Frozen shoulder

Hi all,
I have been struggling with frozen shoulder pain .It began slowly 2 months ago and now it has become unbearable. Limited movement,pain all the way down my arm,sleepless nights. I do home stretching as advised and I am terrified of the months to come since I know that it is a slow progress situation.
I am a TMS profile person all the way. Amongst other things, there is an incident that happened at the time of onset and I am trying to focus on that emotion but pain is bigger than that. Any suggestions? If I focus on PT and stretching, does that work against Tms principles?
I just can't stand the pain...
Thanks for reading

 

@cloud:
We don’t much discuss PT, stretches or the physical here because Dr. Sarno did not find that focus helpful for patients. He actually found it distracting them away from the psychological.
If you aren’t familiar with his work, I suggest reading one of his books. If you have, you might try praising certain passages again.
He was not against medication and painkillers if needed so that a patient could focus on doing the work. That is a decision that is up to you.
Part of the work is trying to get in some movement even through the fear of the pain. Slow progress is well known and common with frozen shoulder. I went through a year of it about 8 years ago. I was not afraid of the pain, just curious and kept moving and stretching during that time. I had a great doctor who explained it’s a super common stress response in women and said it seems to heal when you can focus on the anxiety instead of attempting to fix the symptom. He refused to prescribe me PT but said to just keep up as best as possible with all exercise and regular routine while working on the stress. In a year it had disappeared.

 

This part right here.


That's an excellent way to describe what TMS is trying to do to us.
When we get consumed with the pain--that's the distraction that TMS is trying to pull off.

 

I think ‘focus’ is the key word here... The 'good' thing about a ‘frozen shoulder’ diagnosis is that it’s generally seen as a temporary condition you can fully recover from. TMS symptoms are temporary too, so there’s a nice overlap there. If it were me, I’d still do the exercises I’ve been given, but I’d do them on both sides of the body — it helps remind the brain/body that movement is safe and natural, not something to brace against or test. I’d keep my focus on the idea that this is a temporary phase that will pass and that the real point of the exercises is to rebuild a sense of ease and safety.

 

Μy doctor is against PT and anti inflammatory meds and always advices me to do stretches on my own.This is all I do actually and maybe some simple paracetamol.
I am a passionate advocate of dr Sarno and have been healed in the past for backpain and other smaller stuff.
I do work on the emotions but at the same time I can't stop the stretching because when I do it locks even more.
@BloodMoon that is excellent. I do work bilateral .
Thank you all

 

Having a very painful day today. I just can't concentrate on the tms procedure.
I was wondering @Cactusflower since the pain went away after almost a year,does that mean that maybe it wasn't TMS? My experience has proven to me that when it is actually tms the pain goes away in a matter of weeks.
I am so overwhelmed by the pain and I am at work right now, I just want to cut my shoulder and throw it as far away as I can.

 

I can't speak for others, but that hasn't generally been the case with my mind/body/TMS symptoms. For instance, I had excruciating pain in my right wrist and thumb for many months before it eventually gradually went away. The symptoms were very akin to something called De Quervain's tenosynovitis which is supposed to usually clear up after a few months, and I've had other persistent TMS symptoms that I won't bore you with. However, that's not to say it's the same for all of my symptoms because I have experienced some symptoms that have only lasted a few weeks (interestingly, they've usually been in more recent times, when I had been doing mind/body work for a while).

Of no consolation, I know, but I had a 'frozen shoulder' and know how severe the pain can be... I'm a side sleeper and I even looked into getting a bed with a foam mattress that had a cut out in it to relieve the pressure on my shoulder and arm. I didn't say about my experience before because I didn't want to influence your expectations of how long it might last, but my 'frozen shoulder' took many months to gradually get better. Whether it's mind/body or physical in origin though the situation is temporary (albeit a temporary hell). Especially in trying to sleep I found it helped me a lot to focus on the pain, i.e. observe it and 'somatically track' it (a la Alan Gordon) rather than keep mentally resisting and railing against it.

