feeling of current physical vulnerability (especially your worry with your appearance) and see the lifelong vulnerability, feeling lack of safety and anxiety it created. For you it was major because I’d shaped your current situation.
I too seem to have no major trauma but it really stacks up. My therapist has helped me immensely by validating these experiences as a collective.
The hands on work needs to be looked at through a different lense. It will not cure you, but caring hands, and some support, someone who is simply there to witness your suffering may provide a sense of safety. A trusted partner in your journey to wellness, s space to chill out and self-care.
Know that I understand where you are at, that you are absolutely ok, and this can get better for you. It takes time, self-kindness and learning more about the mind-body connection.

Thank you, yes, in my first somatic experiencing session the therapist was certainly validating the traumas that I suffered and was clearly appalled to learn about some of the things I had to deal with as a child regarding my parents' marriage.

Another thing it taught me, and this was a bit of a light bulb moment, is that I've previously always been looking for the connection between trauma and symptoms as evidence that the trauma affected me, however there is also something to be learned from looking at the connection between trauma and behaviour. As an example I have spent most of my life alone, very rarely being in relationships and generally wanting to flee situations where there might be intimacy or connection. I think he's keen to explore the reason for that, but what I've learned is that if something can be thrown off like that, it makes sense that symptoms would appear in the body, as the body is a reflection of the unconscious mind.

 

[Cactusflower]

“You may think it's classic TMS thinking to say "this doesn't apply to me because..." but clearly there is a difference between someone who has unexplained pain or other symptoms, and someone whose body is being pulled all over the place (regardless of what has caused that) and isn't working as it should”

There is no difference. Symptoms are symptoms and all are equal with TMS - your symptoms are caused by tension, which is the T in TMS. The tension from the mind causes tension in the body. There is often unacknowledged anxiety (you have no idea you are anxious, or to what extent), repressed anger, and fear (often showing up as fear of symptoms, but usually running far deeper) your fear of your symptoms is no different from say someone fearing their migraine that will cause temporary blindness, or physical illness or hearing sensitivity so great they must be in darkness for hours.. even days and can not work nor eat, nor take care of family.. the underlaying emotion is exactly the same.
The feeling that your symptoms are worse than anyone else’s, that you are alone, etc. is part of the hold TMS has on our minds. Many people have symptoms that are visible, it does not matter if they are visible or invisible because the cause is always a protective mechanism of the mind at work that has caused tension which shows up in any way it has chosen.
It is also OK to struggle with your old beliefs and new ideas you are presented with now with TMS. Everyone starts with doubts! Slowly seeming the tiny improvements snd recognizing emotional struggles and old thought patterns that keep you stuck is what eventually show you in a personal way how TMS works.
You do not have to confront your physical symptoms immediately. It is best to start with the mental and emotional, which you are doing! If you can walk, start with that. Just do it as regularly as you can. Perhaps begin to learn breathing techniques focusing on slow exhale: a long sigh where your diaphragm sinks - just a minute or two a day to be with your body and not stuck in your mind or your symptoms. It’s a beginning. I’m sure your somatic therapist will teach you many self-calming skills.

 

[jcf254]

Thank you - I actually stumbled upon plum's profile and saw that she mentioned yin yoga which sounds perfect for me and I'm going to check it out. I also do breathwork (box breathing and 478 breathing) and yoga nidra but need to make this a regular habit.

The myofascial release practitioner is aware of the mind-body connection and asked me if there is any reason from my childhood why my body would be holding tension and refusing to let go, they said that they see results quicker with most people and I've taken them by surprise a bit.

I've spent a lot of money on the treatment and it's unlikely to have any effect, but if it leads me to finally commit to the mind-body approach then it will be worth it.

I must be honest it feels kind of overwhelming, a lot of clues were there in terms of bodily tension even before I made things worse with Crossfit. It feels like I need to completely change how I approach life and basically become a new person, though I guess that should be exciting as what I really need to do is let the real me come out.

 

[JanAtheCPA]

I have heard of ACEs but hadn't seen the quiz. I scored 2 but there are plenty of things that aren't on the list that would probably have had a similar effect.

Absolutely they can do so. I also believe that achieving any score on this list is a good predictor of adult symptoms, whether mental, physical, or both. I can't even imagine the problems that someone with more than 3 ACEs might have as an adult. 2 is not insignificant!

I did not have childhood adversity, but interestingly, I found myself with a partial score on the question about abandonment - due to a period between probably ages 4 and 8 (thus 4 years out of 18, or a score of 0.2) when my parents were overwhelmed with three younger siblings, leaving me to entertain myself fairly often. They actually made it up to me later, but I had not realized, until I did this work - at age 60! - that this period of my life had even existed. It was well-repressed! I have since addressed Abandonment frequently as a significant issue for me. Although it's a pretty significant issue for most humans. Or, for that matter, many animals that are dependent upon a community for safety and security.

It feels like I need to completely change how I approach life and basically become a new person, though I guess that should be exciting as what I really need to do is let the real me come out.

