Misplaced grief vs. unconscious emotions

Several months ago, I experienced a huge, horrendous, heart-wrenching, life-altering loss. This wasn't an unexpected loss - I knew it was coming for a long time. I had anticipated that when the loss finally happened, I would be an emotional wreck. But the thing was, I wasn't! Turns out I'm shockingly good at forcing the issue out of my mind, and going about my business. And compared to how I expected to feel, I've felt emotionally ok most of the time. Which is good I guess, because I can't change things and I don't really have anyone to talk to about what happened.

But guess what? Around the time that the loss occurred, my foot started hurting, then my knees started hurting, and over the past few months the knee pain has become debilitating and all-consuming. I've received several diagnoses and much contradictory medical advice with no resolution, so now I'm exploring the likely possibility that my pain is more TMS than structural.

So my question is, rather than being about unconscious emotions stemming from childhood, could TMS also be a manifestation of current grief? If so, would journaling, etc. about the grief (I don't think I can make it go away) help with the physical pain?

 

It's about any kind of unconscious, repressed feelings. Try journaling about your grief and see where it goes. You won't make it go away necessarily, but you might find there's some aspect of it that is troubling you in a way you don't realize.