Fissures - Blurred Line Between Physical and Mental

A

ac2448

New Member
Hi everyone,

Has anyone ever had difficulties with anal fissures and hemorrhoids? I have a history of TMS symptoms and chronic pelvic pain, which I have made tremendous success with over the past year, but for the past 2 months I have been having a lot of pain with bowel movements and anal discomfort. Bleeding with bowel movements prompted me to visit the gastroenterologist, who diagnosed it as an anal fissure and prescribed a medicine to relax the anal muscles and promote healing. He did not seem too concerned about this being anything serious, slightly relaxing my fears and catastrophic thinking. He

I am struggling with this being a physical thing (which it is, indicated by the blood) and a mental thing (likely caused by tight muscles and tension). Has anyone struggled with a condition such as this that has a mental and physical component and has any advice?

Also, does anyone have any advice on refraining from doubting doctors opinions? I keep thinking about how he didn't take that close of a look at the area and think about what if it could be something else that he missed etc.
 
ac2448 said:
Also, does anyone have any advice on refraining from doubting doctors opinions? I keep thinking about how he didn't take that close of a look at the area and think about what if it could be something else that he missed etc.
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There's that OCD/Fear component which ASSURES it's serving a distraction purpose.

to answer your question , YES I just went through a situation where I treated it as TMS but there was 'something' there... Jaw pain. I suspected TMS and treated it as such... when I finally got to the dentist about some regular stuff I DID have an infection up in my jaw. HOWEVER, long before I got my 'diagnosis' I did the work (reflection, writing, raging,etc) which made the pain go from a 9+ (tears) to a 1+ (occasionally annoying)
Just because a guy in a white coat finds 'something' doesn't mean it wasn't Mindbody... even stuff like accidents which seem random , when viewed through a lifetime of perspective always seem to show up at uniquely opportune times to distract us. Louise Hay wrote about this at length.
I got one of those tears (fissures?) about 20 something years ago. It was around the same time my pain showed up. I haven't given it a thought again and it's never bothered me.

I doubt ALL doctors who don't also see the role of emotions and repressed stuff... I always take their diagnosis in context of where I am in my life with responsibility, pressure, relationships, finance,and spiritually. If all they do is confirm or deny symptoms 'physical' causes, how could we feel they have given us a comprehensive picture?

But, the way you posed the question, I have a feeling you could have had a team of doctors MRI you and inspect you and you'd still have doubts...THAT is a component of TMS and Sarno pointed it out... the 'Yeah , But..." Fear.

move on and look inside
 
I have had something similar to what you describe since my early 20s, on and off. They got a lot worse the last couple of years, more chronic. I think of them as a TMS equivalent because of my personal experience with them. Yes, there is something that might be tearing or irritated and bleeding, but there are several inconsistencies I've noticed that point to TMS being the cause. One, pain doesn't correlate with the amount of blood. Two, when I'm not thinking about it (I mean completely distracted --really actually distracted, maybe reading something on my phone that has ALL my attention, they are 99% better, no pain, no blood, easy bowel movement, everything just great. If I think about going at all, muscles tighten up (even if I don't feel like they are) and there is irritation, blood, and a "tear" feeling.

Both my grandfathers had issues with this as well, I think both got surgery at the time for the hemorrhoids, but they lived with it for decades. Decades, and nothing sinister happened to them. Maybe it was their manifestation of TMS. It is not something you need to worry about, though. It's uncomfortable, painful, annoying, bothersome, and can be terrifying, but even the specialist I went to, a proctologist, told me that having this issue doesn't mean you are more likely to have any other issues. I asked her a lot of questions, and she just said not to worry about it, gave me cream and I left. I didn't want to use it because it supposedly lowers your blood pressure, and mine is already low. So I didn't because I didn't want to get a wave of dizziness. They come and go now, but the fear is gone, so sometimes I get days where there are no issues at all. Those days are very nice, haha. I can say though, that when the fear left, so did the majority of the pain.

