Tension

[Mountainclimber1]

Hi!

I hope you're all having a good day so far. My symptoms are connected with tension and trigger points (which I guess are physical symptoms), but the cause of it is probably more psychological than I have thought in the past few years.

I have some questions regarding tension:
1. Should you avoid activities that may cause tension, or is it the fear of these activities that causes tension? One significant concern for me has been "poor posture"/"text neck," and there are many articles on what I would call reputable medical forums suggesting that bad posture or looking down at the phone can lead to tension because your neck bears more weight in a flexed position, and your shoulders work harder, etc. However, studies have shown very little connection between posture and pain (including neck flexion and pain). Do you have any advice on how I can approach this subject to calm my fears?

2. How should I treat my tension? Is it a bad idea to massage it and the trigger points? I mean, the problem seems to be from a physical standpoint with trigger points, or is this related to the whole concept of TMS that I might be missing? Could the pain be real and caused by the brain through oxygen deprivation, leading to trigger points and tension? Have any of you dealt with tension in the upper back, shoulders, neck, and tension headaches in conjunction with that? If so, what has been beneficial?

I appreciate all your help.

 

[miffybunny]

It sounds like you have been to various practitioners like PT's and acupuncturists and chiros etc., because you use a lot of verbiage that conjures imagery that has no basis in reality. Basically you have to deprogram (unbrainwash yourself ) from these messages of fear and fantastical notions that are simply not scientific. You are generating tension all day long through your THOUGHTS. This mental tension has the same effect of working out in the gym for 10 hours straight every day. All of that tension absolutely manifests in striated muscles (the most common pathways), smooth muscles, and nerves. Dr. Sarno advised everyone to resume all normal physical activity but before you can even do that you MUST resume all normal MENTAL activity. Everything stems from our thoughts and beliefs. Everything. The pain and spasms and tightness or whatever to infinity is not CAUSED by lack of oxygen or poor posture or any of that (those are merely transient symptoms)...they are caused by your thoughts. The genesis is always, always , always, the brain and the brain receives instructions from us (our minds). You will need to purge your mind of all the clutter and myths you were fed, and you will need to get clarity on what is really going on here...which is just anxiety. Unfortunately our society and media is replete with myths and propaganda so your job will be to obtain accurate info and counter these doubt thoughts with logic. You will need to eradicate all doubt or it will keep you stuck in the hamster wheel of questioning, researching, dr. hopping, message board asking, reassurance seeking, googling etc etc. Trust me on this. You are totally fine. Ther's nothing wrong with you...just fear borne out of confusion, uncertainty, and doubt. The solution is knowledge and the solution is you. Millions of people have atrocious posture and trigger points are the stuff of nonsense. Forget about all that. And yes I experienced allll of that and then some (lower back, piriformis, leg pain and spasms, bladder spasms, and even CRPS). I got the 411, stopped buying into the bs of the world and society, and I lost my fear. I realized I was not broken or damaged. It was all temporary.. and it was.

 

[Mountainclimber1]

It sounds like you have been to various practitioners like PT's and acupuncturists and chiros etc., because you use a lot of verbiage that conjures imagery that has no basis in reality. Basically you have to deprogram (unbrainwash yourself ) from these messages of fear and fantastical notions that are simply not scientific. You are generating tension all day long through your THOUGHTS. This mental tension has the same effect of working out in the gym for 10 hours straight every day. All of that tension absolutely manifests in striated muscles (the most common pathways), smooth muscles, and nerves. Dr. Sarno advised everyone to resume all normal physical activity but before you can even do that you MUST resume all normal MENTAL activity. Everything stems from our thoughts and beliefs. Everything. The pain and spasms and tightness or whatever to infinity is not CAUSED by lack of oxygen or poor posture or any of that (those are merely transient symptoms)...they are caused by your thoughts. The genesis is always, always , always, the brain and the brain receives instructions from us (our minds). You will need to purge your mind of all the clutter and myths you were fed, and you will need to get clarity on what is really going on here...which is just anxiety. Unfortunately our society and media is replete with myths and propaganda so your job will be to obtain accurate info and counter these doubt thoughts with logic. You will need to eradicate all doubt or it will keep you stuck in the hamster wheel of questioning, researching, dr. hopping, message board asking, reassurance seeking, googling etc etc. Trust me on this. You are totally fine. Ther's nothing wrong with you...just fear borne out of confusion, uncertainty, and doubt. The solution is knowledge and the solution is you. Millions of people have atrocious posture and trigger points are the stuff of nonsense. Forget about all that. And yes I experienced allll of that and then some (lower back, piriformis, leg pain and spasms, bladder spasms, and even CRPS). I got the 411, stopped buying into the bs of the world and society, and I lost my fear. I realized I was not broken or damaged. It was all temporary.. and it was.

