Levator ani syndrome

A

Alfaman147

Well known member
32 year old male with a constant pressure sensation in and around the anus. Sometimes tailbone too. I'm a massive hypochondriac and have been diagnosed about 2 years ago with health anxiety. I know this is a form of tms. It goes when I'm asleep or drunk and the ache sort of moves around. I'm constantly looking on the Internet which makes it worse. I just can't seem to stop searching for answers. I have massive anxiety with this. I have a great life. Just cannot stop thinking about this pain. That is the only stress in my life. It's a vicious cycle. I'm keen to hear from anyone else with this problem.
 
Oh and if I have another illness my pain goes away. I had anxiety illnesses such as a feeling of not been able to get a full lung full of air. Also heart palpitations for a few days about 4 years ago. I have just had 18 months symptom free but it is back. I felt a sort of ache while on vacation and I could not stop thinking about it and that's how it came on again
 
Have you read one of the books? i.e. Healing Back Pain or Mindbody Prescription both by John E Sarno? The treatment is similar for all TMS symptoms so don't worry if he focuses on back pain. Also, you can do an online program too. Go to TMS Wiki tab at the top then scroll down (left) to Structured Educational Program (SEP). It might get much better pretty quickly if you do the work.
 
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I have Dr Schubiners book which I flicked through a few years ago so I may give it another go. I just worry that doing this is just reinforcing the issue in my head.
 
It is so tms! I am new to fully accepting tms for pelvic pain. Improving but still working on it. I understand your anxiety. I have history of back and neck pain, even foot. But nothing, for me is as painful or consuming as pelvic! My pelvic pain moves around locations so I have had left levator ani as well. It is gone for the most part now. Currently I have mostly perineum/ vaginal sensations that comes and goes. And now this new weird throat thing. Ugh.

Do try to stop the research. It will make feel worse. Rest assured that most all even medical perspectives say that levator is an anxiety disorder. So it's stress/ emotion induced. There's nothing physically wrong with you! Find peace knowing you were free once before and can be again. Find strength in that thought. Too many people are healing from one thing tms related or a other all the time for you to be any different. You can free yourself from this again- stop searching for answers. Your mind/ emotions/ thought processes are the only answer you need. I say this not to judge, but of compassion because I truly understand the panic of pelvic pain where ever the location may be. Keep it simple to heal this. Try to do things that give you joy and peace, breathe deeply, and trust.
 
Also when this returned, what emotionally recently may have came in your life? Stress will tense all those pelvic floor muscles up. Try to figure out what the tension is from.
 
Thanks so much riverrat for your reply. You are so right. Why should I be afraid of this pain. I think the problem is I dwell on the negatives. I think why am I the only one with this. Also I have been on antidepressants for 3 years and was almost coming off them about a month ago but iv started upping the dose so the drugs are probably making things worse at the moment.
 
I was on vacation and felt a little twinge and then for some reason I instantly panicked and then could not stop thinking about it. It then manifested itself back to the constant ache and pressure. I was so relaxed on holiday so I don't understand what made me panic. I think I was worried about having it come back so far away from home maybe. But for some reason I couldn't move past it. Every morning I wake up and think about the tension and it returns almost instantly. My muscles relax when I'm asleep so when I wake up in do feel a bit tender but this just makes me think about it and then boom. I'm tensed up all day again.
 
I actually had something similar but much more generalized to a wider area of my body. Like a huge cramp in the night. The first time, I did not know about TMS and it terrified me. The second time, I knew exactly what was happening and told it to go away. It was gone in a minute or 2. Educating yourself is key.
 
Massage helps alot. In fact just pressing on the area helps alot. I feel like sitting on a tennis ball to ease the pain or getting my girlfriend to massage it.
 
My most severe problem was migraine every waking moment of my day. I didn't want to go on anymore. I tried everything. Reading the books was THE ONLY THING that worked. And it worked overnight. I was about 65% better the next day. 98% now. I also read success stories. Only have pain at family reunions (haha what does that mean) and I used the SEP for that.
 
Alfaman147 said:
Massage helps alot. In fact just pressing on the area helps alot. I feel like sitting on a tennis ball to ease the pain or getting my girlfriend to massage it.
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Massage focuses on the body, pills also. Try to focus on the psychological and assume the physical is fine because it is. You are likely a very healthy person. Focusing on the body will keep the pain coming because it is trying to distract you. By ignoring it you are retraining your brain. When you feel the pain coming, try to think about something that scares you or makes you angry. If you do this consistently for a few days you will likely find some relief.
 
Alfaman147 said:
Is actually trying to treat the pain physically the wrong thing to do????
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Dr Sarno would say that treating the pain physically is ensuring that the pain will continue. This is so contrary to what we are taught by everyone that it can be hard to wrap your head around it. But he's right. So many people successfully get rid of their pain this way. You are very fortunate to have learned about TMS. So many never do. You'll be fine if you follow the guidelines-- either a book or the SEP or both.
 
Hey Alfaman,

I'm also a 32 year old male, and my very first TMS symptoms were all pelvic/anus symptoms. When I was 19 I got really sick with the stomach flu in college and got that pressure feeling you are talking about. Doctors couldn't find anything wrong so they prescribed me with a bunch of Hydrocortisone etc.. I eventually got surgery for a chronic fissure, but shortly after started getting the symptoms again, eventually got diagnosed with hyper tension and told there was nothing wrong I was just hyper sensitive. Cost me $1000's to figure out it was TMS. Now I get it occasionally usually when I'm traveling or stressed out and it will go away after a couple days of ignoring it and thinking about what I'm repressing.

So get checked out if you are really concerned, but I'd say 99.9% TMS..
 
Alfaman147 said:
Is actually trying to treat the pain physically the wrong thing to do????
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Yes it's the wrong thing to do. You REALLY need to read a TMS book to get this. The cure is the knowledge of the theory which is thoroughly and simply explained between the covers.
 
Just gother back from the doctors and he has told me to maintain the dose of sertraline. Because I have started taking them again he said I was probably feeling worse because it takes a week or so the settle down. He has also given me some propranolol to help ease the anxiety symptoms like the sweating and the constant feeling of needing to jump out of my skin. I'm feeling a bit better today so hopefully I can start to work on the pain and realising it is just tension. Even though I know it's just tension it becomes consuming so I can now try and carry on with my life and the pain will hopefully become a side thought. It's just bizarre how the constant tension sensation moves. One minute it's around the tailbone. Then it's in both butt cheeks along the crack.( sorry to be graphic). Anyway maybe I need a break from this forum and all of Google so I can try and move on. Thanks everyone for your help. I think I beat this last time by not doing anything about it. Living with it and stopped searching for answers
 
That probably is exactly how you got rid of it last time - from stopping worrying and focusing on it.
Steve ozanich's book is a great tms book to help you understand and accept tms.

If you want massage, do it because it relaxes you and feels good, not because you feel you "need' it to get rid of the problem. I think It's good to do things that relax us and calm our nervous system. Just so long as we are not dependant on them being a " physical treatment" we need to get better.

I won't take any prescription medicine. I don't want to take tons of supplements either, but I feel they're at least less toxic for me. I take Tryptophan and rhodiola for anxiety and to cope with stress better. Which I have tons of and cant get away from currently. And a healthy diet with lots of b vitamins and enough potassium helps with anxiety too. I don't put too much focus on diet - but just whole foods that are balanced with all the vitamins and minerals minerals we need. Defiencys can lead to anxiety too.
 
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