TMS or pulled muscle??

[Sadie]

Hi all,

Looking for some advice. I've already had this checked out by a doctor so no concern it's anything "serious", just trying to tell whether it's a muscle pull/strain or TMS. I had groin muscle pain a couple of years ago - very activity-specific, lasted about two weeks and then resolved on its own, spontaneously, on the day I went to my first PT appointment. I did the recommended stretches and it never came back, until now. Part of me thinks this is just a muscle pull, unrelated to TMS, and that I should rest it at least for a bit. But then, could it also be my brain putting pain in a place that I'm very likely to believe to be physical, when I've started to accept that all my other symptoms are psychological? Is my brain really that sneaky? I don't want to risk making a legit muscle pull worse by treating it like it's TMS... Thanks in advance for any advice

 

[Tennis Tom]

Is my brain really that sneaky?

Yes, the TMS symptom creating brain is that sneaky. If it's a REAL physical injury, torn muscles, tendons or ligaments, you would want to rest them or use them minimally allowing the tissue to to heal--the femur, the biggest bone in the body when broken, heals stronger then new in six weeks.

Did you have an accident, or did it come out of nowhere? If it's "real" structural I think you wouldn't want to be stretching aggressively for a week of two until the tissue repairs. If it's TMS you want to be thinking psychological, and not stretching with the thought that it will fix it. Do you have any imaging evidence that it's "torn"?

Go about your business gingerly testing it and see if it subsides. If it's TMS it could go away by the end of a walk, in a day or two or in a couple of weeks--when the gremlin decides the distraction is not necessary because the "reservoir of rage" has subsided, and your conscious has taken back control--or it decides you need a new symptom, the symptom imperative.

 

[Sadie]

It came out of nowhere about a week ago. I don't have any imaging evidence that it's torn. The doctor just recommended more PT. It's more consistent than my other symptoms- i.e. it hurts every time I get out of the car, sit cross-legged, etc. I guess it can't hurt to rest it for a week or so and see how things are then.

This is the only past injury I've had that I really felt was 100% physical so it seems like the perfect place for TMS to show up and trick me. But it's also still hard to accept that my brain would be that devious!

 

[Tennis Tom]

...It came out of nowhere about a week ago.

...This is the only past injury I've had that I really felt was 100% physical so it seems like the perfect place for TMS to show up and trick me.

...But it's also still hard to accept that my brain would be that devious!

All the telltale signs that it's TMS...the gremlin picks spots of previous injuries that seem logical...it is that devious...that's how this works...the human condition...proceed gingerly, but proceed...prove to your conscious self that it's TMS and build up your immunity to future bouts...Sadie, good time to read a TMS book, it's all in there, any book will do.

 

[Sadie]

Thanks, it helps just to hear someone confirm that. I've been reading In An Unspoken Voice & rereading The Mindbody Prescription but for some reason struggling with acceptance.