Arthritis in THUMBS soreness and THROBBING is it TMS?

Diagnose with arthritis in joint at base of THUMB probably 2015. Bilateral. Despite Dr. Saying occupational therapy could not help, I found that helped immensely. One Dr. Tried an injection that did not work. Occasional flare up will calm down with continued OT exercises. But sometimes it seems to go on for very long time. Symptoms are soreness with throbbing and stiffness. Occasional pain when not paying attention to what I'm doing. Latest flare up was about two weeks ago, before that about two months ago. I was doing pretty well on Sunday that I messed around with some new headphones I bought and seem to trigger another flare up. Start to think it is TMS. In other body parts where the problem turned out to be TMS, for some reason I wait a long time before considering TMS as the cause. I guess it's magical thinking hoping it's just going to go way but it doesn't. I'm trying to go back to some normal pre-flare activities and I will review the program.
The only SARNO book I have is healing back pain. Maybe I should pick up another, which

I've had TMS in many body parts and have used the SARNO method to great success, along with alan's pain program. I have a lot of unresolved emotional stuff.

 

Just going back to normal activities and cognitive soothing has me much improved.
Can anyone please provide info on differences applying the program to arthritis?
It seems like the pain and discomfort can be both danger signals and neural pathway pain.
Thanks
Gary

 

@Thanksdoctor
What I am reading here, with two posts in a short time is anxiety.
Anxiety IS tms.
Sunday you “messed with headphones” and it was a trigger?
TMS triggers are emotional and psychological. ALWAYS. A physical event may be what sticks in our mind but it is not what generates tms.
That said, can you have some forms of arthritis and tms simultaneously?
Yes.
You can have a medically diagnosable disease and tms.
The difference?
The obsession and anxiety about the condition. People with TMS get flares. Dr. Sarno suggests we always took to the psychological.
You suggest you can get some pain when not being careful..
Perhaps take a step back and look again at the situation.
Always being careful is always focusing and attending to the symptoms. It’s hyper-vigilance and it takes attention away from the real cause of TMS.
But when you feel more free to think about things other than being careful, symptoms arise and you become refocused on them.
I’m thinking about the pain/fear loop.
The catch 22 is that sometimes you may get arthritis pain. We are not guaranteed no pain in life, but it is how we react to the pain that can change our mental state, our pain intensity, and ability to enjoy life.
Perhaps it is time to deal with the “mental stuff”. Just do the program. The SEP program AND Dr. Sarno in any of his books say to look to the psychological. The pain reprocessing program does not deal with a wide variety of psychological issues. Dr. Sarno also did not deal directly with deeper psychological issues, he was a physician.. so he sent his folks with more need to psychiatrists trained in his methods. Alan Gordon owns a psychology center that patients with more need can access.
My suggestion is to go about your arthritis knowing that we are not guaranteed a pain free life but that we can still enjoy and live full lives. We get tooth aches, random pains that last moments, may get pain or feel stiff after a good workout.. things happen.. but it’s our attitude of how we deal with things that makes the change.
Read Dr. Sarno again. And again. Do the SEP program here. Lightly observe symptoms during this time. Not how you feel about the symptoms and your attitude towards yourself. Look at personality traits you have developed. See the interplay. Be curious about your emotional state or lack of it..or the breadth of it. The journaling in the SEP will help you explore all of it.

Looking forward to hearing how you are doing, and welcoming your support on the forums to others who are also on a similar journey.

 

THanks for the thoughtful response. I will think about this and respond back.

 

THanks for the thoughtful response. I will think about this and respond back.

 

What I am reading here, with two posts in a short time is anxiety.

Gary: Yes anxiety, I was having symptoms the first night and hurried my post to get away from the keyboard. When I have symptoms and I’m afraid of them, I try to use voice commands on iPhone but I couldn't get into the site on my phone. So I was typing on the keyboard and using the mouse, being afraid of hurting myself.


Anxiety IS tms.
Gary: I thought it’s anxiety triggers TMS symptoms i.e. neural pathways?


Sunday you “messed with headphones” and it was a trigger?

Gary: Yes, new noise suppressing headphones, I thought I triggered a flare by opening the packaging, tugging on it to extend the phones to fit my ears better, then putting them on. They are heavy-ish, big, and stiff.


TMS triggers are emotional and psychological. ALWAYS. A physical event may be what sticks in our mind but it is not what generates tms.
Gary: OK, yes, I was afraid the entire time handling the headphones.


