Some TMS questions

So the more I learn about TMS the more I think I've figured out about myself. Here are some questions I have about TMS.. Please feel free to answer or comment on any of them

1. Does TMS usually happen after an accident or injury, or does it occur out of nowhere for most? And if you've had it occur after an injury did you have a hard time getting past the fact you knew how it occured?

2. Alcholol and TMS. This isn't really a question but an observation I would like some input on. Shortly after my accident I was with some friends and we had a few drinks and I noticed that my pain subsided drastically. I took this as a sign that my pain was muscle/nerve related then and that it meant it was more structural. But I've noticed that the few times I've had a few too many I still have pain. So my observation is that the alcohol doesn't numb the pain, but distracts you mind from the pain. I see this especially so because the injury was fresh and (2weeks after) and the pain was easily subsiding when I had drank. Now a year plus later the pain doesn't change with alcohol..

So I find this to be a huge indicator of TMS because my all laws of science with the human body I should feel less pain now than I did a week after the injury.. But sinse I've done nothing but think about and obsess over my pain, it is more in my unconscious amd concious mind, thus making it harder to distract.. (*note, I do not drink in excess very often, and have never used it as a pain killer)

3. Can TMS coexist with a disorder? I ask this because my pain has been inconsistent except in one spot. The spot has a lump (been told its a lipoma by every Dr I've seen), but the lipoma does not explain my pain. Now my theory on this is that the lipoma occured after the injury, and since I have never been properly diagnosed, my pain shifts in order to fit the diagnoses. (I've been diagnosed with piriformis syndrome, herniated disc, si joint df, lax ligaments. Now what's funny is, I took it upon myself to research everything that causes lower back pain, and tried to self diagnose myself, and each time I researched something new, my symptoms would slowly change. I even recall the dr who diagnosed me with a herniated disc saying that my pain was weird, and I remember that within a couple of days my pain changed to fit a disc problem. (I must be a Dr dream or nightmare)

Anyway, I know it's TMS because I am an OCD person who thinks way too much, but the lump and one consistent pain does have me thinking. No matter the shift in pain, the one spot has always been there. So I really wonder of my mystery pain is a combination and because of my obsessive nature, my mind is using it as a way to keep me distracted from my stress. I honestly believed every diagnoses given to me and never thought the lump was a problem since I was told it was a normal thing, so I have ignored it and still had pain near it the whole time.

Analyzing it a bit more in depth, it may not be the root of any physical pain, but it maybe the root of my psychological pain because its the only real structural disorder that makes sense to me.. Either way it couldn't hurt to have it removed

Tell me what you think on any of these, I would love to hear what you think

Thanks

 

I guess with number 3, what I'm asking is if TMS can exist as a way to divert you from other physical pain? I've been trying to think how to word this all day

 

No. 1. For me I had back pain from lifting (a heavy case of 36 cans of beer into a shopping cart.)
That was a "trigger" that led me to Dr. Sarno's book, Healing Back Pain. I began journaling and learned
about a lot of repressed emotions that my unconscious mind sent to me as pain.

For others, it may not have been anything physical they did, just a build-up of long-standing repressed emotions.

2. My father, brother, stepfather, and several uncles were alcoholics. I decided to just be a moderate drinker
so I haven't had that problem. But a niece was an alcoholic and recovered through AA.
I'm not a doctor or psychiatrist, but think heavy drinking can result from repressed emotions, trying to hide
anger, guilt, frustrations. Drinking can relax and dull the mind, but it isn't a solution.

3. Your doctor said you have herniated disc. Dr. Sarno says "A herniated disc is rarely responsible for pain or any other neurological symptoms. Most herniations are harmless. A disc degenerates and is a perfectly normal part of the aging process.
In my experience, disc degeneration is no more pathological than graying hair or wrinkling skin." So it seems that a herniated disc can co-exist with TMS. Discover your repressed emotions to be relieved of the pain. Journaling is as good way to do that. It worked for me and many others. You say you're OCD, so your perfectionist personality probably plays a major part in your TMS symptoms. Try not to demand so much of yourself. I have to work on that myself.

Let us know how things are progressing.

 

1) TMS will only occur after injury if there is a need for it, or psychological conflict (Phase 2 TMS). The injury is often the trigger, but the injury could also have been brought on by subconscious need to "go down to recoup."

