Weird pattern or is it just me?

[lucky_li0n_d@wg]

Hey all,
My step counting app on my phone has actually helped me see something that I’ve been wondering about for the past few days.
For context, I’ve had bilateral knee pain since about a year ago and it started as a repetitive stress strain but it’s been this long and the pain is still there. I’ve tried babying my knees so much but it hasn’t helped. Physical therapist tried taping, stretches, etc. but nothing helped and even the babiest exercises would cause pain for a few days. She said I have a lateral tilt in both knees but that’s literally all she could tell me. The only thing I haven’t had done yet is an MRI. The pain specifically comes with activity and as long as I don’t do certain things, they won’t hurt (or barely hurt). But this is the part that gets kinda wonky:

My neighborhood block is about 1/3rd of a mile long with a slight incline for part of the way. If I walk this block more than once, or once a couple days in a row, I start having pain. This is weird because it seems like it’s the ONLY activity out of everything I do right now that causes this and it’s not THAT much more strenuous than the others. So when I looked in the step counting app I could see how weird and delayed the pattern is:

-Sunday I walked that block 3 times
-Monday the pain started
-Tuesday the pain increased
-Wednesday it hurt so much I put on my knee compression sleeves and (as u can see) walked a LOT less that day. But they still hurt really bad that night when I took the sleeves off and got in bed.
-Thursday morning they felt way WAY better to the point where I walked a lot more (but not the block I don’t like). I even had a job interview/training thing where I was on my feet (standing and walking) for over an hour but my knees STILL felt way better than before even that night
-Friday morning they were a little sore again but NOT to the level they were before. Then in the middle of the day the pain gets way way better again all of a sudden
-Saturday (today) the pain is still way way better than it was at the start of the week

The pattern of the pain getting worse from Sunday - Wednesday even with me doing less each day and icing them each night, then the pain suddenly taking a break for a day, then coming back for only half a day and then disappearing again IS weird right? The way it’s so delayed and inconsistent. I’m curious what all you strangers think and if any of you who did turn out to have TMS feel like this is familiar to them lol.

 

[BloodMoon]

It sounds harsh, but it's actually a piece of friendly advice:

Stop symptom watching.

In a mind-body/TMS context, constantly monitoring, measuring and analysing your symptoms keeps your attention focused on them and can reinforce the fear and hypervigilance that keep the pain cycle going.

 

[lucky_li0n_d@wg]

It sounds harsh, but it's actually a piece of friendly advice:

Stop symptom watching.

In a mind-body/TMS context, constantly monitoring, measuring and analysing your symptoms keeps your attention focused on them and can reinforce the fear and hypervigilance that keep the pain cycle going.

I thought I heard before that looking for ways that the pain behaves weirdly or in a way that doesn’t make logical sense is a good way to prove to yourself that it’s coming from your brain. Like keeping a notes tab of all the times it’s done something weird like that

 

[BloodMoon]

I thought I heard before that looking for ways that the pain behaves weirdly or in a way that doesn’t make logical sense is a good way to prove to yourself that it’s coming from your brain. Like keeping a notes tab of all the times it’s done something weird like that

Yes, however, there's a danger of becoming so absorbed in monitoring, recording and analysing every fluctuation that symptom tracking itself becomes another way of keeping your attention fixed on the symptoms.

I particularly say this to you because I've read all of your posts and responded to quite a few since you first joined the forums, and over that time you've reported and recognised lots and lots of indications that your symptoms fit the picture of TMS. You've analysed and described them in minute and intricate detail, and what I see is that you're continuing to do just that.

I'd also be wary of getting caught up in comparing your symptoms with those of other people who have recovered from TMS. It's understandable to want to hear that someone else's symptoms behaved in exactly the same (or a very similar) way, but this can become another rabbit hole.

At some point, what we TMSers need to do is turn our attention as fully as possible towards actually doing TMS work. This includes recognising that symptoms may be a distraction (as per Dr Sarno), a fearful brain ringing an alarm bell (as per Alan Gordon, Howard Schubiner et al), or, in some cases, perhaps a combination of both.

I'm not suggesting that you aren't doing any TMS work (you haven't mentioned whether you are), but I do hope you are. I genuinely wish you well.

 

[Adam Coloretti (coach)]

I thought I heard before that looking for ways that the pain behaves weirdly or in a way that doesn’t make logical sense is a good way to prove to yourself that it’s coming from your brain. Like keeping a notes tab of all the times it’s done something weird like that

It definitely is and in isolation I agree with you, but @BloodMoon is spot on that if she's noticed this as a recurring pattern, then by continuing to search for evidence after evidence you're potentially undermining the evidence you already have. I.e. You're inferring to yourself that the evidence you have isn't good enough and that you need more, when it might very well be good enough.

There's no harm in evidence naturally multiplying as you go along the journey (as it should), but I do think that if you decide to take the evidence you already have at your highest, then you don't need to monitor to this degree because you can choose to already be quite convinced by what you have. You can then see the benefit of giving this all less attention, which may be the next phase for you