Severe cramp in lower back

I suffer from anxiety and depression and panic disorder for a long time and I have been going through a lot of stress and anxiety recently worse than I have ever had it and this morning I woke up with a bad migraine headache in my left forehead and pain my eye.

Anyway, this afternoon while suffering a migraine headache I was leaning forward on the sofa looking at my iPad when suddenly I got severe painful cramp in the right side of my lower back which drove me crazy as the pain was unbearable. The pain radiated to my lower abdomen around my bowels. The strange thing is when I got the sudden back pain my migraine headache disappeared.

The cramping pain in my back was unbearable as it was making me tense, shivery and feeling sick. My mouth was also dry and I was gagging in the bathroom. I had enough that I phoned the hospital and they booked paramedics to visit me. However, after 2 hours of the excruciating pain it suddenly disappeared when a I sat down and tried hard to relax and meditate. I am convinced that this was nothing more than TMS due to the anxiety and stress I’m suffering.

 

Great description of how the TMS mechanism goes haywire, @Artmuzz. This incident is an important piece of evidence that you can use in the future to remind yourself of what is going on AND how you can get past it. You can literally talk to your brain and say "Hey, Brain - remember that migraine which went away with that awful back pain - that also went away, because it was nothing but a distraction? Let's take some deep breaths, and relax - there is nothing going on that I can't handle on my own - I don't need to be distracted!"

This sounds like progress.

 

Thanks for the reply and heads up. However, I am really disappointed I only got one “like” on my post considering this was a big achievement for myself. This has kind of bothered me and I thought I would mention it to get it out my system in case it causes any other TMS symptoms.

 

I "liked" this, @Artmuzz, because you're willing to put yourself out there and express your disappointment. That's an interesting reaction, and probably one that is worth exploring in more depth - rather than dismissing. I once had a bad boyfriend who had a phrase that I've always remembered: "expectations are the road to hell". He had no idea what to do with the expectations of someone else (me, in that moment) but since then, I've been able to see how unmet expectations can indeed lead to the breakdown of communications, or relationships, or, as may be your case: self-worth.

But I'm also willing to offer practical advice. Look at the title of your post, and ask yourself how - or if - it offers any kind of hint as to the reason you posted this story? Also consider that you didn't get to the point of your story until the very end, and in the end, you underplayed the importance of your personal experience.

In non-fiction writing, especially on a forum where there are many competing posts, you have to engage the readers with your title and probably also with your first sentence - letting them know briefly what the post is about, even if it's a teaser.

 

Hey Artmuzz I’ve just screenshot your post to remind me not to fold under pressure but to simply “relax and meditate”. Thanks Marls

 

I'm wondering if this is a generational thing. When I post something on Facebook, it never occurs to me to go back and see how many likes or responses I have. The same with this forum. My only hope is that what I post helps someone else, or what they post is helpful to me. However, my daughters are almost obsessed with how many likes they get on FB or Instagram. It makes me wonder how many young people have chronic pain that is directly related to the pressures of social media?

 

Brilliant observation, Hattie!

 

Maybe the forum mods should disable the “likes” function on this forum then. I thought my post was helpful for others because I mentioned pain can disappear by deep breathing and bringing in positive thoughts and meditation. If there were no “likes” functions then I wouldn’t of thought any more of it and it wouldn’t of bothered me because I was thankful to JanAtheCPA’s reply which gave me a heads up and made me feel positive. However, with the fact that there is a “likes” function I was expecting more than one but anyway never mind.