Daniel L. Confusing TMS symptoms

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Question

Hi there--

I've had nagging pain in my right leg in 3 spots. buttock knee and foot. This has gone on for 5 months and comes on every day at COMPLETELY RANDOM times. There is no stimulus to when it happens, except maybe after walking a long time it will probably come on. Other than that no consistency at all. It doesnt hurt of you touch the area. It is a deep nagging pain. and when it is really bad, it almost makes me feel like I will faint, or it makes me a bit nauseous. Thankfully I still can function normally, but the mystery of it all is really a problem. X rays showed typical "nerve caught between the plates" but the doc just wanted to give me advil for it. Chiropractors are useless too. I`m pretty sure it`s TMS as there was no injury that brought this on, and I`m a pretty healthy active guy.

Sorry for the long story...I plan to try the daily routine here, but do you have any advice for me? Thank you so much.

 

Answer

Thanks for the question. There are a couple of things that stand out right away, and they are pretty important.

1. You’re pretty sure it’s TMS. I’m glad you’ve done some work to get you to the point of being pretty sure, but we need you to be 100% confident. Not just pretty sure. When a doctor is about to operate on your broken arm, you want to make sure that it’s broken, so that the surgery the doctor is about to do is exactly what you need. Similarly, you want to make sure that your pain is 100% TMS and that treating it from a TMS perspective is exactly what you need. Go see a TMS doctor (or another doctor that can help you eliminate structural causes) and read some of the suggested books if necessary.

2. Change your perspective when it comes to treating your pain using TMS knowledge. Your goal is not to get rid of the pain – your goal is to change the way you respond to it. I know that sounds backwards and that’s hard for a lot of people to be okay with, but it’s true. You say the pain gets excruciatingly bad at certain moments, but it doesn’t sound like it lasts long. When it shows up, notice it, do whatever you need to do in that moment (sit down, focus on your breathing), but don’t let yourself get scared. You know that the pain will pass and it won’t be around for long, so don’t even let yourself dwell on thoughts about how to fix the pain.

Think of this pain as washing the dishes. Nobody likes washing the dishes, but it has to be done. Because it has to be done, you might as well do what you can to enjoy it in the moment. When you do the dishes (whether that’s loading them in the dishwasher or by hand), you don’t stand there thinking “I hate doing this, it’s awful, and I can’t wait for it to go away.” Instead you tell yourself that it’s just something that’s going to happen and you do what you can to minimize how boring it can be (I play music and air-guitar when I’m doing the dishes).

3. Lastly, take some pressure off of yourself. Even from your question it seems like you’re the kind of guy who is pretty empathetic and puts pressure on himself to act a certain way (you apologize for the long story, when it was a short story!). Take some of that pressure off of yourself – act more like a kid sometimes (do what you want, when you want). It’s fun, and it balances out the adult part of us that says that we have to follow rules and be responsible (read: boring).

Keep up the good work, and have faith that you can and will reach a point where your pain has much less of an effect on you.

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I like the quote, too, Forest.

The dishwasher was probably invented by someone who knew how most people hate washing dishes in the sink.

Dr. Sarno wrote Healing Back Pain to help everyone with emotional pain to heal through TMS knowledge.
If we plug that book into our subconscious, the pain goes away.

 

Thank you for answering my question. I`ll try all that. I really feel for those of you dealing with this for years, as this is driving me out of my mind in just 6 months. I know if I sit down I can get some good relief if the pain comes when I was standing. However if the pain comes while I`m sitting, there isn`t much I can do, sometimes standing up and moving helps a bit. Anyway, per your advice, I`ll do those things sooner, instead of trying to tough it out to see how much I can stand. Thank you again.

 

Hi again, Troy. I think you' re making excellent progress. You have some pain when standing or sitting, but you say ypu are
but you say you are a pretty healthy active guy. Focus on that and keep believing you are going to be better and healthier than ever.

 

Thanks Walt! I appreciate your support, this is a very nice forum.

 

Just wanted to come here to say that I've been told the same thing. Turns out it was bullsht and my pain was TMS.

 

I was wondering if you have any advice about journaling. I had a great, loving childhood and an even better adult life. I have a few issues with my mom, nothing too serious, and I pretty much journaled them all out in the first session and I have nothing else to write about. And even those issues have come up as an adult, so I don`t know what to look for in my happy childhood. Am I supposed to try to remember if someone gave me a wedgie in first grade or something? Is that really related to my TMS pain? What do people with good childhoods do to cure TMS?

 

I am by no means an expert, but I will reply because I feel I have come across a good answer for this.

Monte Hueftle of the Master Practice believes that:

"TMS is not a deeply repressed emotions syndrome! TMS is a chronic pain syndrome caused by our day-to-day generation of inner tension and our day-to-day repression of emotional energy."

From what I read, this actually contradicts Sarno who writes from a more Freudian repressed rage from early-life angle. Day to day built up tension makes more sense to me personally.