Widespread tension all over body?

My son has pelvic pain and Raynaud's symptoms (cold hands/feet) -- and what he describes as widespread tension ALL OVER his body with intermittent/random nerve pain. He needs reassurance that TMS can cause this type of widespread tension and nerve pain (doctors have ruled out everything, all tests are normal). He hasn't seen anyone talk about widespread tension, so is hoping someone can relate.

Any feedback would be helpful

 

Hi @RenéeB
One of the most interesting things about people with TMS that you will see over and over on this forum is an almost insistence that they hear only from people with their exact symptoms, or they believe they can not heal.
That defies the entire premise of TMS.. because TMS is not physical. ALzl pain and tension is created in the brain, not at the “site” of physical discomfort. There is science to back this up.
So that means that no matter what the physical symptoms are, all of our issues come from the amygdala.
So what is really happening? The place in the amygdala is right beside the are of the brain that is our primitive protector. The mind is protecting us from the truth, that pain and emotion are the same thing. They are both physical processes. It’s just that pain receptors are stuck.. and reasons can vary .. but inevitably it means the body is stuck in fight flight or freeze and it can take time, often much time to slowly begin the process of relaxing the nervous system response. Part of the response is accepting this new information.. that TMS is emotional… no matter what the symptoms.
The T in tms is tension.

It sounds like your son may be really pressuring himself to heal.. expecting that he will “get” all this right away. Some do.. most really don’t.
I wish he felt comfortable posting here himself. This is his journey and his alone. It is difficult but can be done. It takes time, patience, faith in oneself and knowing that TMS is benign. It can’t hurt you.
Here’s a video that may help your son. This whole channel is fantastic:

 

I second CactusFlower in that it will be helpful to let go of the insistence on finding a mirror of your symptoms on this forum. While you might have not seen it described in exactly the way your son understands his pain to be, I have read a lot of stories of people who have had symptoms across their bodies. Dorado's success story comes to mind: How I healed from a myriad of symptoms | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome) (tmswiki.org).

It's my opinion that generalized pain is a good indicator of TMS. Localized pain has a better chance of being structural/physical. Generalized pain all over the body would be much more difficult to trace back to a single physical cause and the likelihood that multiple injuries or issues arose all at once is extremely unlikely. If anything, your son can take the nature of his pain as a sort of proof of the TMS nature behind it. He has his peace of mind in that all tests came back negative. Some folks on here have scary MRIs and actual diagnoses and they still heal. A clean bill of health from a doctor is a great mental tool to use when he doubts the nature of the pain...

I have pelvic pain, and some nerve related pain in the form of sciatica. Lately my back is hurting. I get twitching and spasms across my body often. All of that is to say I think many of us could tell you stories about pain that travels throughout our bodies.

One thing I like to remember is that TMS finds what scares you most and that's where it stays. After all, the purpose is to distract you. For me, I can handle pain in most places without much fear...headaches don't scare me, back pain is bearable (though it's never severe), even the sciatica is not all-consuming. The pelvic pain is what gets me, it shoots fear through my body when it is bad. And so that is what is more persistent.

Best of luck to your son. This is a great community, you should encourage him to create an account and read through the many success stories. He may not see all his symptoms align perfectly but he'll see a lot of similarities in the way he is and the way he feels, I'm sure.