Thank you for your reply. I truly hope that what you just said is correct, but it's just so hard to trust it. As you mentioned, I've been inundated with content and ideas suggesting that my poor posture during gaming, neck flexion, and phone use are the causes of tension and pain in my body (over the last 8 years, I have actively tried to avoid these activities or perform them with "good posture," and it has helped reduce my pain, but it hasn't significantly improved my quality of life due to the fear and emotions associated with them. I suppose that's evidence enough that posture alone isn't a sufficient answer to my problems.). I need to understand how it's even possible for so many experts with years of education in the field to disseminate misinformation, or is it simply information that has been magnified by anxiety and fear? How did you acquire this knowledge? Was it through books by Dr. Sarno, Alan Gordon, etc.? And how did you manage to trust their perspectives more and convince yourself that they were right while others advocating for posture were wrong? What steps did you take to "unbrainwash yourself"?

 

[miffybunny]

Hi again! If you notice, my comment is unequivocal (borderline rabid lol) and there's a reason for that. The past 3 decades of neuroscience research on the brain has debunked and proven that these myths (that are STILL practiced in clinical care DESPITE the hard evidence to the contrary) are simply false. Clinical practice (gold standard if you will) is usually 30 years behind the research anyway. It takes decades to trickle down and let's face i,t there is no incentive for practitioners to change their methodology when you consider that Pain Management in itself is a 600 billion dollar a year industry. The entire economy would collapse. For centuries people believed that the earth was flat and that germs did not cause illness. paradigm shifts can take centuries unfortunately. It's called "consensus medicine" which translates to social agreements which then becomes "common knowledge". The problem with this is that common knowledge is often incorrect and based on misinformation. The collective belief systems become entrenched. Make no mistake these are INDUSTRIES and even those who are well intended who are in practice, can be ignorant (there are huge blind spots and deficits in their medical training...no time is spent on the brain and chronic pain....my father is a retired physician so no shade at all...it's not their fault most of the time), some are arrogant, and hubris driven. No one wants to admit that all of their training is based on a house of cards. It renders them obsolete. This is medical medievalism on an epic scale...hence the opiate epidemic. The most contagious disease of earth is fear and we are wallowing in it. It did not take much to deprogram myself because none of what any of the doctors were telling me made any sense, there was no cohesive theory (only contradictory and partial ones at best), and they sure as heck were not getting me better. When you are operating off of an incorrect premise (diagnosis), the treatment will also be incorrect, and the outcome not what is desired. We don't treat symptoms. It's bad medicine, as Sarno always said. We treat the cause. The cause is the brain on fear stemming from doubt and inaccurate info. We combat this with FACTS. The PPDA website has an annotated bibliography of scientific studies, and if you're not into that, you only have to look at evolution and common sense. How is it that the human species which has existed for thousands of years , historically never saw all of these mystery maladies? Why is it that people in third world countries or tribes in the rain forest who hunt barefoot, carry massive loads on their heads for miles and miles, women going through multiple pregnancies and childbirths against trees etc etc don't have all of these problems? The answer is the way in which they were enculturated and the messages their brains were given. Check out the PPDA, Dr. Hanscom, Dr. Schubiner. Georgie Oldfield (a PT), Dr. Lisa Rankin, scientist Dr. Candace Pert, and Dr. Dan Ratner who is a doubt ninja in the field.