It IS exciting! And, you know, not so much a "new" person! Future you is the person you have always been, with a new and different way of interpreting and responding to your environment and to your relationships with yourself and others.

 

[JanAtheCPA]

I actually stumbled upon plum's profile and saw that she mentioned yin yoga which sounds perfect for me and I'm going to check it out.

You can't go wrong with our dear @plum.

 

[jcf254]

I'm now fully convinced that all of this is as a result of living in a chronic state of fight or flight for over 20 years since I was a child. It took me a while to get here (over a year since first hearing about TMS) but it's now clear to me how living in this state can cause a muscle to tense up, which then leads to a cascade of tensing throughout the body. I saw a great video about sympathetic nervous system activation on the Somatic Experiencing website and it makes so much sense.

There are several causes to this sympathetic nervous system activation for me - not really connecting with people my whole life, probably as a result of school bullying. A big one is not receiving feelings of safety from parents (my mother was clearly very troubled and unhappy when I was growing up, and my father has always been emotionally unavailable). I also believe my addiction to internet porn was both a symptom of this perceived unsafety as well as something which itself exacerbated sympathetic activation of the nervous system - there are several articles showing a correlation.

All of that was enough to cause low level symptoms - cold hands and feet, digestive problems, mild-moderate sexual dysfunction and probably muscle tension throughout the body which I couldn't detect at the time. Then there was a traumatic break-up which triggered insomnia and further withdrawal from life, then there was a physical trauma (Crossfit) which caused the body to tense up further, leading to the severe symptoms that have developed since then, further exacerbated by me being fixated on my health and constantly researching ways to solve the problem.

The apparently unexplained anxiety I feel throughout the day in my chest (I describe it as a "white hot" sensation) was the clincher - anxiety is clearly a fear response and if my body is screaming at me in that way, the chances of other symptoms not being equivalents of this is basically zero. There are also other things like my inability to tolerate even one glass of wine without my sleep being affected, and severe thirst after lunch and dinner, particularly if something is fairly salty. This I see as my body seeing everything as a threat and overreacting.

I have ordered Claire Weekes' book and have my next somatic session tomorrow. I am also making efforts to connect with people and have joined two hiking/adventure groups. There is a lot more to do and it still feels kind of overwhelming but hopefully I can at least move past the constant health research that has plagued me for the last few years, now I know what is going on. Dan Buglio has some excellent suggestions for how to foster feelings of safety. One thing I think I need to do is change career to become a primary school teacher, this is something I've thought about before but never got around to - this would take me away from a partly remote desk job where I spend my days looking at a screen, into a job where I'm an active participant of my community and surrounded by people.

There isn't really a question here, I just wanted to set things out logically based on what I have worked out in my head over the last day or so. Thank you both for helping me get there.

 

[JanAtheCPA]

There you go, @jcf254 - you're on your way!

 

[jcf254]

I had an excellent session with my somatic experiencing therapist yesterday. He helped me to understand that I have an avoidant attachment style, which can cause numerous issues including anxiety. Even though one of my actions is to stop endlessly researching my condition, I listened to a couple of podcasts about avoidant attachment, one of which said that it is triggered by perceived maternal rejection, which makes perfect sense with me. Also common among avoidants is emotional repression and difficulty understanding their feelings, both of which is true and links in with the root cause of TMS.

Another thing he wants me to look at is finding ways to welcome discomfort, again this links in with the avoidant attachment issue, but also wanting everything to be perfect and comfortable is undoubtedly a factor in some of the issues (e.g. insomnia).

I've had therapy before but have always found it pretty useless, this guy is great, he is able to get to the root of the issue including some uncomfortable truths very quickly, and is happy to talk back and challenge what I'm saying - exactly what I'm looking for.

Lately it just feels like the waves have parted and everything has become clear.

 

[jcf254]

I came across the work of John Bradshaw on what he calls 'toxic shame' and would recommend it for anyone with mind-body issues. The current book of his I'm reading is Healing the Shame that Binds You. For me, there's a lot of crossover with TMS as he says that shame-bound people will repress their emotions and true selves due to seeing emotions and their true selves as shameful. I can relate to so much of it and I'm going to need a new highlighter soon! I really want to talk to my brother about it as we shared an upbringing and the issues he's faced will have a similar root cause.

Thankfully I'm still fully on board with the mind-body connection in everything that has happened to me, in that my nervous system has gone beyond the point of coping and my body is living in a fearful state, or as Dan Buglio would put it "too much stress" and "perceived danger symptoms".

I have another appointment with the somatic therapist today but am considering stopping and trying to plot my own route through this, he's very expensive (almost to the point that I resent him for charging so much, which isn't a great starting point) and I've thrown enough money at this already.

I am also thinking I might need to change my job from a stressful, desk-based and well paying job into something where I'm moving around more. I think work stress is one of the main drivers of my symptoms and it's no good being paid well if it's preventing me from healing.