2) Alcohol can numb the emotional response and ease pain temporarily, but like any external analgesic, it takes more and more to have the same effect. It covers pain, it doesn't rid it. The alcohol was a minor distraction from the major distraction.

3) You either have TMS or you don't. They don't coexist. But every injury or illness has a psychological component to it. That is, we get angry frustrated, or anxious when we're sick or injured. But that's not TMS as we mean here. TMS, can however, come in as an injury heals, if conflict is there and distraction needed, and keep you from healing, or more specifically, to make you think you have not healed.

But you're over thinking it. Get checked for TMS, then relax and heal. A tree is known by its fruit. The intellectual his own enemy. You have every trait that a card-carrying TMSer has. Believe, relax, laugh and heal. Easier said, right?

Steve

 

Thanks for the input. I honestly probably need to have the lump on my back checked out so if it is my pain I know. If not then I can start my TMS fully. The TMS treatment had helped my upper back pain a lot.

It's not hard for me to believe in TMS because of my characteristics. I just can't shake the pain in one spot and its where this lipoma is latched to my muscle.. If the lipoma is removed it will not draw focus to it thus making me believe it is the cause of my pain.. I actually think its a lumbar hernia.. Not a herniated disc but a hernia. I had a hernia as a teen and this is a lot like it just in the lower back.

This is what I feel like has made me start getting pain else where. From how I have been interpreting TMS, it is a way to distract your mind from other problems.

 

Donnie, Steve has given you the best advice. Get checked for TMS, then relax and heal.

It's not only a journey into healing pain but a journey into knowing ourselves.

 

I agree i need to relax more. There are days I wish I could turn my brain off so I could relax. I am a very easy going person so for the most part and I teach and coach so my job to me is relaxing because it distracts my mind.

I will admit that I do have doubting thoughts, but that is the OCD side where you have to prove that something is there. That's the hardest part for me. Or maybe it's being from Missouri and the whole show me state thing.

I will say that the biggest sign of TMS for me is when I start to doubt and believe my pain is something else, I start to get increased symptoms and they imitate what the diagnoses claims.. I know I have a long ways to go and will fall of the wagon so to say, but if I can divert my mind I will be golden

 

You're golden now baby.

 

Plum is right, Donnie. You are a golden boy for working on relaxing more and turning off your brain.
My boss is as OCD as they come. He never stops thinking of doing more and more and more,
and asks me to help him do it. It would take a week to explain all that to anyone, so I won't try.

Obsessive compulsive he is, but I've learned to go with the flow. What he starts today may never survive
until tomorrow.

You teach and coach, so at least your work distracts your mind so you can focus on that.

Just keep reminding yourself your TMS is from repressed emotions and your OCD personality.
Lighten up on the OCD if you can.

 

Can anyone tell me if they have ever had a diagnosis of "segmental instability" (lumbar)? I had that diagnosis many years ago, but have had bouts with back pain on and off that all were healed thinking that I had TMS vs a structural abnormality (many times told no reason for the pain, except I think some doctors just make stuff up to placate you, hence the "segmental instability" diagnosis). I was even told by a pain clinic that my pain was psychogenic.. this was in my late 20's. I'm struggling again with back pain all these years later and I want to know how I get this vision out of my head of my spine being unstable and moving around and that's the cause as the muscles try to "splint" the instability portion of the back? I am just wondering, as I've not heard this diagnosis from anyone else or in any books like Sarno etc. Could this be NOT TMS? Most of my pain is midback with some low back, so that might not make sense either from a structural point of view. I am, by the way, the perfect TMS personality.

Any thoughts anyone?

 

Hi, Mtngal. I'm not a doctor but this sounds like TMS to me.
And a pain clinic medic said it was psychogenic.
Something may have triggered the pain's return.
Maybe spend some time journaling about that to learn if
something recent reminds your unconscious mind of something
that happened before or when you were in your late twenties.

Maybe you still have something to remember that is causing the pain.

Maybe someone with more medical knowledge than I can be of help.

 

Thank you Walt,
I tend to agree, and certainly there have been many stressors in my life recently. I think that maybe it's a possible "age" trigger, as I am approaching 60 and am very athletic and fit, and maybe I'm angry at the thought of having to slow down.