Chizzy, what matters is: does TMS help get rid of the pain?
My understanding of TMS and my conclusions did not help me get rid or even diminish my pelvic floor and genital pain.
My understanding is what I mentioned, just like my conclusions.
What are your conclusions, what do you do practically that helps you more and more diminish your pain?
HI there. i have the same pain. i'm not out of the woods yet, my symptoms have been very varied since treating this as TMS. Here are some of the clues that i had TMS.
first, i had interstitial cystitis (painful bladder syndrome). my case was atypical though, i could eat whatever i wanted, maybe because i learned never to fear certain foods in the first place, and my pain would come in dreadful flares, but then randomly just STOP for years. This sort of rules out actual nerve damage.
Then i had a nerve block to a major pelvic nerve, which was a bad idea, because suddenly, my pudendal nerve got severely irritated, and i ended up with a condition called pudendal neuralgia. My mind was so distraught over this new debilitating condition, that the horrid bladder flare which had been raging a year and only getting worse, suddenly jumped ship to the pudendal area. This made no sense to me. I also noticed when i have a heavy cry, my pain (both bladder and later, pudendal) would drastically reduce temporarily.
I also didnt have sitting or rectal pain at first, which is very common for PN. I only had crotch pain. When i saw a PN doctor, he told me to stop all activities like bike riding (my passion) and sex, anythimg i thought was a trigger. I left the office depressed, and the next day, boom, i had rectal and sitting pain.
One day i decided i was worse than ever, and had major depression, and i went out and bought a special saddle for my bike, and started integrating riding back into my life. Sometimes i was ok....other times i'd flare. I had to find that fine line. However, i always had a cycle of fear around riding my bike. I'd be nervous beforehand, and VERY scared afterwards that i might have damaged something.
When i learned about TMS, i decided to change my attitude around riding. Instead of approaching it with fear of damage, i tried to approach it as fun and getting my life back. Suddenly the 4-5 miles i could only muster for a year, grew to 10 miles. Then more. Now these days, i can ride up to 20 miles, and one time close to 30! I also didnt get horrid flares after. Maybe a slight uptick in pain for a few days, but nothing like before when i was scared. Of course, i still have these fear thoughts deep in the background of my mind, and i think that's why i'm having trouble riding more than once a week. i'm working on that. I've ridden twice recently, and was ok. All it was, was a change in my attitude.
however, my regular life still has pain. I have pain when i work, and when i'm lounging around at home. This is the part i'm still trying to work on. i notice it gets worse when i lay down and play on my phone. Deep down i have depression and negative feelings about being a loser and a shut-in, and i think that triggers it.
i do have other stories, non-pelvic pain and illness that i now suspect was TMS as well.
I was just pointing out the very obvious, that his attitude is not going to get him very far. I can stand criticism, I just feel it should be warranted, which in this case is not.
