Pain exclusively on right side of body

[walllc643]

At any given time, my pain tends to be present to some degree in one or more of the following areas:

• Foot/shin/knee
• Buttock
• Mid-back and upper abdomen
• Upper back/neck
• Face and arm

Here is the kicker though - the pain exists EXCLUSIVELY on the right side of my body. Under absolutely no circumstances do I experience pain anywhere on my left side. The pain began in my foot and lower leg, then slowly made its way upward over the last 4 years.

Does anyone else experience this type of head-to-toe pain purely on one side of the body?

 

[BruceMC]

Most (if not all) of my TMS symptoms occur on the left side of my body. Just goes to show that TMS is related to the central nervous system. I would speculate it's because I broke my left heel twenty years ago and those programmed pain memories function as a convenient location for my mind to locate symptoms. However, the pain in my heel disappeared years ago and didn't resurface until 10 years later shortly after my mother's death, which must have functioned as a psychological trigger. An obsessive, perfectionist personality type must focus on old physical abnormalities like that and that's how the pain gets reinforced (at least in my case). I've heard that the location of TMS pain is actually quite random though and can occur on either side of the body. Must be quite a few other folks out there with their own stories to tell about where their TMS pain is located. In any case, if the pain is located only on one side of the body, it sure suggests that the ultimate reason for TMS is brain-based.

Okay. Let's go at it TMSers! This could be a very productive thread me thinks.

 

[North Star]

Walllc643, I remember once musing over that very same thing. I was meditating and wondering by the majority of my symptoms were on the right side of my body. (Some have since migrated over to the left side, how kind. )

The thought that hit me, quite unexpectedly was this: "You're always trying to do things right." Clever thought or the voice of Wisdom, I do not know. But I do know this: it helped me understand my perfectionist traits better.

And yes, I agree, Bruce…this could be a very productive thread!

 

[walllc643]

"I would speculate it's because I broke my left heel twenty years ago and those programmed pain memories function as a convenient location for my mind to locate symptoms."

This thought has definitely crossed my mind in light of the fact that most of my injuries throughout life have occurred on my right side - numerous ankle injuries, knee injuries, "overuse injuries" from running etc. In fact, I actually just now recalled an incident from my childhood that is very telling.

I remember being 8 years old and hyper extending my right knee. It was extremely traumatic and I had to be on crutches for awhile. However, even after the knee had healed structurally I refused to give up my crutches because I was too afraid to walk on it. I clung to those crutches for MONTHS. Even once I was finally persuaded to give them up, I had pain in that right knee for a long time afterward despite the fact that there was nothing wrong with it.

 

[Ellen]

I went through a period of several years when all my pain was on the right side of my body. Eventually, it also included the left side.

But the good news is that now it is gone from both sides. It took me over a year of TMS work, but I finally got rid of it. You can too.

 

[Anne Walker]

Yep, mine is primarily right sided. Occasionally some left sided stuff, usually not as severe, just to mix things up and throw me a few curves.