 

I find myself focusing on the pain.I still resist ,it is obvious.
I don't know...I am a just exhausted and plus I have to work (I am a nurse) and being off work is just hopeless because this could take months.

 

All you can do is try your best. I was far from perfect at somatic tracking, but did find that it helped me get some better all important sleep.

 

Oh, it was TMS 100%. My symptoms just moved to a more painful and debilitating place.. I just didn’t discover TMS and Dr. Sarno’s work until the later symptoms. My ortho was very clear: frozen shoulder has no physical cause. What he did not go into was the true cause: fear, anxiety etc.
You can absolutely worth on TMS principals through the pain and symptoms. Your TMS brain will tell you that can not, but you can work on, especially the fear even on hard days. Even just a few redirections without getting into any stories: “This is TMS! I am angry and have other subconscious emotions and that’s ok. It’s ok to feel hard things” then try to move on with your day. The pain may distract you, just have some compassion for the fact you are doing your best.
Being a nurse is hard and stressful work. You are in kind support and care of others. Perhaps trying to find support for yourself is needed? Get some foot massages or a pedicure, learn to meditate and/or if you need mental health support, EMDR can really help and with a therapist you can really connect with, is usually pretty short term. Be open to all possibilities of your self-care.

 

Thank you so much. I am in so much need of it right now.I know the way ...I just can't open the right door yet.

 

I am so messed up.Just when I began to work on my emotions ,meditating listening to dr sarno again and again and BOOM ...stomach hurts, panic attacks and a huge fight with my husband.
Iam really chasing my tail?

 

Hi @cloud
First of all you are not "so messed up". Having a strong reaction to completely changing the way you think about yourself does in deed evoke pretty strong physical sensations in many (perhaps most) people. If you are working on an "evidence sheet" (a tool used to help with doubt, something you can keep and also use into the future) this is a wonderful entry. As soon as you began to work on the emotional you had a physical reaction. Proof that mind influences body.

The second thing you need to do is to begin to see that you are blaming yourself which equates being hard on yourself. Begin to notice where and when that shows up in your life and how you can begin to change that story about yourself. Self-compassion is often a key for folks who have TMS. However, it's self compassion without self-victimization (which can show up in many forms, some you don't expect!).

It's OK to have symptoms. Even when they are raging and hard. It is OK to be vulnerable and admit you feel crappy both physically and emotionally while doing this work. It's hard work. Apologize to hubby, let him know how hard this work is and that you'll do your best to work though it but it means you are gonna be feeling big things and you are no longer going to stuff them down to appease everyone around you. It's a big adjustment for you, and for those around you. Learning curve for everyone.

Keep working on these things. If the feelings, emotions, sensations, symptoms are raging then simply slow it down. Why not simply start with listening to Sarno. Nothing more. Over the next week or two or even month, just let his message sink in. Observe. Fill in an evidence sheet https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/the-benefit-of-an-evidence-sheet.2292/ when you feel you are curious to see how you'd do adding another TMS tool, then add one of your choice. You could choose to do the SEP, journal, meditate and just choose one thing. Experiment and see how that goes. Some people find they are very resistant to meditation which forces you to slow down and move inside of yourself. You might instead to try gentle qui gong or tai chi practices (as best as you can, you may have to experiment with it) and there are many very short gentle practices (I use Youtube as my guide) if you would have less mental resistance to a moving meditation. You might choose a walking meditation, to lay instead of sit. Experiment with silence, guided meditations, breathing or mantras. Be curious. Notice the resistance. As a matter of fact, the raging symptoms you face right now are a form of resistance towards doing the work. Noticing and being mindful of where there are mind/body connections is a form of doing the emotional work.
The idea is that you'll begin to view the TMS things as safe. Right now, your brain has you believing that it was keeping you safe by giving you symptoms - it was keeping you safe from feeling and experiencing difficult emotions in your body. It's like being in a bar fight where you are each upending tables in circles around yourself ... yelling "NO, I'm RIGHT!" at each other over what keeps you more safe (imagining beer tankards flying, and the peasants fleeing the area makes the scenario all that more fun to watch as you observe it within yourself!). It doesn't necessarily make sense, but it will over time. You are coming in and telling your brain that everything it was trying to do is a complete and utter waste of time and a big fat failure in your ability to not just survive, but thrive in life. It can only see survival mode. You're past that, and want quality of life which is big and broad and not just being stuffed in a tiny box of pain and suffering.

