I am having a hard time setting boundaries and expressing my anger. I think thats where the teeth grinding comes from. I also have OCD. So there is at times the issue with anxiety. I've been working on the OCD issue over the last year and overall it's gotten better. I think its a similar approach to TMS, where acceptance plays a huge part in it.
I've also tried meditation and breath work. But I've trouble being consistent with it and I easily end up in old patterns. When things get stressful I have a tendency to just push through, with no regards for my well-being. So yeah, I know that I should be kinder to myself. It's like self sabotage sometimes.
Sorry for what you’ve gone through and going through.
I’ll share a little about myself because we have similar symptoms so maybe it will help. I started clenching and grinding my teeth in my late teens after dropping out of college a bunch and dealing with depression. Subsequently develop TMj and start dealing with micro jaw dislocations (basically would wake up with my joint out of the socket which was excruciating)- my nervous system, while in a state chronic stress wasn’t really in total disarray so these issues, while awful, didn’t becoming completely chronic. Fast forward a decade and 20 or so dislocations later and I’m now TMS aware and dealing with two severe symptoms (scrotal pain following a vasectomy and GI pain), I wake up one morning after having slept on my fist and completely shove the joint out if the socket when it eventually pops back in after 30-60 seconds. Now my nervous system is shot, I completely obsessed about the pain and have troubles speaking, eating, yawning sneezing for months, I clench and grind my teeth nonstop and at night. This initial injury was not TMS (the brain can’t make the joint dislocate lol) but my reaction and subsequent obsession surely was. This injury, likely healed in a month or two but after 3 months I wasn’t improving much. I went to a dentist who was happy to take 3k from me for an orthotic/dental splint. I wore it for about 4 months before realizing it was fueling obsession, making my clenching worse (the teeth imprint I was leaving on this thing were wild lol). When I stopped wearing it, I was terrified, I thought I’d grind and crack my teeth, and yeah there was grinding and clenching. And there were several months of panic and obsession. But me taking the step was necessary to buying into the TMS diagnosis and accepting that these outside tools were a crutch. I don’t clench or grind my teeth anymore, although I still have bouts of moderate facial tension, my jaw pain is at the lowest level it’s ever been.
im not telling you to stop wearing this nightguard tonight. But you should absolutely keep this in your mind as a goal, because what’s the alternative, wearing some uncomfortable expensive piece of acrylic indefinitely? And it sounds like you’re still clenching and grinding through it. These things become crutches that simultaneously tell our brain that there is a physical issues, not a psychological one.
you clearly recognize the patterns fueling your dysfunction.. We need to catch ourselves and really examine how we’re treating ourselves. Because it sounds like you’re treating yourself pretty poorly and not prioritizing your well being. Meditation, specifically non guided spiritual based meditation did more for me regarding these jaw issues than any other TMS skill or tool. But you need to dedicate the time and commit to doing it. Your situation is not going to change passively.
how much faith do you have that what you’re dealing with is TMS?