 

[JanAtheCPA]

I need to understand how it's even possible for so many experts with years of education in the field to disseminate misinformation,

@Mountainclimber1, we see this ALL THE F***ING time! I don't care what topic you're talking about. Current case in point: why were egg yolks, butter, and whole-milk products demonized for DECADES by well-educated and knowledgable medical and nutritional professionals? The history of that is fascinating, but the important fact is that there were plenty of us who ignored the cholesterol fear-mongering BS when it started in the 70s, and we never bought into the fear of these foods, and we avoided knowingly purchasing or ingesting the fake alternatives. And now we're being told that they are perfectly healthy, and that in fact, whole-milk products are healthier than non-fat processed ones.

But I was raised by a mother who embraced fresh food and real food and rejected fake processed food. She also had a bumper sticker on her car that said "Question Authority".

 

[JanAtheCPA]

I truly hope that what you just said is correct, but it's just so hard to trust it.

This is an example of a syndrome that we see here all the time: it's YBS. "Yes, But...." Syndrome. You will need to recover from YBS before you can address TMS.

I'm being a bit snarky, but I am also extremely serious about this. YBS is a symptom of a much worse syndrome, which is that of being a victim. Victimhood MUST be overcome in order to recover both mentally and physically from your suffering.

Have any of you dealt with tension in the upper back, shoulders, neck, and tension headaches in conjunction with that?

Everybody here has had, and still experiences, these classic symptoms of mental and emotional stress.

If so, what has been beneficial?

Ignoring the symptoms, and doing the emotional work. Borderline rabidness aside , @miffybunny is spot on.

I think you may need a systematic and fairly simplified approach to doing the work. I recommend the SEP, the Structured Educational Program which is on the main tmswiki.org. It's free, with no signup or registration required. Don't allow your TMS brain to rush through it - do just one "Day" per day and do it with intention and (when you get to the writing exercises) with complete honesty. Use your extra time to explore mindfulness, anxiety reduction, and therapeutic breathing techniques.

 

[Mountainclimber1]

Thank you for taking the time to try to guide me through this journey. It's certainly a whole new approach that I didn't know about, even though I've always thought the brain was somewhat a part of my problem. I've pondered in my days about what information I take in and how to determine if the information is true or not (fear of getting misinformation on my part certainly...). I believe that TMS is true, even though my thoughts tend to be skeptical (have to work on YBS as mentioned), especially when the information isn't widely known. I don't understand why we don't hear more about the brain's role in pain. Is it because it's "new" information in contrast to "normal" medical information?
At the moment, I'm taking my time going through the Pain Recovery Program (on day 7) and will start reading "The Way Out" book today. I'm taking it slow at the moment, but I will definitely check out the Structured Educational Program after completing the Pain Recovery Program. I'm really curious to learn more about this!

 

[miffybunny]

Thank you for taking the time to try to guide me through this journey. It's certainly a whole new approach that I didn't know about, even though I've always thought the brain was somewhat a part of my problem. I've pondered in my days about what information I take in and how to determine if the information is true or not (fear of getting misinformation on my part certainly...). I believe that TMS is true, even though my thoughts tend to be skeptical (have to work on YBS as mentioned), especially when the information isn't widely known. I don't understand why we don't hear more about the brain's role in pain. Is it because it's "new" information in contrast to "normal" medical information?
At the moment, I'm taking my time going through the Pain Recovery Program (on day 7) and will start reading "The Way Out" book today. I'm taking it slow at the moment, but I will definitely check out the Structured Educational Program after completing the Pain Recovery Program. I'm really curious to learn more about this!