The only way out is through. You may suffer for a little while longer, but you need faith that you will make your way though. Reading or listening to stories is a great way to continue to build faith in yourself. Nichole Sach's podcasts are great for this "The Cure For Chronic Pain", but there are many other places to find these stories too (Dan Buglio, I enjoy Miriam of Pain Outside The Box on youtube as well - she has a great recovery story). One of the biggest pieces of the puzzle for me is when a TMS coach (who had recovered of her own symptoms) is that we have to learn to be uncomfortable with discomfort - that includes both physical and emotional discomfort and it is simply part of the human condition ... however the suffering through it can be temporary if we learn the skills to see it for what it is.

Today is a hard day, perhaps tomorrow will begin to be better.

 

Grateful for your support. I am not new to this.I believe it is all a reaction to the new state of repudiating my shoulder diagnosis.
The fight with husband was so hard.We said (I said )so many cathartic things. I was mad because despite the pain I am in these last couple of months he still has complaints that I dont provide enough support on his present stresses ..." I cannot move man! Give me a break just this once"
I will pass through all the discomfort, no other way to overcome this
Thanks again for being here for me

 

Does your husband expect the support because you are always there with it? Where do you fit into that equation when you are not having symptoms?
(No need to answer.. but it is something I had to think about!).

 

Oh hey, me too. Left thumb for over a year and guess what, starting to get symptoms in my right thumb. LOL TMS TMSing.

 

I do too my stretches. I cannot afford not to. But since 2012 that I first came to meet Sarno's treatment through his books,I was managing pretty well.I don't know what the hell happened that was so triggering this time

 

It doesn't have to be one big thing (if you're thinking along those lines)... It could instead be a gamut of small things. Helmut (aka The Mindful Gardener on YouTube) talks about our 'allostatic load' using the analogy of a bucket. All the stresses and stressors that you experience in your life go into the bucket and at some point the bucket spills over.

As you already know, I had frozen shoulder symptoms... and what helped me through it was regularly paying attention to my breathing... slowing it down, lengthening the out breaths. (I also did and still do 'sponge breathing' which I mentioned in another thread where I described it thus... "I picture myself as a sponge made up of living cells that breathe together as one. Just like a single cell, this sponge gently absorbs water and then releases it again. For a few breaths, I imagine breathing through all my pores like that — slow inhale, longer exhale — letting my body remember what safety feels like. After a few rounds, I shift my attention to something neutral or pleasant.")

I say about this because self-soothing has been critical in my recovery 'journey' and it may be more than helpful for you too. Dr Sarno said about this in his book The MindBody Prescription:

"I believe a kind of rage/soothe ratio may play a role in determining when physical symptoms will occur. Suppose... there is another element in the equation; that it is not simply the quantity of rage that brings on symptoms, but the presence or absence of counterbalancing soothing factors. Theoretically, these pleasant elements in a person’s life would modify the threat posed by the rage and make symptoms unnecessary."

 

Actually this quote is a part of the book(p 29) that I love and have underlined from the very first reading.The funny thing is that I believe I know the cause of my rage this time but I am pretty sure that I have done half the job I should have.Plus the pain as you well know is really bad and almost 24/7 and that gives me almost zero chance to just collect my thoughts