cannonballed off a 12ft pier into very shallow water thinking it was deep.

Context: (I have TMS currently for other reasons).

I was at the beach and there was a tall pier very far out with murky water. I cannonballed in and immediately landed on the sand with only about 1.5m of water to break my fall. I felt fine after but two days later and my left inner knee is very sore. I injured this knee in the past and immediately worried about it after the fall thinking it was going to be another TMS flare-up. But the fall should have hurt me in some way right? it was too impactful to leave me unharmed? Has anyone fallen a great distance and landed on their feet with no injury? Would 1.5m of water be enough to considerably break my fall in a cannonball position? I cannot work out whether Ive hurt myself or not (if I had would it be possible for the pain and instability to be delayed by a couple days?) It was also very scary and I was severley shaken up after so could be another reason for TMS.

 

Usually pain that strikes 2-days later is normal muscle thing. It would be normal for your knee to take some of that fall and feel it.
I think you are doing what I've done a million times before -- looking for a problem that is not there. It's in your sentence,
"I cannot work out whether Ive hurt myself or not."

I've had similar experiences such banging my head super ridiculously hard on a cabinet or something like that. I get really scared in the acute situation right after it happens....and then my normal reaction in a couple days is to question it. "Am I Ok? Does this soreness mean I have internal bleeding?" on and on.

I think you're OK. Try to let it go. Nothing bad happened. And don't jump into shallow water again!

 

Yes I am looking for a problem your right, just because I feel it's impossible to not have hurt myself. It's the wrong thing to do but I can't help myself . My knee is sore and can't do too much with it but can walk relatively pain free and climb stairs with some difficulty. I guess I should just wait a bit and see how it goes. Can a muscle sprain feel like instability and clicking more than acute pain?

 

I'd give it a another week and see how things go but you might feel better if you had looked at by doc so you can stop thinking about it.
I would guess that Sarno would say there is nothing wrong with getting looked at after an injury to assess damage, or lack thereof.

 

Thanks

 

@Callum bosua, with tough love, I am going to acknowledge that you are only 20, which gives you a lot of room and time ahead to learn a few things - like not asking strangers on an anonymous forum for medical advice and answers about force dynamics.

As @Booble said, if you think you're seriously injured, go see a medical professional. If you think you are NOT seriously injured (and remember that the reason for pain is to alert us to pay attention and take action if we are seriously injured) then you can probably perform recommended at-home care if you develop a minor bruise or ache later. Period. Especially at your young age.

Yes, and...???

...and - you missed the opportunity to engage your TMS knowledge and turn this incident into something else. Instead, you immediately went into fear mode, and took on a whole new thing to worry about. That's the complete opposite of what we want to do in this work.

Nope - don't separate it. It's all connected. Life lesson #1 - and lucky you, you're learning this at a very early age.

SO: again, you're only 20, which means that you are not just a newbie to TMS, but to life and decision-making. If you had been doing any of our programs (as I am sure has been recommended) perhaps you would have been far enough along that this incident would have resulted in an opportunity to change the inner conversation with your fear brain. If I had this thought after a fall in which I was apparently not injured, I would be briefly taken in by the fear message, and then start laughing at it, and then celebrate the fact that I am on to the bullshit that my primitive fearful brain keeps trying.

Many of us experience this all the time, in both big and little ways. By way of context, I am 71 and I've been doing this work for eleven years. And even before I discovered Dr. Sarno at age 60, I knew from many years of experience (and an active lifestyle) how to assess the seriousness of an injury - both immediately and delayed manifestations. And I've had more than a few injuries, major, minor, and zero consequences. Even "before Sarno", I understood the power and value of self-calming and positive visualization to heal quickly from obvious injuries and illness. It was the chronic nature of TMS-generated symptoms that almost brought me down in 2011.

Anyway, doing the emotional work in one of our programs is designed to get you to the point where you would assess this incident completely differently. The goal is to stop, calm down, and mindfully look at the fearful thoughts generated by the incident with skepticism and curiosity even if you're not yet ready to laugh at your primitive brain. Your post was a panic response, and also an example of what we call reassurance-seeking, which is often a form of TMS-based OCD. With more time and maturity, you might have posted this incident as a great example of how your fear brain reacted and caught you off guard, and what you learned from it, You could have done this without asking the forum any questions. And you would have avoided taking on a brand-new bunch of worries, such as why you didn't feel pain (um, perhaps because you're only 20? LOL - if only I could go back 51 years).

You are not there yet, but unlike many of us who came to this work late in life, you are SO lucky to have the opportunity to embrace mindbody knowledge at a really young age. And as I always say, it's not you - this is your brain on TMS.

The work is there for you if you're ready to make a commitment and just do it.

~Jan

 

Thankyou Jan for your honesty and insight. Interesting that you recognised an ocd pattern since I do struggle with it, I just didn't realise it was so obvious. I realise this forum isn't meant as a cushion when things get hard but I appreciate everyones patience for newbies regardless.