Day 1 Hello

Hi, I’m posting for my day one of the structured education program. I have had a variety of what I now see as tms symptoms since late September of last year. These have included lower back pain, upper back pain, an ache in my left leg, joint aches, strange burning sensations, some scary headaches and most predominantly everyday I wake up stiff as a board.

I am 28 years old, I’m in reasonably good shape and have never had any health problems before so all this has been very stressful and anxiety inducing. I have seen my primary care doctor multiple times and been referred to a neurologist. Every test has come back normal. I’ve had blood tests, an autoimmune panel, an x-ray of my back and an MRI of my thoracic spine. I know there is nothing structurally wrong with my back and for all intents and purposes I should be perfectly healthy.

Throughout all these months I’ve tried and tried with increasing desperation to return to “normal”. I’ve done physical therapy, seen a chiropractor, massage, TENS, done acupuncture, yoga consistently and nothing has had a significant impact or substantially eased my discomfort.

My co- worker recommended a book to me about a week ago, she said it had turned her late father’s life around. The book was Dr John Sarno’s “Healing back pain”.

I read it two days ago and I feel pretty convinced that everything I have experienced falls in line with TMS:

1. I know there is nothing structurally wrong with my back.
2. Logically my symptoms make no sense with any other diagnosis. They have completely disappeared and reappeared twice with seemingly no physical cause.
3. My symptoms get considerably worse when I feel stressed or anxious or am emotionally upset in someway.
4. Both the initiation of my symptoms and their significant reappearance in jan coincided with me returning to work (I work in a school)
5. The leg ache that started this all in September was a sensation I was familiar with and used to get in college, it is a feeling that I always associated with stress.
6.Since reading the book I already have started to feel better.

Although I have started to feel better I still wake up every morning tense and stiff, my neck creeks and never fully stretches out and my upper back is tight and immobile. Although I believe in this diagnosis I am having a hard time dealing with the anxiety of “will I ever return to normal?” Or is this it now I have to live the rest of my life with this discomfort. I believe that rather paradoxically i am only going to return to “normal” when i can truly let go and accept where i am. Im hoping that the process of writing and following this program will help me to get out of these thought spirals.
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Welcome to the Forum! You're in the right place. So glad you found us.

It's great that you're starting the SEP. I recommend also reading Success Stories in the sub-forum of the same name. It will help give you hope that you can indeed be symptom free some day.

Keep us posted on how you're doing and feel free to ask questions at any time. We are all here to support one another.

 

Welcome! From what you've written you're in a tremendous position to start the program, and I have great confidence that it will help you