TMS Pain Vs. Regular Soreness

[mettareader]

Hi Everyone!

I'm a month and a half into my recovery from TMS and MBS, and I've experienced a lot of success.

I have a question!

How can I tell the difference between TMS Pain and regular muscle soreness?

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 9 years ago, which I now state that I have Mind Body Syndrome or TMS. My pain was an all-body intermuscular itch, tightness, or spasms. This has been disappearing using all the methods: Somatic Tracking, freeform journaling, etc.

I've started introducing more intense exercise than I've experienced in the last 9 years. Stuff I've been avoiding. And I'm projecting safety toward my body. It's going great. But I'm 37 now. I was 28 when diagnosed. I legit can't tell what's "normal" muscle soreness for my age or part of TMS of MBS. Anyone else have this issue? How do I address this? What's the mentality I should have toward it?

Thanks!

 

[Cactusflower]

Question: what does this matter to you? Why is it important?
How would you treat it any differently?

 

[mettareader]

Question: what does this matter to you? Why is it important?
How would you treat it any differently?

That's a really good point. Since I'm new to this I often find myself falling back into the headspace of "i need to get rid of this sensation". Sometimes I'm struggling with outcome independence. Maybe I'm looking for things and thinking "is this TMS?" "Do I need to work to get rid of this?" Which probably reinforces it.

So, what your implying is that if I'm doing Somatic Tracking it shouldn't matter what the origin is, you would treat it the same; By reinforcing the sensation is safe and ok and not really caring whether it's there or. not.

 

[BloodMoon]

Yep, I second what @Cactusflower says.

Don't keep monitoring it. If you approach exercise in a sensible, graded way you shouldn't be causing yourself a physical mischief anyway. (I'm a Brit so I guess I should explain that 'mischief' = damage/injury.)

 

[Diana-M]

I think when you exercise, if you haven’t done something in a while, you will probably get sore. But it’s nothing to worry about. Same with TMS; it’s nothing to worry about. So either way, just carry on. Right? You can take a Motrin if you have sore muscles. Be happy you’re making such good progress!

 

[Cactusflower]

That's a really good point. Since I'm new to this I often find myself falling back into the headspace of "i need to get rid of this sensation". Sometimes I'm struggling with outcome independence. Maybe I'm looking for things and thinking "is this TMS?" "Do I need to work to get rid of this?" Which probably reinforces it.

So, what your implying is that if I'm doing Somatic Tracking it shouldn't matter what the origin is, you would treat it the same; By reinforcing the sensation is safe and ok and not really caring whether it's there or. not.

Physical pain is physical pain: TMS is really the mental and emotional suffering surrounding it all. Alan Gordon is more subtle in his approach to this, but he does talk about it in his book in very personal ways. People tend to overlook this because they want instruction on getting rid of the symptoms and want things to “ do” to get them there.
And to be clear: somatic tracking is just one small tool to help your fear - there is so much more in his book eg. Not leaving home much (early in the book) or later on, his driving story. Lots to unpack!

If you have not yet read a book by Dr. Sarno, I highly suggest it. It might help you put a few more pieces together.

 

[mettareader]

I think when you exercise, if you haven’t done something in a while, you will probably get sore. But it’s nothing to worry about. Same with TMS; it’s nothing to worry about. So either way, just carry on. Right? You can take a Motrin if you have sore muscles. Be happy you’re making such good progress!

This made a lot of sense! Thanks again Diana!

 

[mettareader]

Yep, I second what @Cactusflower says.

Don't keep monitoring it. If you approach exercise in a sensible, graded way you shouldn't be causing yourself a physical mischief anyway. (I'm a Brit so I guess I should explain that 'mischief' = damage/injury.)

It's the attitude of "oh that's here, how interesting" and just projecting safety, and going about your day right?

 

[mettareader]

Physical pain is physical pain: TMS is really the mental and emotional suffering surrounding it all. Alan Gordon is more subtle in his approach to this, but he does talk about it in his book in very personal ways. People tend to overlook this because they want instruction on getting rid of the symptoms and want things to “ do” to get them there.
And to be clear: somatic tracking is just one small tool to help your fear - there is so much more in his book eg. Not leaving home much (early in the book) or later on, his driving story. Lots to unpack!

