Tendons snapping - anyone?

[AlaaJ]

Hi everyone!

I have a weird symptom that I could not find anyone here talking about it. It is this snapping in all of my joints whenever I move a muscle. It is really physical. I can really feel and hear the tendons snapping on the bones (I noticed that in my wrists, for example, whenever I rotate them I can feel the tendon closest to the pinky side of my hand snapping on my ulna bone).

My journey with chronic pain started on June 2021 when I was working on my graduation project and felt some sharp pain in my right wrist while typing. A week later, the same pain also hit my left wrist. Burning sensations and numbness became my companions every night. A month and a half after that, I started hearing those "popping" sounds in my joints whenever I moved. The burning and numbness have tremendously subsided since then, but I still suffer from this annoying snapping thing among other symptoms.

I sometimes think that it can be structural but I have reasons to think otherwise:
- It started in my wrist joints before gradually hitting all my joints
- It spread to all my joints in a relatively short time
- It seems to have something to do with my muscle stiffness (which is another symptom I experience), the snapping usually stops when I warm my muscles through high-intensity exercises, like running or jumping rope

What do you think people? Although it is not painful, yet it is so damn annoying I cannot ignore it and it feels weird to move my body feeling my tendons snapping on my bones!!

 

[Cactusflower]

Hyper focusing on symptoms is not physical, that is mental and ultimately emotional - focusing on symptoms instead of emotions. An avoidance technique our brains create to keep is “safe” from what it feels is harmful -feeling emotions. Like many “symptoms” lots of people have these sensations all the time but ignore them because so much more in life is more meaningful.
TMS is muscle tension: an anxietal tension which is another symptom of the anxiety that not feeling our emotions brings on. Basically one symptom is never different than any other be it anxiety, back pain, tight muscles.. anything that is chronic for 3 months or more and that a medical doctor can find no structural reason for.
Reading a book by Dr. Sarno will explain this well, and explain the inner tension (anxiety) well. It is fantastic you are pain free but recognizing the mind body connection. searching this website can help you realize many others have had similar symptoms: https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/search/2175965/?q=Snapping+tendons&o=date&c%5Bnode%5D=26 (Search Results for Query: Snapping tendons | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome))

 

[JanAtheCPA]

@Cactusflower has given you excellent information for getting started on a mindbody approach to your symptoms, but I have to play devil's advocate for the forum, because I noticed that you don't say whether or not you have seen a medical professional, which we always recommend before someone who is new to the concept of TMS self-diagnoses themselves.

We aren't medical professionals, which means that we can't diagnose, and we can't verify any self-diagnosis. However, if someone has seen a medical or other healthcare professional and has determined that whatever they are experiencing is either undiagnosable by standard medical methods, or at least is not medically dire and can be approached as a mindbody condition, then this is the right place to be!

And if you've ever been told that you appear to suffer from excess stress or anxiety, that's a good sign that you should be here and get to work on that. Young people in particular are suffering greatly from a world-wide mental health epidemic due to the pandemic and general world dysfunction, and doing this work can help.

 

[AlaaJ]

@JanAtheCPA Thank you for your reply. When I first got the pain in my hands, I went to a rheumatologist who gave me pain pills and told me to keep wearing the wrist brace. He even prescribed me antidepressants because of my lack of sleep. But all that didn't help me at all. So I went back and was told maybe the pain in the arms is due to a bad neck, so he ordered me to get a neck brace (can you believe that?!). I went to another rheumatologist who prescribed blood tests and massage sessions which also didn't help. I did blood tests and everything was fine. Apart from my arms, the pain moved to my shoulders and legs. I felt weakness in my legs when standing up or squatting. My hand grip became weak. A sense of dizziness the first two months. Stiff shoulders and legs. Involuntary shoulder blade movements. And now the tendon snapping. Too many symptoms I did not know how to describe my situation to anyone. I kinda gave up on doctors after that.

The thing that really struck me as weird was the fact that I did not injure myself prior to the pain. So I could not really understand why I would suddenly have all the symptoms I had out of the blue. I admit it has been (and continues to be) the most stressful period of my whole life. I am a perfectionist and somebody who puts a lot of pressure on himself to get things right. While working on my graduation project, I worked on weekends, stopped exercising and socializing. To make matters worse, weeks before my graduation ceremony (and all the anxiety involved in it), I had a faith crisis that culminated into a painful existential angst that continues to haunt me until this day. I also am the "peacemaker" of my family, putting up with the selfishness and abuse of my narcissistic big brother and witnessing, with a broken heart, his angry and violent fights with my parents on a daily basis.

If I am not diagnosed with TMS, I honestly don't know what else x)

 

[JanAtheCPA]

OMG, there you go!

Yep - when "they can't find anything wrong" or otherwise explain your symptoms, then TMS is the only logical explanation. Your experience of family dysfunction makes your self-diagnosis more certain.

We have great resources for you, starting with that search that @Cactusflower prepared for you, which you've probably already discovered shows that lots of others have had these symptoms. If you haven't read a book by Dr. Sarno I would recommend his last one, The Divided Mind, which includes chapters by six other mindbody authors, five of them MDs. Another "starter" book option is by David Clarke, MD, with the actual title "They Can't Find Anything Wrong".

You can also start doing our free Structured Educational Program on the main wiki.

Before you get started, please take some time to give yourself a TON of credit for opening up your mind to the possibilities of the mindbody connection.

Then promise yourself that you will do "the work" with commitment and self-honesty. Also check out some basic breathing and mindfulness techniques, which will teach you to calm yourself, and help you to start hearing how your subconscious fearful brain is trying to keep you in fear with your symptoms. Listening to your brain, and learning to talk back to it, is key to recovery.

It's important to understand that what we call TMS (in honor of Dr Sarno) is not a condition that we "cure" once and call good. It's a survival mechanism in the brains of all humans, that goes into overdrive for many of us - for different reasons. So this is a lifelong journey, but the good news is that you're getting started early, which means that you can create a toolkit of techniques to help you weather all of the different stresses that living our human lives can throw at us.

Good luck!

 

[Tmswarrior32]

How are you doing today? Similar symptoms especially the snapping tendons, I feel like atms expert at this point but that main tightness doesn’t seem to leave me. I know I fixate on it which is the reason. Also stressed in graduate school.