Day 1 Hoping to cure my elbow TMS

Hi, my name is Carey and I have TMS. This is my day 1 post, but I had problems registering so am already a few days past that in the program.

I developed "tennis elbow" in both arms in the spring of 2003. When I first went to the doctor, I couldn't figure out what activity had caused it. Eventually I decided it was from reading (holding the books). At the time I was in grad school and had just read a really good but heavy 600-page hardback book. I got a book holder which I have used since then, but the problem continued and more and more activities grew painful. I did RICE, ibuprofen, cortisone shots, etc. The pain continued for about 5 years until I finally got some relief by doing physical therapy and stopping many activities that had "caused" the pain.

A little over two years ago, I started learning how to paint. I was painting almost every day for 1-2 hours and loving it. After two months, my elbows started hurting again. I stopped painting and resumed physical therapy. Skipping over many of the details, over the next two years, I started avoiding more and more activities because of pain during or afterwards or the fear of pain, everything from using the computer at work to brushing my teeth or flushing the toilet. The pain spread to the insides and backs of my elbows as well. I was spending at least an hour a day doing stretching, physical therapy exercises, massaging, heating, and icing, but to no avail. I got to the point where I felt that barring a miracle, I would just have to consider myself disabled for the rest of my life (I'm still in my 30's).

Then a couple weeks ago, I stumbled across someone's web posting stating how she had healed her "tennis elbow" by following Dr. John Sarno's method. I read Dr. Schechter's book "Think Away Your Pain" and put away my elbow braces, heating pads, ice packs, and stopped stretching and exercising.

Things I am encouraged by:
- There is hope of complete healing!
- I have had a few times over the past couple weeks where I was able to do both daily and fun activities with no pain during or afterwards.
- I have 4 of the 6 TMS tender points. Dr. Schechter mentioned that not everyone has them, but even 2 is a strong correlation with TMS. (By the way, for anyone else who has them, do they go away once you're healed?)
- I fit the profile of TMS patients in being a perfectionist (though I consider myself a recovering perfectionist since I've tried to change over the years) and spending countless hours searching for new treatments or cures.
- I do see some emotional correlations to both periods when I developed elbow problems.
- I have read a few stories of people with "tennis elbow" who have been fully cured by treating it as TMS.
- My husband and good friends are supportive of this diagnosis and do not think I'm crazy for considering it.
- Since TMS doesn't cause long-term damage, I can do things I love to do even if they still hurt sometimes. (For me, the pain levels are not that bad, it was mostly the fear of making it worse and doing permanent damage.)
- I've never heard of anyone else who developed tennis elbow from reading books. It's actually less believable than thinking it's caused by emotions.
- I went to the orthopedist in July after the pain spread to additional areas of the elbow. When he asked me to do a few extensions to see if they were painful, he couldn't find any evidence of problems.

Things I am discouraged by:
- I still have relapses where I start having pain again after doing certain activities.
- There are a lot fewer stories about people being healed from "tennis elbow", and I read one story of someone who had been healed of other symptoms but struggled to get the elbow problem to heal.
- Like many, I still have some doubts sometimes, and worry that I will permanently damage my elbows.

 

Hi, Carey. "Tennis elbow" is just one of many pain symptoms caused by TMS.

Your elbow pain is very likely from TMS, some repressed emotions, anger about something or someone. You say you have some doubts about TMS, and that will keep you from healing. You need to believe 100 percent in TMS. You should also resume normal physical activity and moderate exercise. Dr. Sarno suggests this.

You may also have to work harder on modifying your perfectionism. That alone can cause TMS pain. But don't be discouraged... the SEP is great in helping to recover from TMS pain.

I suggest you read Dr. Sarno's 12 Daily Reminders, especially in the extended version from Herbie, another TMSer. Here they are:

Herbie’s Extended Version of Dr. Sarno’s 12 DAILY REMINDERS

1. The pain is due to TMS. This is real pain or anxiety but it is caused by subconscious tensions and triggers, stressors and traits to your reactions and fears and also when at boiling point your conscious tension can and does also cause real pain.
2. The main reason for the pain is mild oxygen deprivation. This means that when you get in pain or anxiety then the blood is restricted from going to your lower back, for instance. The blood being restricted causes oxygen deprivation which causes the pain. Remember, where there is no oxygen then there is pain in the body. Also, the pain stays because of fear.
3. TMS is a harmless condition caused by my REPRESSED EMOTIONS so even though you think you can harm yourself from the years of pain you have felt and how you feel in general -- so far no reports have been heard from TMS healing knowledge causing damage to anyone, it only helps.
4. The principle emotion is your repressed ANGER -- this means under your consciousness lies something that happens automatically to everyone. TMSers have repressions that are stored because of our personality traits, traumas, stressors, fears, strain, etc... When these stored repressions build and build, then eventually they cause the brain to send pain into your body to keep you from having an emotional crises. The mind-body thinks it is helping you.
5. TMS exists to DISTRACT your attentions from the emotions, stressors, tensions and strains of your personality traits because if you can get distraction then you won’t have to be in emotional turmoil. When you don't face and feel your emotions and they get repressed because you didn't want to deal with something -- they are just adding up in this beaker, ready to pour over and create real pain and anxiety in your body.
6. Since my body is perfectly normal, there is nothing to fear. So in reality when I fear the pain or anxiety I just cause myself undo strain and tension adding to the beaker of pain. If I fear, then I feed the pain, If I fear, it’s impossible to recondition. Fear keeps the pain and anxiety alive in the body through focus.
7. Therefore, physical activity is harmless. If I want to work against the pain I could but it’s better to lose some of the pain so when I start my life over I have to be in pain trying to heal because facing the repressions and all the other activities that cause the pain and reversing my fear and focus to them, then I can heal.
8. I am resuming all normal physical activity. I don't fear moving anymore. I believe in my body’s ability to heal now. I can move as I want. I will not fear moving with a bent back anymore. I will also practice going out and acting normal again, not in fear of what pain might do to me.
9. The pain is unimportant and powerless. Its only power is how it is hidden -- its illusion, its fear.
10. I will keep my attention on the emotional issues. I will think about my emotions and feel my emotions throughout the day. I will not judge, criticize or fear my emotions. I will not run from my emotional issues but face every one of them. I will feel my emotions fully and cry if I need to. Then I will release the emotion and get my mind and thoughts back to my life and living in the present.
11. I am in control of all of this. This is how I recover.
12. I will be thinking PSYCHOLOGICALLY AT ALL TIMES. This means I will keep my thoughts on psychological issues like happiness, fear and anger -- traits and triggers, conditioning and journaling -- The science behind mind-body/TMS healing, etc.... This way I will not feed my thoughts to the body -- that is a trick of TMS. TMS will always try to get me to focus on the body caused by the pain until I break its show and flair. When I get my attention off physical symptoms and on to emotional issues and psychological issues then I will not feed the fear of the physical issues anymore, thus making the TMS of no pain effect on the body. This will in return, give us the cure and become pain-free.