TMS Wrist/finger pain (kind of a success story)

Hello!
TL: DR go to last two paragraphs

I got TMS in my wrists late January 2015 when I was 20 years old.
I've always been gaming a lot and also suffered from a lot of depression, suicidal thoughts, social anxiety and a difficult childhood.
In January I got wrist pain in both my hands at the same time (strong, burning sensation. I was at a very low point and wanted to die at this point) and stopped using them immediately. I waited 6 weeks before I got so mad/depressed that I stopped caring and just started using them while ignoring the pain (I didn't know about TMS at this point). The pain got rly bad but I kept icing my hands while still playing, sometimes I had to stop because it got too bad but I'd just continue the next day. After some time the pain went away, and I had no clue why. My hands were good for 1 month, until my life became difficult again and the pain came back so once again I stopped using them. After some weeks I went to the doctor, and he looked at my hands for two seconds and diagnosed me with tendonitis and gave me anti-inflammatory medicine (I didn't believe him because I was 100% sure I had actual tendon damage, tendinosis, and had read that inflammation couldn't last that long)
I felt helpless and had nowhere to turn, but I kept away from the computer. I then found out about TMS and bought Sarno's book, but I gave up half way through (I believed 100% in TMS) because he said that if you have doubt, it won't work - which I had. I was 50/50 in my self-diagnosis between tendinosis and TMS, so I couldn't make any progress. In early September I had MRI taken of both my hands, and they were analysed by the people who took them and a woman at our main hospital in Norway, they found nothing and told me my hands are fine.
With this I felt 100% certain that my problem was mental, and played through the pain happily. It went away, I still get the burning sensation sometimes, but it goes away once I acknowledge it for what it is.

I've come here because at the moment I still can't play, because I have now gotten a sharp pain (sometimes a bit numbing) in my right click and left click fingers, and I have no idea if this is a physical problem or part of TMS. I stopped almost instantly when it came, and I've been resting since 3 days now. I've had this pain 3 times and the first time it went away by itself, the second time I got mad after one day rest and just played through it and it stopped hurting. (I had played a game where I use my right click a lot more than I've ever done, so I was convinced this was why)

My pain has always been a burning sensation in the wrist, and have never really had any problems with my fingers (apart from the time I ignored it after 6 weeks, making my fingers very numb aswell) Since this pain is sharp and in the fingers, I'm in need of help since I have no idea if this pain could be part of TMS or if I have to avoid all activities till the pain goes away on its own (if it's a physical problem)

 

Hi, Karll. Your pain is not structural, so it is TMS from your emotions. Something, perhaps in your past, is causing the pain in your wrists.
I urge you to start the Structured Educational Program, free in the subforum of this web site, to discover the emotions causing your pain.
It also would be helpful if you did some gaming on the computer a few minutes at a time, to build up confidence that the pain is most likely a conditioned reflex.

Your wrists are fine. Tell your mind that they are well and they will be.

Here is a post from someone who healed 95 percent through the SEP. He soon afterward posted that he was 100 percent pain-free.

Kevin healed 95 % from SEP


Welcome to the SEP and to the path of recovery. I am on my final two days of the program and I can say with complete confidence that I am a changed man. I started after 6 months of nasty low-back/butt/leg pain, could hardly walk, stand, etc. was in physical therapy, chiropractor, acupuncture, pain medications, etc.. the usual. My MRI showed 3 disk bulges/herniations touching nerves, so that is what I believe it to be....that is until I read Dr. Sarno and found this site.

I encourage you to really get involved, follow the instructions, do the journaling, take time to read all the suggested readings, and watch the videos. I'd say I'm 95% cured. There is still some very light lingering "annoyance", but I still have some work to do. I've been walking miles with hardly any pain these last few weeks. But even more, if the pain comes on now, it just doesn't bother me like it used to, I sorta just see it, acknowledge it, and go about my business. It took working the program to get to that point, but 6 weeks compared to 6 months is nothing! I made more progress in the first week than I did from two months of PT!!! It's going to challenge you and your "beliefs" in medicine, but you have nothing to lose. We generally wind up here when all else fails.

So give it a shot, especially before considering anything invasive like surgery. If you put the work in, you will get better. Have you read Dr. Sarno yet? I assume you have since you're here, but in case you haven't, definitely readHealing Back Pain. Again, it will challenge everything you've believed about your pain, and backs in general. You'll be encouraged to resume life as normal, i.e. stop ALL "therapies" (PT, chiro, etc.), stop taking medications, and most importantly, stop thinking STRUCTURAL problems are the cause of your pain and shift to psychological as the reason.....again, this can be difficult and takes some time to sink in, so be patient and kind to yourself.

It was a process for me. A few of the bigger moves in my case were: I ripped up and threw out my MRI test results (I found myself obsessively reading over them and comparing them to other results I could find on the web and even here on the TMSwiki site...); I got back to the gym and stopped using a weight belt; and I even cancelled an appointment I had made with aTMS doctorbecause it was more than a month away and it was hindering my recovery (that is, my 100% belief in TMS was lagging because I had this pending appointment, but as soon as I cancelled it, my recovery sped up significantly). Everyone's journey is unique to their situation, but I've found that really committing to the program and brining what I learn from it into my daily life has had profound results. Also, sharing along the way here in these forums has been extremely helpful - there's something about knowing that you're not alone in your TMS recovery that really helps. I encourage you to look through my past posts for some insight into my experience with SEP. Like I said, I'm just now finishing, tomorrow is my final day, and I feel like a changed person. It's amazing. And I feel as though it is something that one carries on with, not just like a one time 6 week thing and that's that...it has helped me to get to know myself and taught me tools to "deal" with my emotions. Learning and accepting TMS is a life changer for sure.

 

Hi Karll, and welcome! What you are experiencing is what Dr. Sarno calls the Symptom Imperative. It means that your brain is still fighting you, trying to distract you from experiencing your repressed negative emotions. You messed around with the plan by banishing your first pain, so it's found another place to create pain.

Don't ever forget that pain is created in your brain. If you experience an injury, the nerves at the injury site have to send a danger message to the brain, which then sends back a pain message so you don't move the injured area. This means that the brain is perfectly capable of sending pain messages all by itself - and it does.

Have you done anything to address your depression and anxiety? The second book I read is Hope and Help for Your Nerves, by Dr. Claire Weekes - she wrote the book 60 years ago and she addressed the physical symptoms that come with anxiety. And here is a fantastic post that was just written today about her book:
http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/thread...ing-for-me-if-you-are-in-pain-pls-read.10731/

I highly recommend it, along with doing the Structured Educational Program on the wiki. Take care, good luck, and keep us posted.

 

Thanks for your replies!
Yeah I have been going to a psychiatrist since October last year. The pain confuses me since it feels so different from the chronic pain I had over 8 months and seem to correlate with the amount of time I spend playing/using the computer, but I've treated it as TMS last three days and have been going well so far.