Help overcoming uncertainty about TMS

I read Dr. Sarno's "Healing Back Pain" about a week ago and I am very thankful to have found this forum. I am (like many I suppose) still uncertain if I have TMS even though I tick a lot of the boxes.

So some backstory, I started feeling pain in the left part of my pelvis when I was 17 ( three years ago now). I first felt it while playing golf so I suppose that was my trigger. The first year the pain was very minor and did not bother me very much. I did not seek any help at the time because I was pretty sure it would disappear with time. One year after the pain started it got much worse while I was training to get my black belt in taekwon-do. I decided to power through the pain but I paid the price. Since then I have seen two physical therapists and one chiropractor. And even though the pain has decreased over time it has never really disappeared.

Now the pain has gone down but I am always scared that I will worsen my "injury". I feel some sort of pressure pretty much constantly where the pain has been and the pain flares up now and again, often together with some sort of physical activity.

According to the book, I fit the personality that often get TMS. I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well in almost all aspects of life and I would consider myself kind of a people pleaser.

It felt like I had a releif of pain the first couple of days after reading the book. Now the pain is back to normal, however it feels like the pain has started to move around a lot more. It is still in the same area but I take this as a sign that the pain might originate from my emotions.

I am still uncertain that TMS is the correct diagnosis in my case. The thing that makes me the most uncertain is the fact that I can physically feel that the muscles around the left pelvis are a lot tighter than on the other side. The primary pain is however not in the same location as the tight muscles, but very close. My chiropractor told me that my pelvis was rotated (also resulting in one leg being longer than the other) and that this ha caused the pain. Is anyone familiar with what I am describing? Does anyone know if TMS also can result in muscles tightening up?

I am very grateful for any response and perspective on my situation. Thanks in advance!

(Also sorry for any misspellings or grammatical errors, English is not my first language)

 

I'm not a doctor and can't advise you on your particular situation, but I can tell you about my experience, and yes, tight muscles can absolutely be a function of emotions. My myofascial pain syndrome is a bunch of tight muscles, trigger points, and restricted fascia around the muscles throughout my body, especially around my neck and upper back. But myofascial pain is not always restricted to these areas. It's just where mine is. Anyway, I finally brought my pain down once I realized it was really a mind-body issue. Drugs, traditional physical therapy, shots, surgery--none of those reduced my chronic pain permanently. And even when I first read Sarno in 2006, it only brought down my pain slightly for a few days. It wasn't till another year later that I did more mindbody work (after I had essentially no success with the other traditional treatments) that my pain finally came down. For me I had to address the deep emotions and trauma feeding my pain through bodywork (myofascial release physical therapy) for my pain to finally start coming down. Others just read the books or do the program on this TMS website, but that's what it took for me to crack the code.

But, to answer your question, I definitely experience tight muscles due to emotions. If you are interested in more details of my story see my website (www.healingfromchronicpain.com).

Best of luck to you!!

 

Hi there,

As a PT who knows the reality of TMS I can tell you with confidence that the brain can cause very real changes (that are reversible) in the body! All of us with TMS have had tight spasming muscles, very common. I had this myself with my TMS caused back pain. A rotated pelvis is just a structural abnormality that is harmless and not the cause of pain. I've worked with people with all manner of "abnormalities" out of perfect alignment who were pain free. Thr neural pathways in your brain will remember the pain, which is very real, and cause the muscle to stay tight. Hope that helped!