Sciatica, confused by intermittent pain

[kylefreestyle]

Hi. This is my first time posting. I'm in the midst of a sciatica flair, and I'm looking for some thoughts and support. There are LOTS of stressful events in my life right now, and plenty of things that would make me want to repress feelings so I REALLY want to believe this is TMS, but I get thrown by one feature. ​

The pain happens primarily when I'm standing, and gets progressively worse until I sit down, and then I can get pretty comfortable. If the unconscious mind is using the pain as a distraction / repression why would it only be painful when I stand? I'm noticing that I'd have an easier time believing it's TMS if the pain was constant (NOT that I'm trying to tempt the universe by invoking constant pain!). Anyone else have standing-only sciatica that's been helped by approaching this from a TMS perspective? ​

Thanks!!​

 

[nancy]

Hi Kylefreestyle, I too only have pain upon standing and walking, none when
I sit or go to bed. This is 8 yrs old. I have been through every test from MRI's,
to lumbar spinal taps, bone scans, pt, acupuncture, dry needling, all kinds
of xrays of the pelvis, sacrum, steroidal injections, (16) total. No one finds any
reason for surgery!! AHA MOMENT!! All the stress I had in my life. I had not
had one peaceful moment upon standing or walking for 8 yrs. I returned home
recently from a trip by air. I had read Dr. Sarno's book on my way home for
about 2 hrs, for the 3rd to 4th time. I took a wheel chair to get me to my return flight.
I arrived home and stood up with NO PAIN!!!!! I walked the airport to baggage and
couldn't believe I had NO PAIN AT ALL. I BELIEVE!!!! Am still working on it as I know
I am sensitized. BELIEF IS WHAT YOU NEED!! Be strong, the wiki is here for you. Nancy

 

[nancy]

I forgot to add that you may be conditioned to the pain upon standing. That is
what is going on with me. I am starting to have better times tho. You may want
to look to the experts on the wiki for answers to this, I do. Nancy

 

[kylefreestyle]

Nancy, thank you so very much for your story. Wow - I'm REALLY inspired, and so happy for you that the healing has begun. I'll keep using your story is inspiration. Thank you again! Best wishes and I'd love to hear about your progress as it unfolds. Kyle Elizabeth

 

[Pingman]

Kyle - Sciatica was the first issue that caused me to explore TMS. Aside from some repressed anger in my life, I was facing health anxiety with my sciatica due to googling leg pain and tingling. I had a melt down that I might have Multiple Sclerosis.

The amount of stress and anxiety that placed on me and my nervous system was immense. With my sciatica, I too would only feel it when I stood on it for awhile. Sitting and even runnnig made it feel better. But I did the worst thing and stopped running. Things got worse.

After a GP and neuro doc cleared me of MS I moved my focus off my leg. Started running hard again and the pain has subsided. The leg is still weak becuase I favored it for about 3 weeks but the tingling, electric jolts etc have tapered off. My TMS has moved to my vision which is causing me concerns now but I was able to overcome my sciatica but just accepting tension was the issue for it. Now that my focus has shifted to my vision my sciatica pain is even less noticeable.

TMS is going to pick something that makes you vulnerable to the fear. Your pain is when you stand, when you would expect pain and when you have time to think about it. You wouldn't expect pain when sitting right.....even when running its hard to focus on the pain as much becuase your focused on the run.

 

[BruceMC]

I'm noticing that I'd have an easier time believing it's TMS if the pain was constant

If you're sciatic pain was constant, it would much more likely be due to something physical that was always pressing on a nerve or whatever. However, the intermittent nature of your symptoms means that it originates in your central nervous system. Since you've ruled out MS, your symptoms sound like they would much more likely be PPDs (psycho-physiologic disorders) that run according to their own time table driven by psychological stress. Just a random observation on my part as a non-medical professional, but I know that my sciatica and lower lumbar pain vary a great deal with time of day and stress levels in my environment. Calming my mind has had an enormous positive effect on my TMS pain. The SEP available on the TMS Wiki has had an enormous positive impact on my TMS as have first journaling and then daily meditation, all of which seem to bring into full consciousness and dissipate unpleasant emotions repressed into the unconscious mind. You seem to be going through that phase where the mind tries to figure out ways of wiggling out of the TMS diagnosis by trying to find some physical cause for your symptom. I think we've all done that until someone points it out to us or we read about the phenomenon and put two and two together for ourselves.

 

[kylefreestyle]

Thanks so much for posting Pingman, and Bruce - both really helpful! I wish you guys all continued success with this really important work. And I'm going to keep checking in here, to keep myself on track with this work. Best wishes!

 

[yb44]

I'm noticing that I'd have an easier time believing it's TMS if the pain was constant (NOT that I'm trying to tempt the universe by invoking constant pain!). Anyone else have standing-only sciatica that's been helped by approaching this from a TMS perspective?​

​

I agree with Bruce. Your pain being inconsistent is a positive sign that there isn't anything really wrong with you. If someone suffers a real injury, they would feel it whether or not they were sitting, standing or lying down. My sciatic pain reached a crescendo over the summer and is gradually subsiding but I still get sharp reminders when I move from a sitting position to a standing position. Once I am up and moving it subsides. I used to feel more pain while I was sitting, particularly on certain chairs. This is all just conditioning. The chair trigger no longer works on me because I just carried on sitting despite the pain. I continue to stand up from a sitting position. I certainly don't fancy being a beached whale. Besides it's cold where I am so I gotta keep moving.

 

[Pingman]

Hey Kyle - have you tried running to see what would happen? I know that when I run my leg actually feels better. If I lay around it can tend to hurt worse. The running test is valuable in helping convince your mind that it is mental. It doesn't make sense that a physical issue would go away if you run or wouldn't force you to be able to not run.

For me, running has helped me realize my leg issues had less to do with MS and more to do with my mind. Doctors checking me for MS were worried about all of these neuro tests with my balance, gait, range of motion. So when I go out and run two miles it has help me to mentally start progressing to the side of positive thinking. How could I have MS and run two miles...well its a possibility I guess since some with MS do but MS is already extremeylt rare at 0.10% chance, followed by a lower chance for a male, followed by lower chance if you can run two miles a day.

Excercise is a huge key in starting the mental progression out of your pain.