Please help, Trigger fingers TMS?

So I have a strange situation. I developed an unexpected heart problem after something triggered it. Luckily it was mild and I was fine but mentally it affected me more than I could have ever imagined.

I am already someone with health anxiety especially surrounding my heart as I have a benign arrhythmia so palpitations are common but still scare me. I have a history of asthma, highly sensitive person and I have dust allergies which I know can all point to me being more prone to developing TMS but I still have trouble convincing myself.

I was in and out of the emergency room because of heart pain about 5times in one month for them to just tell me its anxiety. I finally had an echocardiogram which proved my heart has fully healed and is better after my condition. Not long after the heart pain went away, the muscle spasms and sleep paralysis started. Then I woke up one night with trigger finger.

I now have trigger finger on both hands in my pinkies, ring fingers and middle fingers (some days one side is worse and sometimes they will equally be as bad as each other)

I have had blood tests which have all came back normal and show little to no inflammation so I don’t understand what’s going on.

I have also noticed my joints cracking more and my fingers will crunch, click and sometimes become tingly but not much and only for a few seconds/minutes.

I had an xray of my neck which showed its slightly curved and my doctor reckons its all due to a trapped nerve coming from me neck (honestly I have a hard time believing that).

I’m only 20 with trigger fingers on nearly all my hands, I really need help. I’m becoming so depressed because of this.

I’m hoping someone has had a similar experience, I would help me so much more in finally accepting this could be TMS.

Thank you to anyone who reads this and decides to answer

 

Muscle spasms in various places are quite common, and so are crunchy joints as result of spasms. I had both, and they are all gone.

Looks like you are experiencing a self-propelled cycle of spasm-fear-more spasms. It clearly is tms. Focus on emotional work and you will be fine.

 

At the risk of being dismissive, @Nightfallibra, your entire story boils down to these three things. The physical descriptions and details are irrelevant at this point, because you've been medically cleared.

The awareness that this is very likely to be TMS comes from your conscious and rational brain. The doubt comes from your primitive, unconscious, fearful, and irrational brain.

You've probably been raised to be fearful. We are seeing more and more young people like you, and it is, quite frankly, appalling for those of us who were raised in a different time, without the recent parental obssession over safety and disinfecting. It's ultimately very sad. And I totally get that you have spent a huge proportion of your years living in a world that is pretty scary and dysfunctional, and over which you have little or no control. Our poor fearful brains do not like being unable to control our environment.

The good news is that you can change your brain's physiological reactions to all of this fear, get back your physical health, and obtain, perhaps for the first time, some mental and emotional equanimity. To do this, you must be willing to mindfully push back against your fear brain, and acknowledge that it isn't doing you any favors in the modern world.

Where are you at right now with your TMS knowledge? It stars with one of Dr. Sarno's books (I recommend his last one, The Divided Mind, written with six chapters by five other doctors and a psychologist). Watch the Dr. Sarno video that is the exercise for Day 1 of our Structured Educational Program (on the main tmswiki.org site). And watch this video (or listen to the podcast) that is posted and discussed on this thread: new long and awesome interview | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome) (tmswiki.org)

Hang in there - you can do this, but you have to do "the work".

 

@Nightfallibra
I have been dealing with TMS symptoms for a while now. The anxiety started shortly after a very stressful time in my life and like you it turned out to be ok but for some reason, my body continued to be in a state of fear, I have extreme low back stiffness/pain and I experienced many other symptoms including trigger fingers on both hands. I had read all of Sarno’s books and I attributed the trigger fingers to TMS. It went away when I stopped being afraid of it.
Now I’m dealing with pain/sensations in the upper buttocks which I want to say is TMS but the doubt always comes back.
Like you, I always had health anxiety and maybe brought up to fear as I had over protective parents. I had all the medical test done in my back, MRI, bone scans etc and all good but the buttocks discomfort is driving me crazy and scared it will never go away

As far as your triggered finger, I want to reaffirm that I had it and yes, it went away.

now if someone reads this who had upper buttocks discomfort that makes one feel anxious, I hope they tell me a success story.

Hope this helps you

 

Thank you so much for your reply. I haven’t come across anyone who has confirmed they’ve had trigger fingers from TMS.

Almost in tears as to how much worry has been lifted after reading what you’ve written. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer and sharing your experience.

Also I have had severe pain in my lower back, felt almost like nerve pain and was so bad I couldn’t walk. The next following weeks some more things happened that caused alot of anxiety for me and I guess seeing as i didnt focus on the pain it completely went away.

I hope this happens for you and that you become pain free soon!

 

@Nightfallibra
My pleasure, often when you know of someone who had the identical symptoms, it really really helps. Trust me, I was worried also when I had it, but it’s really just another symptoms.

 

Thats so reassuring. When I got my first trigger finger I googled it and managed to convince myself I had an autoimmune disease like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis even after my blood tests were normal. I realised not long after my fingers became a lot worse, i made everything more scary and i became more and more anxious.

I look forward to the day i can finally wake up and not have trigger fingers! they’re a pain. Hopefully thanks to you they will go away soon, thank you again.

 

@miffybunny @Nightfallibra
I wanted to also mention a supporter on this website, her TMS wiki name is miffybunny. She is also an excellent source of information. Compassionate, knowledgeable on TMS and sounds like an all around good person.

 

@miffybunny

hope it’s ok that I mentioned you, please see above post.

 

@LMB,

Of course! Thank you so much for your kind words!!

 

Hi again,

i hope this isn’t bothering you but I woke up this morning and my trigger finger in my left hand was at its worst it’s ever been, it felt like it was about to fully lock which it’s never done before.

The days after reading what you wrote, I woke up and almost didn’t even notice my trigger fingers but suddenly it’s become like this again.

if you don’t mind me asking, how bad were your trigger fingers, how long did you have them for and how long did they take to go away?

thank you,

 

I recall I had it on both hands not quite sure for how long but it was definitely months, the fact that it actually went away for a bit is a good indication that it’s not structural. I recall that it was worse some days and better other days just like many other TMS symptoms. Very frustrating, I know.