Neck pain with cracking, popping and grinding

Hello TMS community
I am new on this forum. I’ve definitely had TMS symptoms in the past decade. Never knew what TMS was though at the time . I’ve had digestive, bladder, and pelvic symptoms. Never got a diagnosis, but once I got the clear from scans, a new set of symptoms will show up. Now I’m dealing with neck pain. I feel it’s complicated this time due to the fact that the pain didn’t just show up . I got the Covid vaccine and had chiropractor adjustments. I got an MRI, I have the normal abnormalities. My neurosurgeon said my symptoms don’t resonate with the images. He sent me home with a psychiatrist referral and a Xanax . I did 3 rounds of pt, acupuncture, dry/ wet cupping, tens unit , epson baths and muscle relaxers . It’s been 17 months, I went from being bed bound to somewhat functional. I can do more now , but I don’t have a day without the neck tightness and tension headaches. More concerning is the popping, clicking, cracking and grinding I hear every day. I want this to be TMS, but I have doubt considering all these symptoms started around the same time I took the vaccine and got the adjustments. The vaccine can cause inflammation that attacks our soft tissue. Also chiropractor adjustments can damage soft tissue as well. About me: I’m people pleaser , have a lot of repressed emotions, definitely doesn’t know how to set boundaries and lived with anxiety most of my life. I need your guidance please! Thank you in advance.

 

In my experience of almost ten years post recovery from TMS, the popping, clicking and grinding do not mean the problems are structural, despite how convincing those symptoms may be. I have no expertise about Covid vaccines, but our mind loves to find reasons and rationales for our TMS. TMS will piggyback on just about any experience and use it as a justification. You are on a path to recovery as evidenced by your improving symptoms. Keep going and you will get there.

 

I'm still not fully healed, and one of my current symptoms is the grinding, crunching etc, of my neck. I REALLY hold my face, head and jaw muscles tight. It effects my neck and shoulders - and of course that tightness can make stuff noisy. It's just noise, and it's just tension. But the root of the tension is your unrecognized emotional reaction to thoughts, emotions, and how they create internal stress. TMS can move around - it will keep getting your attention until you learn to attend to yourself.
I think it's amazing you recognize some skills that you'd like to learn, and you can. You probably already do some of those things like set boundaries, at least with some people (even strangers). I began by recognizing boundaries I do create: I don't like to be crammed into a space with others and will leave crowded situations. I will speak up when someone is being rude to me especially if they are a stranger but not so much if they are a loved one (boy, that's changed!). I made a list of boundaries I'd like to keep, and began to mentally teach myself how I will keep them. Role played alone what I'd say or how I would behave. When I did not quite do as I hoped in person dealing with people, I was kind to myself realizing it takes time to learn. Learning how and why I have some unrecognized anxiety was helpful for me. I had been blaming myself, but once I realized it was a learned coping mechanism it was so easy to work with much of the anxiety and reduce a lot of stress. The SEP program which is free here on this website was super helpful with that. https://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Structured_Educational_Program (Structured Educational Program)

This should help you start on your journey, and also begin to help you sort out the internal skills you might like to continue to explore. Just go slow, take it a step at a time. I found this program work sometimes very long - so I broke it up into days. One day reading, one day doing the "work". Some people just like to do one lesson each day as it is written. There is no hard or fast rule.

Reading success stories can be really helpful too, you can find lots on this website.

 

In my experience, grinding, popping, cracking etc has no significant correlation with pain in any of my joints. Most of my joints pop and crack, my knees make a horrendous grinding noise, some of my fingers sort of creak when I bend them slowly, but none of this is associated with any real pain. in fact, the one joint in which I've had recurring issues with "injury" and pain is my right thumb. Funnily enough, this is one of the few joints in my entire body that DOESN'T crack, pop or grind. My advice would be to take it easy, immerse yourself in the TMS literature but don't obsess over it, get rid of any lingering doubt that your symptoms are caused by something structural, and learn to live again. In my experience, searching for repressed emotions, journaling etc didn't really do anything, but that doesn't mean these things won't be your medicine. For me, every single TMS episode comes down to me worrying about a pain (what is causing it, will it ever resolve, will it get worse...). Once I come to the conclusion, and I mean being 100% certain that there is indeed no threat, the pain resolves within a matter of weeks because I just naturally stop thinking about it and focus instead on living life.

 

Thank you for your reply! Did you experience this with your neck? I get it in my shoulder , knee and ankle but the neck ones concern me. It’s because it’s attached to my head and.

 

Thank you for the reply. I think I do the same thing (tensing up my neck and shoulders) I feel because I’m so worried about my neck , I don’t sit relaxed . Oh yes I did set my boundaries even with people I love dearly. They weren’t happy with the new me, but they can adjust. I’m doing more self love and care . This work is helping but I flare often . I’m never 100 percent pain free , but the pain fluctuates. The sounds scare me more than the pain . Also seeing other people on forums talking about suicide from these symptoms make me feel even worse about them . I’m not suicidal at all, but it makes me sad that I share symptoms with others that make them want to end their lives. How have you been doing?

 

Thank you for the reply. You experienced this and it went away? Please tell me what you did ? Did you journal? Or was it just being indifferent?

 

The cracking and popping sounds come and go, and are not correlated to pain or any other dysfunction. I ignore it. You can read my success story which includes all the things I did to overcome TMS by clicking on my name. Best wishes for your recovery.