Question on Low Back Pain With Out "Trigger Point"

Anyone else with low back pain that doesn't seem to have any muscular "trigger point"?

My pain jolts anytime I bend forward, on the left side of my low back. Very sharp and sudden pain anytime I do that one movement. Otherwise I feel no pain.

But when I reach back there to try and rub it or "locate" the pain - there is no trigger point or sore muscle. In other words, I feel it deep in there, but cannot locate the troubled area when I rub my low back.

The reason I ask is because it will help me continue to affirm that this is TMS and not something wrong with me. My mind says "well, if TMS effects muscles, and you can't find a sore muscle - maybe this is a nerve issue after all"

Anyone else with similar symptoms?

 

This is your brain on TMS as @Jan would say.
This is the distraction, focusing you on the physical and away from the true origins of TMS.
Our mind can create the WILDEST symptoms, anything that keeps you scared.

 

When I was going through the 'system' one of my routine anxious questions was about that...they said there was something wrong with my back, but it FELT like my Hip...but I couldn't really point at a place. I couldn't lift my leg very well and had to manually assist it when I walked forward, though I could pain-free lift hundreds of pounds???
More than once I asked "are you sure it isn't my hip?"
..and that's where Sarno's diagnosis in the book made waaay more sense than the Surgeons who saw me. TMS is a REGIONAL process and will have all sorts of peculiar sensations and when you throw in conditioning, weird symptoms that don't make sense if you really think about them...

A good one for you might be "If your allegedly 'misaligned' or whatever that new diagnosis' implication is, why does it only hurt on the left?

I had herniation on my left side, Yet everyday at 3:30 pm it switched to the right.

Later, when I read Sarno and calmly studied I had an 'Aha'...the day it started on the right was when I had worked on a project for a month with a deadline in 48 hours and the production designer came in and changed EVERYTHING...which also meant I had to stay late and work free overtime to cater to his whim..... I was in a RAGE....but I never felt it...the sciatica just switched sides to keep me good and distracted.

But when I asked the top surgeon in California WHY it switched he got a dumb look on his face and said something like..."The nerves are confused and sending weird signals''' very non-scientific....almost like it's REGIONAL

Conditioning doesn't need multiples...read Pavlov's work carefully..the dogs began to salivate after only a couple of times...and we are just as plastic. Our ego doesn't like it, but it's true.

remember..that is when you are supposed to get into your 'recurring source of rage'...not paying attention to which side or how painful, etc...it is a war and that is the front line...that is where the magic happens. De-conditioning. -

 

Hi @bluealchemy,

I am dealing with low back pain on the left side that radiates down my leg to the side of my ankle. The radiating leg-pain component has really subsided significantly in the last month since I have been considering the pain to be TMS (it has been ongoing for 7 months).

I am generally pain free as long as I am active but coming out of a bent-down position held for a while causes me a sharp pain (lower back, left side, just like you). In addition, I feel completely stuck and often have to restack my spine by pushing my torso up and in with my hands! If I rub my lower left side, nothing to feel there at all, no soreness.

Anyway, this pain, too, is starting to subside and I feel it much less frequently and much less sharply (a development of the last 7-10 days). Coming back to upright is also more flowing.

I am still experiencing pain deep in my left hip and buttock, from very specific moves or in specific positions (definitely does not seem random — it’s always the same chairs or sleeping positions that bring it on). Again, when I feel where the pain seems to radiate from, I can’t feel anything particularly sore under my hand. But the above easing of pain in my lower back gives me hope this is my next TMS frontier and I have to keep at it.

I have been very busy lately and not had much time to make much TMS reflection/progress. What I do do is pause my thoughts often to talk to the pain and tell it to stop, that’s not useful at all to me. I have also been trying to pay attention to and notice everything that is triggering me emotionally (LOTS without having to even look farther back or ahead!). Those steps alone are helping chase the pains away—not completely but to a large degree — within minutes to hours.

I hope this anecdotal account helps you with your TMS practice.

 

Thank you. I almost deleted this after I posted it - because it is pain focused versus psychologically focused. I kind of wish my pain switched around more, that would make it easier to accept and give my left low back a break. It's one specific area, anytime I bend forward. But yes I do have random level 1 or 2 pain that lights up in the weirdest spots on my body - like a flash on my forehead or arm or leg of weird throbbing. My hips do feel weird too sometimes.

TMS be TMSing

I wondered to myself last night if all of this excessive research of TMS is causing more harm than good because I am now somewhat obsessive about the words tms and chronic pain. But I guess this constant reinforcement in this phase is necessary to really accept fully that the cause is emotional.

After acceping the diagnosis, new fears crop up like : what if I psychologically can't let it go, what if I can't find the source of the rage, and so on. I'm only on day 3 of the program. So I'm going to stop "forcing" things and focus on surrender and willingly allowing things to surface.

 

This anecdote does help tremendously! Very relatable. Would love to hear updates on your continued progress, this gives me hope!

A good reminder that it doesn't go away overnight for everyone, that the relief can be gradual.

 

TMS is sooo spooky and weird lol

Yeah. I'm convinced. This whole ordeal actually started months ago with pain in my hip after jiu jitsu. I never went back to jiu jitsu and started doing PT on my hip. That hip pain went away (but comes and goes sometimes still)... I started going to the gym to strengthen so I could go back to bjj (still a major goal of mine. I reallly REALLY want to learn jiu jitus).. And then my low back started hurting lol. The low back pain has stuck like nothing else. It got worse when I started to worry about it and now it's stuck on me like glue.

Honestly - before the hip pain, I was having chest pain. That was right after mom died, I was having panic attacks and all this stuff so I assumed it was anxiety. But I though there was something wrong with my lungs!

Very true that "flat back" syndrome does not explain any of this shit haha. Flat back syndrome is the most made up thing I've ever heard. I also looked at my MRI, and looked at my spine - it's actually not even flat hahah. I have a normal curve.

So yeah. I'm in a whole new space with this. Now I need not fear my subconscious - still working on soothing thoughts that are like "even if this is psychological, it won't go away. You're different."

my dreams have been more vivid lately and I know there are emotions in me that I feel are just so utterly unacceptable to release somatically. I know them intellectually. Knowing them intellectually isn't enough.

 

Yep. You're right on time. First I was scared because I was a 'special case' to the pain world and not getting better... than I read Sarno and though "Oh crap...what if I am not average enough?"

The funny part is that VERY few people get better in the medical system, if any...it's like Taxes, always growing and expanding..never being quite enough..always one more treatment one more bill, one more responsibility.

On the contrary there IS an end to TMS. It absolutely goes away. Read and educate yourself for a period in the morning, review the reminders and go about your business..as it loses the ability to hold your attention it goes away. Guaranteed.

 

The question is the answer. At this stage, unnecessary research is a distraction from doing the work.

I think you've already figured this out for yourself, @bluealchemy - I'm just stating it in case anyone else is wondering the same thing