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New pain, TMS relapse

Chris R

Chris R

New Member
I've made a ton of progress over the last 2 years with TMS healing. Had the fibro diagnosis, awful back pain, achilles, etc. Have resumed and then some the activities I used to enjoy.

Cut to recently. I had resumed playing guitar after a long break, and started to feel slight left shoulder pain, but didn't really think about it. Next, I was getting bored with my workout routine, so I had a trainer at the gym show me how to work the shoulder press machine. I did that for a few weeks, would feel a little pain at first in my left shoulder, but kept going without worry and it didn't get any worse.

Then a few weeks ago I was switching positions in bed and had a nasty bout of left shoulder pain, almost like when your back "went out" before discovering it was TMS.

My pain has been bad in the shoulder since (about 2 weeks) and despite all my evidence to the contrary, my head wants to think this pain is an exception that I tore a tendon or something. I am fighting it with TMS, trying to take control of my unconscious, but because this is a new spot of pain, some of those bad "old tapes" are playing that it is physical.

Part of me wants to see a doctor in case I did tear a tendon, but I know how that will go. MRIs, physical therapy, the whole nine yards.

Any thoughts or similar experiences from people where you think you have TMS beat only to have something new happen to second-guess yourself?
 
The more new symptoms, the more confidence grows that the next one is probably also the result of TMS. The old tape of second guessing still plays, but the volume gets to a level that you seldom hear it. I might be wrong, but I think the majority of people here do hear it from time to time when something new turns up. I do, maybe one day the volume goes to zero.... forever.... :)
The fact that you already experienced discomfort while playing guitar makes it a pretty strong case of TMS to me... but I think you have drawn that conclusion yourself already
 
I would still see a Dr. just for safety rules ok. I still have some shoulder pain for about 10 or 15 minutes at a time before and after I do my benches and overhead presses. After the Doc clears you -- you should just tell the pain to stop and make sure to look at the shoulder that is hurting when you do ok. I always get quick pain free workouts after the tms tries to bother me cause I know what it is and I tell it what to do and I control it with my mind.
It's all about habit and conditioning control, you can do it, let me know if you have any questions. Gigalos is full of wisdom and knowledge, Awesome.
Bless both of you
 
Thanks all. I'm trying to resist going down what could become a rabbit hole if I see an orthopedist. Deep down I do know this is TMS. Lots of stuff going on emotionally right now (career/relationship/living situation issues) so it is screaming TMS.
 
Chris R said:
Then a few weeks ago I was switching positions in bed and had a nasty bout of left shoulder pain, almost like when your back "went out" before discovering it was TMS.
Click to expand...

You CANNOT tear a tendon in bed--unless you and the bed fell out of a four story window! The GOOD DOCTOR teaches that the body is STRONG, it's the mind that's weak. I often get arm/shoulder pain, I went to the doc the first time, since I've heard it could be a heart-attack symptom, and was a bit concerned--he literally laughed in my face at that notion--I was greatly relieved! He wrote me an RX for PT at the physio clinic, conveniently located next door--I didn't go and went back to swimming and tossing the ball in front of the racket.

I get the arm pain from time to time and am having a twinge lately. I now just IGNORE it and carry-on. I know the pain is REAL, but caused by TMS (tension myositis, O2 deprivation to the arm, caused by unconscious stress). Each time I experience this TMS spot and ignore it, it fades away faster--better then dealing with the emotionally stressing situations causing the dis-ease.
 
Tennis Tom, your way of dealing with your pain is right-on.
I have to laugh at the several times I got in the car and drove to my doctor to ask him about this or that
and although he didn't laugh in my face, he had a wide grin on it when he told me it was nothing.

I even worried years ago about a pimple on my neck and the head cancer surgeon at the local hospital
said it had to be removed, although he couldn't even see it and asked me to show it to him.
I asked him to take a culture first but he said no, and scheduled me for surgery in my neck.
I finally got him to take a culture and a week later called for results and his secretary said
they found nothing. It was just a water pimple. So I didn't need to have my neck cut into after all.

We can't ignore all things we think are serious enough to see the doctor, but my experience
has been to wait a few days and they will go away.
 
Tennis Tom said:
You CANNOT tear a tendon in bed--unless you and the bed fell out of a four story window! The GOOD DOCTOR teaches that the body is STRONG, it's the mind that's weak. I often get arm/shoulder pain, I went to the doc the first time, since I've heard it could be a heart-attack symptom, and was a bit concerned--he literally laughed in my face at that notion--I was greatly relieved! He wrote me an RX for PT at the physio clinic, conveniently located next door--I didn't go and went back to swimming and tossing the ball in front of the racket.

I get the arm pain from time to time and am having a twinge lately. I now just IGNORE it and carry-on. I know the pain is REAL, but caused by TMS (tension myositis, O2 deprivation to the arm, caused by unconscious stress). Each time I experience this TMS spot and ignore it, it fades away faster--better then dealing with the emotionally stressing situations causing the dis-ease.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Tom, great stuff!

I'd been doing so well with managing TMS that I hadn't needed to refresh myself of the core concepts. Then over time, I think I didn't stay close enough in touch with the books/forums, so that the old tapes started to slowly creep in again. It's a good lesson for me to re-read certain book passages every now and then to make sure my TMS programming doesn't get undone.
 
Hi Chris,
I know this is an old thread but I am very interested in how you are doing now. I am dealing with the same issue after an almost full recovery I now struggle with shoulder pain and twinges in my left shoulder. I would be glad for some support!
 
Hi, Chris and Sandrine. TMS knowledge can be hard to accept and even after we believe it and heal from pain
we still need some reinforcement. Old pains can come back or new ones surface if we forget that our emotions
are causing them. TMS belief healed you before and it will again.
 
Hi Sandrine,

I know how frustrating that is to think you're "done" with TMS pain, only to have it come back to try and trick you again into thinking physical.

My shoulder pain mentioned in this thread eventually went away. I gradually went back to lifting light weights and even though those pesky doubtful thoughts kept creeping in, I didn't let that stop me. Over time, I found my worrying about something physical being wrong started to disappear again. And now I don't have any restrictions with regard to my shoulder.

I've realized how important it is for me to keep refreshing myself on the tenets of TMS. During my most enlightened moments of TMS, I was able to completely detach any pain from being a physical problem. And there were a few times where I felt my pain disappear because of this. However, I haven't remained in touch with the books as I should have, thinking I beat it for good. Eventually I get a new spot for pain and think "Oh, THIS is the one that's physical because it's a new area and I was doing X the day before this happened, yada yada." Then I have to go back and re-read and re-digest TMS passages from Sarno or Brady to help me through it.

Sometimes I think the "T" in TMS stands for Tenacious. My advice is to keep reading any passages about TMS that reinforce to you that it is psychological, enough so that you can frame your pain for what it is, then try to pay it as little attention as possible. I'm doing the same thing now for a new area of pain that won't go away after a very minor fender bender from months ago. Got checked out medically, and I know the pain is only still there because of TMS.

Hang in there!

-Chris
 
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