I suspect I have TMS

Hi guys. My name is Rob and I'm 27 years old.

I've had many aches, pains and general stiffness and muscle tension/sensitive muscles in my body. Much more than someone my age should. Blood tests always come back fine for nutrients, infections, etc., and I had a full blood panel recently done. Brain and neck MRI fine. I eat healthily, take a multivit, D3 and B12. I will likely be getting a lumbar spine and hip scan soon enough, but I suspect they won't show anything of note.

Here's a list of my physical symptoms:

- muscle tension and stiffness pretty much all over body. Including head and neck. More so on right side.
- right side of face drooping a bit. lip and eyelid
- right side head discomfort sometimes.
- right arm pain that comes and goes
- tinnitus
- low back and pelvic stiffness and discomfort. at its worse while sitting.
- slightly feverish and body tingling. comes and goes
- sciatica/knee/foot pain that comes and goes. Both sides but worse on right
- stomach pain when anxious. Sometimes severe pain
- rare stabbing penis and rectum pain. rectum itching sometimes (I suspect tight pelvic floor)
- rare back spasm
- tight and sensitive groin muscles. I used to get stabbing groin pain randomly when playing soccer
- cold hands and feet for as long as I can remember
- sometimes have tingling in fingers and toes

Now a bit of background on me. For the last decade, I've had a lot of anxiety and anger and hopelessness within me. I used to have depression, but nowadays it mostly seems to be anxiety and anger/frustration and generally feeling down about my life. I have felt quite overwhelmed for a good while, now. I tend to not talk much or seek out social interaction. You could say I'm a thoughtful, sensitive person. I've been on and off different anti-anxiety meds for years.

The only other thing I suspect could be contributing to my situation is sacral torsioning, simply because of my research and what I've been through with physios and osteos. My SI joint is less mobile on the left, my hip rotates forward on the right, and my spine deviates to the left a bit. I've had some really heavy falls on my hips and side before.

That said, I think my symptoms are likely to be almost all, or 100%, TMS related.

I would appreciate any thoughts or advice on my situation. Thanks for reading.

 

Hi Rob,

Welcome to the forum.

As I was reading list of your symptoms I was reminded of all of the symptoms I had. You can click on my image to read my story for a full list of my symptoms and what I went through so that it will help you feel more confident that it is TMS.

At this point keep learning about TMS, read the posts here, and stop fearing your symptoms.

Keep working on your mind and mindset with the intention to recover completely from all your symptoms.

 

Fred you have an amazing story about your TMS journey. God bless you and thank you for being there for us !

 

Dear Rob,

The first thing that jumped out at me is you writing that you've been "on and off" anxiety medications for years. This could be the cause of at least half the symptoms you have listed. All of the major anti-anxiety meds are benzodiazepines, which come with HUGE withdrawal symptoms.
Read the story of rocker Stevie Nicks coming off of Klonopin. You can find her interview online.
Even low doses can have big withdrawal effects that increase anxiety ten-fold and cause about half of symptoms you listed above. And, it can go on for months. I'm not writing this to frighten you. Your life isn't in danger. However, withdrawal symptoms are for real and can be hell until your body adjusts to not having the addiction.
Most of these medications were designed for helping a person through a crisis or hospitalization for 8 to 10 days.
They weren't supposed to be prescribed for continuous use because of their addictive properties.

I don't know when you took the last of them or if you are still on them, but the "on and off" thing isn't helping you at all.

I'm not a medical professional, but I've had to research and write about anxiety and the meds for over a year.
So, please don't take my word for it. Perhaps seek a professional rehab place to give y0u some advice over the phone, at first. Many of them are willing to give initial advice...and they know what they're talking about.

You are a young guy who deserves a great and full life. Don't settle. You can overcome all of this. Read the TMS books, etc.

 

I can't speak to the meds, but it definitely sounds like it's worth looking into as suggested above. But as for the muscle tension-related pain (which has been my problem and for me is undoubtedly emotion-driven--i.e., TMS), reading Sarno and other TMS-related books helped me in the process of healing, but I also found that I was able to more significantly reduce this type of pain (i.e., myofascial pain) through mind-body based myofascial release therapy.

I know many people here will say you don't need to do any kind of treatment like that, but just applying Sarno techniques, going to talk therapy, and trying many other psychologically based things didn't seem to be enough for me. The myofascial release therapy was a critical piece of my healing journey. If you're interested you can read more about my journey at www.healingfromchronicpain.com.

Good luck and I hope you find relief soon!!

 

Welcome to the forums, glad you've found TMS! Definitely sounds like a list of TMS variants to me, sounds like you're pretty clear medically. I just wanted to comment on the "sacral torsioning"- let me tell you, as a PT who subscribes heavily to TMS, I don't believe in sacral torsion as a cause of chronic pain. Falls on your hips or side could cause some acute pain if they created a strain or other issue. But in terms of chronic pain- I have seen so many people with "bad posture" or rotated sacrum or hips or other body parts who have no pain at all, and lots of people with terrible pain who don't have these issues. I don't think there is any correlation of hip/sacrum rotation and chronic pain, and the evidence agrees. Remember that most PTs and osteopaths are trained to look for any mechanical type explanation of pain. Just my 2 cents on that one, hopefully that helps strengthen your TMS beliefs!

 

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments. I am taking them all on board!

The meds aren't a big issue, thankfully. I tend to go on them maybe for a couple of months. Then come off. And there are long periods in between using them.

And I agree with what you say. I have found that physical therapy (mostly performing it on myself) has helped me a lot personally with discomfort and tightness. Mostly massaging tense muscles. I guess as long as you realize the role of the mind on your condition, then it's no big deal doing physical treatment also.

 

I agree. And the PT (JFB-MFR) that I did was so helpful to me because it really got me to address the mind stuff, too. It was amazing how, through this bodywork, I discovered that my body (muscles and fascia) were (are) harboring my emotions. It's great to do self treatment but I personally made far more progress with therapist-led myofascial release therapy (JFB-MFR)--unfortunately it costs more than self-massage :/. But I do agree that self massage can help. (But traditional PT has not helped me. And I even just went to a traditional PT recently for therapeutic massage, but it aggravated my neck. It just wasn't the same as myofascial release. I personally think the jfbmfr is far superior for me.)

 

Welcome! You sure sound like one of us, for sure. I second the notion that anti-anxiety meds can have a tremendous whiplash effect when coming off of them. Not everyone has this, truly, but doctors in the UK are far more cautious about weaning people off those meds than in the USA.
Your body will recalibrate. Meantime, the anxiety won't kill you. Mine has been trying to kill me since I was eight and still hasn't succeeded. And the debilitating pain is... gone.
Stick around, try the structured program Alan created. It's wonderfully helpful.
Best wishes for the journey,
bg