If you have not yet read a book by Dr. Sarno, I highly suggest it. It might help you put a few more pieces together.

I've read The Way Out and Unlearn Your Pain so far and I've been really sticking to those.

I wasn't completely understanding what you were saying in that first paragraph there. Could you try describing it a different way?

 

[BloodMoon]

It's the attitude of "oh that's here, how interesting" and just projecting safety, and going about your day right?

Yes, exactly!

 

[JanAtheCPA]

But I'm 37 now. I was 28 when diagnosed. I

I'm also going to suggest that 37 is several decades too soon to be worrying about noticeable age-related exercise discomfort, which leads me to the further suggestion that you might want to look specifically at the role that health and exercise anxiety play in your life so far. If you've done the self-examination exercises in Unlearn Your Pain, use some of those writing techniques to uncover your earliest memories about anxiety around activities and exercise.

I know what I'm talking about, both the anxiety, and the age. I've fought the exercise anxiety all my life but managed to remain very active as long as eye-hand coordination and/or teams were not involved I decided to get serious about weight-bearing exercise at about age 60 after a borderline bone density scan, so I started to see a personal trainer who pushed me well beyond what I ever thought I would do in my life, never mind ten years after menopause. If I was nervous, she could have me adjust, back off, or, sometimes, change my mindset. Best thing I ever did for myself.

 

[Cactusflower]

"Physical pain is physical pain: TMS is really the mental and emotional suffering surrounding it all. Alan Gordon is more subtle in his approach to this, but he does talk about it in his book in very personal ways. People tend to overlook this because they want instruction on getting rid of the symptoms and want things to “ do” to get them there.
And to be clear: somatic tracking is just one small tool to help your fear - there is so much more in his book eg. Not leaving home much (early in the book) or later on, his driving story. Lots to unpack!"

You asked me to explain the first paragraph, which is why I recommend reading a book by Dr. Sarno and describes how our personality types, personal history (eg. trauma which is not just things that happened to us, but how we reacted to the things that have happened to us), anxiety, OCD type thoughts, worry, fear, depression and most of all unfelt or subconscious emotions play into TMS. These things create the suffering we feel - the things that are excluding us from leading our "old" life or even a full life. They are things like the exercise anxiety @JanAtheCPA mentions, or unfounded "age" related fears (or any fears that seem to rule your life). We usually aren't aware of how much these things stand in our way because we are used to them. So this is why most other TMS therapists recommend some form of emotional exploration eg. Journaling. Alan doesn't use this tool in his books but many of the therapists he's trained do or at least some form of similar tools (Vanessa Blackstone: The Pain Reproscessing Therapy Workbook).
Feeding into the personality trait side of what Dr. Sarno discusses in his books, many/most TMS-ers are perfectionists and legalists. They want to have a direct blueprint to wellness and follow it to a "T" to get better soon. You are already displaying the ability to think outside of those lines, which is where mindset comes into play. We can have certain personality traits - they are no problem, until once again, they get in our way. Once again, it takes a good hard look with vulnerable honesty within ourselves to see where those things reside, and how we are utilizing them. What we think of as personality traits are usually forms of learned behaviors as children - they are types of coping mechanisms and are neither good nor bad unless they stand in our way to move forward and live a full and healthy life of our desire. Many of us fele like we aren't healing unless we are "doing" active tasks or assignments - sometimes things are much more subtle. Like myself, it seems like you either have or are cultivating a more open mind about how this all works and might continue to work for you. Keep going there, keep having an open mind and an open heart to see the possibilities of your journey not only to being pain free but also from the suffering it brings - all of these things are TMS related and some are addressed more by one method than say other methods. You don't need to research this out the wazoo - you just keep plugging along until you get the feeling there might be more to your journey and you can ask us about what you are thinking.
eg. recently another person posted they have been using guided meditations (an eg. of which is a body scan which can be in some ways similar to Somatic Tracking.) they would now curious about starting unguided meditation and how to go about doing that. Other folks are not yet wanting to or find meditation difficult and do better with movement like a long, quiet walk in nature. This helps regulate the nervous system. It's all sort of part of the puzzle. It can change, evolve, stay the same ... whatever it is, is just fine.