It's the SOLE cause. The anxious brain is nearly always the one and only factor in these chronic pain syndromes. This is where conventional medicine misses the mark. They view it as one possible factor when it is actually the only factor. We are on the cusp of a revolution and a new paradigm. The opiate epidemic has even forced insurance companies to keep up with the current research. There is no incentive to disseminate this (Big Pharma, medical and alternative industries would lose billions.). When you want to find the hidden agenda, just follow the money trail. As far as individuals and herd mentality, a lot of it is lack of access to the info. (although now we have the internet lol) and just societal conditioning that I referred to above.

 

[TG957]

You know what muscle tension is? It is your body's response to fear, pure TMS. Have you heard of fight or flight response? This is what you need to look into. I had full-blown dystonia (muscle contractions) and it is now all gone. Work on your emotions and you will heal.

 

[Mountainclimber1]

You know what muscle tension is? It is your body's response to fear, pure TMS. Have you heard of fight or flight response? This is what you need to look into. I had full-blown dystonia (muscle contractions) and it is now all gone. Work on your emotions and you will heal.

As some members mentioned earlier, I need to educate myself more on the subject. I truly believe it all boils down to fear and confusion on my part. If I were to try to explain my confusion, it lies in the fact that tension can be created both through physical work, such as in the gym, and emotionally. The tension from the gym might also be a fear response, but for what purpose? Is it to protect ourselves from overworking the muscles? How can one differentiate between tension arising from "physical work" and tension resulting from emotional stress?

 

[TG957]

As some members mentioned earlier, I need to educate myself more on the subject. I truly believe it all boils down to fear and confusion on my part. If I were to try to explain my confusion, it lies in the fact that tension can be created both through physical work, such as in the gym, and emotionally. The tension from the gym might also be a fear response, but for what purpose? Is it to protect ourselves from overworking the muscles? How can one differentiate between tension arising from "physical work" and tension resulting from emotional stress?

Overworked muscles heal quickly. Fearful muscles do not relax.

 

[miffybunny]

Lifting weights or any exercises has a cause and effect of: exertion leading to possible soreness or fatigue...muscles build and repair etc. The real issue is not the temporary physical response to exercise but the chronic response of your brain to your thoughts. Epictetus wrote "People are not disturbed by things but of the views they take of them". So it's not what you do or don't do. It's what you are thinking while you are doing it. Read that again lol. If while working out you are thinking "I hope this doesn't overwork my muscles". (I highly doubt you are thinking that! But it's just an example), then your brain will hand you symptoms on a silver platter. There is a huge distinction between physical pain ( of a structural or pathology etiology...injury for ex) and brain based pain which are false alarm signals generated by the brain from messages of danger (threat physiology, stress response). If most of the thoughts you are thinking all day long are fear based, catastrophic, pressure driven, hypervigilant, needing to "fix" something, frustrated, etc, then your brain will respond in kind. The input is "Danger! Danger! Problem! " and the output is signals to alert you. The brain and body get into a habit and these patterns of thoughts and behaviors become entrenched...automatic...constant. The body is a direct reflection of whatever is transpiring your psychology. It's all easily reversible as well as temporary, once you have clarity and your brain realizes there is no danger (other than you and your own thoughts!). Once you have the correct information, your fear will automatically go down. Fear is the fuel for symptoms . Knowing that you aren't really broken and stuck in this hellish feedback loop for the rest of your life will make you feel safe. The brain calms down and symptoms dissipate. You have rendered the tms strategy useless. So keep reading because knowledge is the medicine and the "cure".

 

[JanAtheCPA]

How can one differentiate between tension arising from "physical work" and tension resulting from emotional stress?

Why do you think this distinction even matters? Spending mental and emotional energy on this question is a product of your brain on TMS. Gently and compassionately tell your poor TMS brain "Thanks, but no thanks", and let it go. Put your energy somewhere useful!