That said, can you have some forms of arthritis and tms simultaneously?
Yes.
You can have a medically diagnosable disease and tms.
The difference?
The obsession and anxiety about the condition. People with TMS get flares. Dr. Sarno suggests we always took to the psychological.

Gary: People w/o TMS also get flares, right? Seems like a flare can be one or the other or both physical (danger signal) and TMS (neural pathway) at the same time.

You suggest you can get some pain when not being careful..

Gary: yes careful to employ mechanics that don't strain the thumb joint.


Perhaps take a step back and look again at the situation.
Always being careful is always focusing and attending to the symptoms. It’s hyper-vigilance and it takes attention away from the real cause of TMS.

Gary: I tend to get careless just grab something with one hand for example when I should be using both. I can only hope it will become automatic I won't obsess or be hypervigilant


But when you feel more free to think about things other than being careful, symptoms arise and you become refocused on them.

Gary: With arthritis in thumbs, I think I need to learn the most important adaptations to avoid the physical flares, e.g don’t grab heavy objects between thumb and index finder.


I’m thinking about the pain/fear loop.
The catch 22 is that sometimes you may get arthritis pain. We are not guaranteed no pain in life, but it is how we react to the pain that can change our mental state, our pain intensity, and ability to enjoy life.
Perhaps it is time to deal with the “mental stuff”. Just do the program. The SEP program AND Dr. Sarno in any of his books say to look to the psychological. The pain reprocessing program does not deal with a wide variety of psychological issues.

Gary: pain reprocessing program is that Alan 's pain recovery program? Or different?


Dr. Sarno also did not deal directly with deeper psychological issues, he was a physician.. so he sent his folks with more need to psychiatrists trained in his methods. Alan Gordon owns a psychology center that patients with more need can access.

Gary: What is SEP?


My suggestion is to go about your arthritis knowing that we are not guaranteed a pain free life but that we can still enjoy and live full lives. We get tooth aches, random pains that last moments, may get pain or feel stiff after a good workout.. things happen.. but it’s our attitude of how we deal with things that makes the change.
Read Dr. Sarno again. And again. Do the SEP program here.

Gary: Which Dr Sarno do you recommend?

Lightly observe symptoms during this time. Not how you feel about the symptoms and your attitude towards yourself. Look at personality traits you have developed. See the interplay. Be curious about your emotional state or lack of it..or the breadth of it. The journaling in the SEP will help you explore all of it.

Looking forward to hearing how you are doing, and welcoming your support on the forums to others who are also on a similar journey.

Gary: thank you very much, doing much better happy to say. On Thursday, My OT gave me some time to discuss mind-body stuff even though she's not fluent. When I got home and had lunch I decided I was going to ride my bike trainer, doubts discomfort and pain be damned. It takes significant effort getting the bike mounted on the trainer, pumping the tires, putting the bike shoes on, then riding on drop handlebars mostly I stay up on the flats or the brake hoods. Halfway through getting ready, I thought it was too much and I sat down and thought I was going to quit. Then I imagined myself walking over to my chair haven't given up, where my mindset would be Holy shit this is going to hurt like hell, why did I Think I could do this? So I got up and pushed forward and after an hour on the bike I felt better than I did when I started and gained a lot of confidence.

 

Hi Thanksdoctor and welcome.

I've been doing this work for twelve years and I don't know of any such difference. Nor do I think there needs to be one.

Whereas to me, it seems like your TMS brain is trying to give you something to intellectually obsess over instead of addressing your emotional stressors. This is your brain on TMS, and a classic example of repression.
Gary: i will gladly stop obessing LOL, but it seems like there is a diff. I could be having TMS or danger signal pain or both at the same time, right? Arthritis is a physical basis for having danger signal pain, right??

Don't overthink it. You've clearly stated that you have unresolved emotional stuff. It's time to address that, and there are many different ways to go about it. Nicole Sachs has terrific resources and she is all about accessing the healing power of emotional awareness and vulnerability. If you were to get another book it would be hers. Listen to her first two podcast episodes from 2019 to learn more about her. She also has a couple of paid programs. She saw Dr Sarno as a patient when she was young, and went on to work with him when she became a therapist. If you go to my profile/postings and limit the pages to threads I've started, you'll find a bunch of posts for recent podcasts I've recommended.
Gary: thanks i'll look it up.

 

The SEP is the free program offered here. There is a lot of information to read at TMSWiki.org.. scroll down the page.