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Alan has completed the new Pain Recovery Program. To read or share it, use this updated link: https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/painrecovery/Dismiss Notice
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My Story
I learned about TMS last year when I was dealing with some running injuries (see below story). I've got the classic TMS personality - perfectionist, people pleaser, drive myself hard, over achiever and anxious. I had some success with the running issues and didn't even link the TMS to my headaches until this year. I decided I wanted to work on my health and one thing led to another and I found my way back to this site.
My primary TMS issue is headaches. I've had chronic daily headaches for over 35 years. The sidekick to the headaches is non-allergic rhinitis. The tension type headache often includes a sinus headache and I am stuffed up, foggy headed and have a constant runny nose. They seem interrelated. This all started in college. For the first 20 years, I controlled the headaches by taking OTC painkillers all the time. I also tried biofeedback, acupuncture, a TMJ clinic, and cranial manipulation. I read about rebound headaches and quit the OTC painkillers cold turkey in my early 40's. That lead to a nasty few months of really severe headaches. I went to a neurologist who prescribed a series of preventative medications and l ended up on amitriptyline 20 mg at bedtime. The amitriptyline worked much better than taking OTC stuff every 4 hours and had the bonus of drying out my sinuses and helping me sleep better. But I still had headaches on a daily basis, they just ebbed and flowed throughout the day and were not as severe. After taking it for over 10 years, I decided I really wanted to be off all medication. It wasn't working as well, no longer helped my sinuses and I was worried about what side effects it was giving me. I weaned myself off slowly and had the last pill in early February of this year. It was really bad after that- super sinus headaches, constant pain, horrible insomnia, rhinitis in overdrive. I was miserable and decided I'd give myself until July and if I wasn't better I'd go back on the amitriptyline. Well, July is almost here and I'm happy to report I'm doing well enough to stay off the meds. I'm not too much worse off than when I was on the amitriptyline. I really owe my success so far to mindful meditation practice and rediscovering this website. I'm about mid way through the structured program and am making very slow progress. I still have the headaches every day and am frustrated I haven't had a headache free day yet, but I've learned so much about my emotional state. I've read a lot of books, I've listened to all the webinars and I've figured out why I am the way I am. (If you are interested in mindfulness meditation, I highly recommend the podcast site Zencast. They have a six week meditation course that really helped me get going with meditation. I have also listened to many of their dharma talks and find buddhist mindfulness training to dovetail well with TMS work.) I have days when I wonder if I'll ever beat these headaches. I have never come across any success story of someone with chronic daily headache. If you know of one, please let me know. It would be a real morale booster!
Piriformis and bursitis: I'm happy to report success with some "running injuries" I had last year. I had left hip pain that started in 2/12 (hmmm right after an extremely stressful year of building and moving into a new home and dealing with my father's death) - My doctor said it was trochanter bursitis and must be a running injury. I ignored her advice and kept running. In 10/13 I started having left butt pain after seeing a PT who corrected my "misaligned pelvis." By the following spring the butt pain was worse and I had weird tingling nerve stuff going on up and down my left leg. My doctor said I had periformis syndrome and again blamed running (BTW I'm just a casual runner @ 3 miles every other day - it's not like I was running marathons or anything and I'd had no injuries in 15 years of running). The nerve stuff scared me so I committed to doing PT and in May started seeing a PT twice/week and doing an hour of daily exercises. I really liked the PT and diligently followed all her recommendations. I stopped running. The PT decided my lower back was to blame and declared that I would "need to be on a back regimen the rest of my life." That really freaked me out. If anything, all the PT work made me much worse. Not only did I have the hip and butt pain, the nerve weirdness, but now my lower back hurt if I sat for too long. I was depressed because I wasn't running. Because she was so sure my back was to blame I ended up getting a back Xray and when that came back negative, I got an MRI. Thank god they were basically normal (for someone my age). If they had showed a bulging disc or something, god only knows where I'd be now. But, they didn't answer why I was having so much trouble. In a dark moment I was online in one of those horrible forums where everyone is discussing their ailments in detail. It was a running website and people were describing their excruciating periformis injuries. It was very depressing. One person, however, did a very brief post and mentioned being cured by reading Dr. Sarno's book "Healing Back Pain." Isn't it amazing how many of us just stumble into learning about TMS? Thank god for that post (maybe it was from one of you). I read a couple Sarno books within the next couple of days. There I was on every page. I immediately stopped all the PT exercises and got back to a normal life. I started swimming again, which I hadn't done in over 15 years (due to some earlier back pain). I slowly got back into running. My back pain disappeared right away. It took awhile, but the nerve weirdness also disappeared. (BTW, after I'd been in PT for a couple months, the nerve stuff started leaping around. I even felt it in my cheeks. That really convinced me it was TMS.)
I still have the hip and butt pain, but they are minor annoyances now. I'm not scared of them. They come and go and don't get in the way of any of my activities. Just recently I got up the nerve to finally run a difficult uphill uneven terrain trail that I had been convinced was the cause of my problems. I had read on that same online running forum that such a trail caused someone's periformis and that had stuck in my mind. It's nice to be back to 100% in terms of my exercising. It would be nice if the butt and hip pain would disappear for good, but I'm not worried about it. I know it's not a structural issue and I don't fear those pains. - Loading...
