Myofascial Pain or TMS?

Hey everyone, I’m new here, first day lol. Well to get started, I have had around 10 years of back pains (relatively minor 2/10 pain) and as long as I can remember have had muscle knots running through my upper traps, chest, and shoulder blades. Recently (around December of last year) I tried releasing them by laying down and putting my arms out to my side with a pillow on top of them and feeling my muscles (pull/stretch) from my chest out and it felt really relieving at first. But starting around January this year that pulling sensation started happening on its own. Just laying down or sitting id feel a pulling sensation throughout my chest and arms. Well a few days after that happened, after stretching out my chest again I felt the pulling sensation in my neck and i started doing some googling, and I came up with the condition called dystonia, and that freaked me out to a point I have never been more scared of in my life. I can’t remember crying in the past 10 years, not even after me and my ex of 5 years broke up, I’m not really an emotional kind of guy, so crying and breaking down after reading that took a toll on me. Since then I’ve had multiple Dr visits and all ruled out dystonia and I haven’t thought of it since, but the pulling sensation would start happening more and more frequently, in my arms chest my back and traps now and even my jaw up to my face :/. But the pain wasn’t so bad, then my dog of 12 years passed away in march and I’m not sure if that sent me off the edge but since then, I have been in really bad pain. The pulling is constant now, and if it’s not pulling, there’s tension or throbbing pains. Sometimes when I lay down to sleep it has a burning sensation as well. Every time I lay down or sit down I get a throbbing spasm like tension in my back and neck and it’s really hard to get sleep. Got a ct scan and multiple x rays, blood tests, urine tests and everything came back normal. Drs have no idea what’s going on, so I decided to see a fascial clinic chiropractor that I live near. And he believes it’s Myofascial Pain Syndrome causing all of this. But I had these muscle knots for the past ten years, I’ve been doing some research and came across TMS on YouTube from an excellent man named Dan Buglio. Did his pain tests and scored 48/50 . (He says any score above a 29 is considered tms) and it would make sense seeing as I haven’t cried in over 10+ years that I can remember and I broke down thinking about dystonia . I guess I’m just wondering if I burnt myself out and developed a “learned pain” from the pulling stretched I used to do. I will add I have severe public anxiety for the past 4 years or so after me and my ex broke up.. long story short, I wasn’t the best boyfriend or person back then. So it does seem to fit. But my symptoms also align with MPS so I guess im just wondering what you guys think of this? Any answer would be greatly appreciated! Thank you if you read this far, I’m awaiting your informed responses everyone!

 

Also if I may add, I do vape quite heavily and read that it could cause muscle tension as well. Haha sorry for the long post

 

“But the pain wasn’t so bad, then my dog of 12 years passed away in march and I’m not sure if that sent me off the edge but since then, I have been in really bad pain.”

Dr. Sarno, who founded the idea of and coined the term TMS suggests that we think psychologically, and not physically about chronic pain -just as you have done with your above statement.
You have been suffering and lost your dearest friend and support system. Probably your stress outlet and the being on which you could safely share your emotions. It must be hard to loose someone you love.
“I wasn’t the best boyfriend or person back then.” This is big too. You’ve had a lot of loss, maybe regret and other emotions.
It’s great you found Dan Buglio, and are learning a bit about TMS.
The next step is more education. You see we can’t tell you if you have TMS definitively, although it sure sounds like your symptoms point in that direction. Read a book, like The Divided Mind by Dr. Sarno and see if what he says resonates.
Admitting you have anxiety, have had many stressors, etc. means you are really ready to be open and vulnerable with yourself. Doing the TMS work Dr. Sarno lays out for us to do is hard, and requires us to lean into these vulnerabilities - to go through and feel all the things we protect ourselves from in the past to move forward without needing symptoms.
Sounds like you might be ready.

 

I appreciate your response so much will definitely look into his books and learn more about it. It’s just confusing to me as symptoms align with MPS as well but the circumstances in which the pain came on is undeniably at the most vulnerable and stressful time of my life. Also considering I’ve had these knots for all these years with little to no pain.

 

Thank you so much as well, I was about 90% certain of tms and watching Dans videos I know the pain is very real but today it felt VERY real and it got me overthinking again haha not good for the stress bc that made my symptoms even worse ! But thank you again for confirming it really means the world to me, I’ll definitely pick up some of Dr Sarnos books and try to incorporate them into my everyday life. Another question though is how do you feel “safe” when the symptoms flare up mostly when laying down for bed/: and any sleeping recommendations? I need muscle relaxers to even get to sleep but I feel like that’s telling my brain something’s wrong ..

 

Hi, @Justpains

Most of my TMS symptoms have come after I tried some random stretch or exercise to help myself. Your TMS brain knows just where to place symptoms to scare you. This is really common. By the way—not that you have dystonia— people on this forum have healed from it as a form of TMS. You are in the right place! You’ll get out of this.

There is tons of hope here on the forum for you! @JanAtheCPA and @Cactusflower offered great insight for you. They’re the best!

 

"Learned Pain" is "Conditioning"

"Myofascial Pain" is a dumpster diagnosis. It's based on a bunch of symptoms with no discernable pathology.

It was my very first diagnosis.

The Orthopedic/Surgeon scribbled it down on a prescription for Physical Therapy. I Read it carefully and asked him 'What is Myofascial Pain?'

"It means you have pain in a Generalized area, but there is not adequate diagnostic data to explain it as cause and effect"

It might be similar to calling a Headache "Cranial Displaced Pain Syndrome"....I have a headache and my Doctor HAS to use a fancy word so I can feel good about the $400 bucks I just payed him. If I had gone to the school nurse, she would called it a headache, given me an aspirin and sent me back to class.....But now that I suffer from CDPS, I can proceed through their system ,shelling out cash all the way, with my fancy Diagnosis (TM 2025 Baseball laboratories).

I'm nowhere near as careful as the rest of my Family here on the forum. I'm gonna call my shot to centerfield and say "yep...that's TMS"
In fact, I'd bet my weeks pay on it. The Good news is becuase you've alrady identified certain events (GF and your dog) you'd probably get well really fast if you read "Healing Back Pain" and do the prescribed mental work. Like two weeks fast.
I'd bet on it.

peace

 

I smoke, drink a Gallon of coffee a day, and have partaken of all sorts of chemicals. Got over TMS in a couple weeks.
I'm pretty sure your vaping isn't the culprit.