You did the responsible thing and went to the doctor, a specialist no less, you can let it go now. It's not even like they didn't find anything. Your doctor found the cause of the blood, so you're good to go. I think fissures and hemorrhoids are probably just as common as back pain, but you're less likely to talk about it around the water cooler.

Obviously, anyone else reading who might have similar symptoms, get checked by the doctor first, whenever you have bleeding like that, but if you were told there was nothing worrisome there, then you can treat it as TMS.
 
@Baseball65 I shouldn't have read about your jaw problem cause it made me even more paranoid.
I was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia and the pain is mostly in my teeth. It's a terrible nerve-like pain. However, during a flare up I always tend to think there might be a hidden infection in my jaw and noone has discovered it yet - which is terrifying. I had so many dentists look at it and even had an MRI ordered from the neurologist. Noone mentioned an infection. However, I do have a crown in that area and I heard you can't really tell if there is an infection unless the crown is taken off (X-rays don't show everything) which obviously no denstist wants to do as noone is suspecting infection.
 
HopefulHere said:
Obviously, anyone else reading who might have similar symptoms, get checked by the doctor first, whenever you have bleeding like that, but if you were told there was nothing worrisome there, then you can treat it as TMS.
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Great response @HopefulHere, and welcome! This last paragraph in particular is worth repeating and re-reading, thank you!
 
Patrisia said:
@Baseball65 I shouldn't have read about your jaw problem cause it made me even more paranoid.
I was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia and the pain is mostly in my teeth. It's a terrible nerve-like pain. However, during a flare up I always tend to think there might be a hidden infection in my jaw and noone has discovered it yet - which is terrifying. I had so many dentists look at it and even had an MRI ordered from the neurologist. Noone mentioned an infection. However, I do have a crown in that area and I heard you can't really tell if there is an infection unless the crown is taken off (X-rays don't show everything) which obviously no denstist wants to do as noone is suspecting infection.
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You can't make a person with TMS more paranoid.... "None more black" to quote Nigel.

We are not paranoid, but easily distracted. The phenomenon your describing here is the 'Nocebo'... We read, hear about some new phantom problem and magically we either get the symptom or even worse, Fear that we'll get the symptom. Fear is the worst part of the deal.

It's peculiar.. psychologists and the mental research world has always associated dreams of losing ones teeth as a deep seated fear of mortality and aging. When I did my own personal 'paperwork' when I was having the distraction I realized VANITY was a huge part of it.... and mortality a close second. I had just stopped worrying about managing the world and really began to enjoy life in my late forties...and NOW this crap? (LOL)

If you walk back through that fear it's one or the other. This micro-minutiae like obsession with symptoms we get is there to distract us from a Vast list of things... for me it was anger at my son, frustration with a job and a long list of other little things I had 'under control'. Ultimately my distraction with 'vanity' is a fear of being alone,rejected, abandoned and a lot of other embarrassing shameful feelings that a bad ass/spiritual guy like myself is not supposed to have...

I could buy my own MRI, memorize the PDR and have a private phone line to the director of the Mayo clinic.... I would get a clean bill of health and about a week later call and say "Yeah... I know you didn't find anything, but do you think.....?"

That is TMS. Mindbody syndrome. Whatever. Constantly looking outward for assurance... and it keeps you totally free from looking at that bad relationship, thinking about your dream you never worked towards and the luke warm crap we settled for....

There IS Joy and Freedom and communion with God and the universe... but first you gotta dig THOSE weeds outta your garden. The THOUGHTS are the weeds, not what the thoughts are about.
 
Followed the doctors instructions to apply the nifedipine cream to relax the area and haven't had blood or much pain at all for about 7 weeks....until yesterday.

Now I am once again concerned about what to do. Everything was going great with very smooth bowel movements until christmas eve. It may be due to holiday stress but now I am worried that I have set back my progress.

Although I had relieved the symptoms, I found myself focusing greatly on the amount of fiber I was eating, if I was drinking enough water, not straining, etc.

Maybe rather than going back to a specialist, I should focus more on relaxing and letting this obsession go . It seems the only other option that would be recommended is surgery, which I would be very hesitant to do.
 
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