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My Story
- Gender:
- Female
- Location:
- Oregon
- Diagnoses:
- Chronic daily headache, rhinitis (constant runny nose, lots of sneezing year-round), piriformis syndrome, trochanter bursitis, dry eyes, IBS
I learned about TMS last year when I was dealing with some running injuries (see below story). I've got the classic TMS personality - perfectionist, people pleaser, drive myself hard, over achiever and anxious. I had some success with the running issues and didn't even link the TMS to my headaches until this year. I decided I wanted to work on my health and one thing led to another and I found my way back to this site.
My primary TMS issue is headaches. I've had chronic daily headaches for over 35 years. The sidekick to the headaches is non-allergic rhinitis. The tension type headache often includes a sinus headache and I am stuffed up, foggy headed and have a constant runny nose. They seem interrelated. This all started in college. For the first 20 years, I controlled the headaches by taking OTC painkillers all the time. I also tried biofeedback, acupuncture, a TMJ clinic, and cranial manipulation. I read about rebound headaches and quit the OTC painkillers cold turkey in my early 40's. That lead to a nasty few months of really severe headaches. I went to a neurologist who prescribed a series of preventative medications and l ended up on amitriptyline 20 mg at bedtime. The amitriptyline worked much better than taking OTC stuff every 4 hours and had the bonus of drying out my sinuses and helping me sleep better. But I still had headaches on a daily basis, they just ebbed and flowed throughout the day and were not as severe. After taking it for over 10 years, I decided I really wanted to be off all medication. It wasn't working as well, no longer helped my sinuses and I was worried about what side effects it was giving me. I weaned myself off slowly and had the last pill in early February of this year. It was really bad after that- super sinus headaches, constant pain, horrible insomnia, rhinitis in overdrive. I was miserable and decided I'd give myself until July and if I wasn't better I'd go back on the amitriptyline. Well, July is almost here and I'm happy to report I'm doing well enough to stay off the meds. I'm not too much worse off than when I was on the amitriptyline. I really owe my success so far to mindful meditation practice and rediscovering this website. I'm about mid way through the structured program and am making very slow progress. I still have the headaches every day and am frustrated I haven't had a headache free day yet, but I've learned so much about my emotional state. I've read a lot of books, I've listened to all the webinars and I've figured out why I am the way I am. (If you are interested in mindfulness meditation, I highly recommend the podcast site Zencast. They have a six week meditation course that really helped me get going with meditation. I have also listened to many of their dharma talks and find buddhist mindfulness training to dovetail well with TMS work.) I have days when I wonder if I'll ever beat these headaches. I have never come across any success story of someone with chronic daily headache. If you know of one, please let me know. It would be a real morale booster!
Piriformis and bursitis: I'm happy to report success with some "running injuries" I had last year. I had left hip pain that started in 2/12 (hmmm right after an extremely stressful year of building and moving into a new home and dealing with my father's death) - My doctor said it was trochanter bursitis and must be a running injury. I ignored her advice and kept running. In 10/13 I started having left butt pain after seeing a PT who corrected my "misaligned pelvis." By the following spring the butt pain was worse and I had weird tingling nerve stuff going on up and down my left leg. My doctor said I had periformis syndrome and again blamed running (BTW I'm just a casual runner @ 3 miles every other day - it's not like I was running marathons or anything and I'd had no injuries in 15 years of running). The nerve stuff scared me so I committed to doing PT and in May started seeing a PT twice/week and doing an hour of daily exercises. I really liked the PT and diligently followed all her recommendations. I stopped running. The PT decided my lower back was to blame and declared that I would "need to be on a back regimen the rest of my life." That really freaked me out. If anything, all the PT work made me much worse. Not only did I have the hip and butt pain, the nerve weirdness, but now my lower back hurt if I sat for too long. I was depressed because I wasn't running. Because she was so sure my back was to blame I ended up getting a back Xray and when that came back negative, I got an MRI. Thank god they were basically normal (for someone my age). If they had showed a bulging disc or something, god only knows where I'd be now. But, they didn't answer why I was having so much trouble. In a dark moment I was online in one of those horrible forums where everyone is discussing their ailments in detail. It was a running website and people were describing their excruciating periformis injuries. It was very depressing. One person, however, did a very brief post and mentioned being cured by reading Dr. Sarno's book "Healing Back Pain." Isn't it amazing how many of us just stumble into learning about TMS? Thank god for that post (maybe it was from one of you). I read a couple Sarno books within the next couple of days. There I was on every page. I immediately stopped all the PT exercises and got back to a normal life. I started swimming again, which I hadn't done in over 15 years (due to some earlier back pain). I slowly got back into running. My back pain disappeared right away. It took awhile, but the nerve weirdness also disappeared. (BTW, after I'd been in PT for a couple months, the nerve stuff started leaping around. I even felt it in my cheeks. That really convinced me it was TMS.)
I still have the hip and butt pain, but they are minor annoyances now. I'm not scared of them. They come and go and don't get in the way of any of my activities. Just recently I got up the nerve to finally run a difficult uphill uneven terrain trail that I had been convinced was the cause of my problems. I had read on that same online running forum that such a trail caused someone's periformis and that had stuck in my mind. It's nice to be back to 100% in terms of my exercising. It would be nice if the butt and hip pain would disappear for good, but I'm not worried about it. I know it's not a structural issue and I don't fear those pains.Interact
