Knees

Hello everyone,

I have spoken with several wonderful people on this wiki and am very grateful for the kindness and guidance I have encountered. I am really struggling with knee pain. I was given a TMS diagnosis by one TMS doc and one non-TMS doc who knows about TMS. I exercise intensely and am concerned that I am damaging myself. They hurt after exercise or sometimes during and I start thinking perhaps I am not doing an exercise correctly, which starts me down a huge rabbit hole of googling and troubleshooting to see if I am not moving properly. My knees aren't swollen or visibly injured but if I flex the legs with my hands over the knees they grind and crack and pop. Sarno/Ozanich mention that these noises/sensations are normal but are a source of great fear for me. I regularly journal, walk, have read all the TMS books, exercise vigorously, deep breath, etc. I am a person who puts a ton of pressure on myself to to well/impress others/be good at many things.

One thing I will say though is that I have been successful in defeating other bad symptoms by catching my brain in the process of tricking me and then exercising vigorously to show that I wasn't afraid and didn't care. It just doesn't seem to be working with this issue and so I begin thinking it's structural and the vicious cycle continues. I am currently in a very bad mental space. Any ideas would be open and welcome

 

Why not cut back on exercise? From what you write it seems as if you are trying to defeat the symptoms through exercise. Now, I am as green as one can be in trying to recover, but I don't think TMS encourages you to attempt to defeat any symptoms. Just don't let them prevent you from living the life you want to live.

 

Hey gonesplit,

Exercise is part of the life I want to live. I’ve been an athlete since I was a teen and prefer it to be a part of daily life. However I agree I think attacking symptoms is not helpful. I’m just trying to show my brain that I’m not afraid.