Severe stomach pain, fibromyalgia

Hi, I'm new here, two months ago I had a whiplash and I stopped working for a couple of weeks, I developed small stomach problem that seemed to be going away. I have a bit of health anxiety so I made sure to do the recovery correctly. But my substitute at work started sending me messages asking me to come back because she was interested in another job offer in the same company and she was not allowed to take part in such job offer if she was still doing the substitution. I told her I needed some days more,and she started being extremely aggressive.

I had a panic attack and since then the stomach problems became severe. Excruciating pain in the stomach mouth.

Since then I took some antibiotics and the pain increased even more and now I have severe IBS, constant stomach pain and for some reason that I don't understand pain in joint tendons and muscles, I feel like I have developed fibromyalgia (when my girlfriend massages me I'm sore everywhere). My knees are very painful, especially at night.

I know this was not caused by the antibiotic but by the distress I was feeling when taking it. I am now very, very depressed.

I have felt all the anger towards that substitute, it feels like I'm in a horrible loop of hate. I didn't tell her anything at that moment,but I feel I am extremely aware of my anger. In fact I don't know what to do with the intrusive thoughts that remind me how I was incredibly mistreated while I was trying to help her.

Ant tips? I try not to be afraid at pain but it's so strong. Regarding anger I feel like thinking about it makes things worse. Any help appreciated... Also I don't know if anyone has gone through the same...

By the way medications such as buscopan or PPIs do nothing in my case...

 

Of course thinking about the anger makes it worse! Your pain is there to distract you from things like feeling anger.
Why not lean into it. Feel that pain in your body. Journal about what you’d like to do to that colleague, write down how you hate and fear your anger. Write about other situations in your past this reminds you of and how that made you feel. Sit a minute as you write and allow those emotions to course through your body. Notice how they may be subtle or strong sensations in your chest or hands, any temperature changes, clenching, tingling.. anything. Just sit with this discomfort. It’s all absolutely natural to feel. Write how you feel about getting so angry, about having these kinds of thoughts. Often our anger can cover shame or many other emotions. It may cause a change in symptoms: you are facing the things that cause your symptoms by doing this..but you are teaching your mind that there is nothing to fear about the physical sensations of emotion. They can not hurt you. This is the way to process them and begin to get out of them as a stuck emotional state. It can take some time to do. Know that you have every right to feel all the emotions: anger, joy, sadness etc.
If you are not yet engaging in tms emotional work, it might be time to investigate it. We heal by focusing on the psychological, and it seems your are already thinking along these lines.

 

Thank you so much for your reply. I'll try to apply it. Btw, I've just been told that one tendon in each knee is partially broken, so I'm not sure if this is TMS... Any insights? I am starting to think that my repressed emotions created the inflammation and then when I went running the injury took place (that's when pain got worse) because it was inflammed. But I thought if you had TMS pain could increase but not injuries.

 

This is really tricky... I know muscle tension can be created by the brain, maybe I should have done my training more gradually, starting with small walks.

 

Hi @Jrib
Remember to re-focus on the psychological.
One of the big tms symptoms is anything tendon related. “Broken tendon” specifically is not a medical term.. and yes, you can partially tear a tendon. They heal.
We can get physical injuries that are not tms, and we can heal from them.. but worry, hyper focus, obsession makes the brain think they are still “injured” in some way well beyond the usual healing time of 3 months.
If you have not read a book by Dr. Sarno, I suggest you should. He outlines the “work” you need to do and explains the role of the nervous system, personality, emotions and how they interplay with TMS.
He suggests to focus on the psychological, and to slowly get back to moving with the understanding that your nervous system is in fight/flight and challenging it with a mindset of striving, fixing, forcing, healing perfectly, rushing etc are personality traits contributing to your heightened nervous system and your tms/ anxiety.
I love that you suggest just walking. And some days, perhaps resting? For the next few months maybe chilling out a bit and taking time to understand what is happening - focus on being ok with yourself and where you are at now, doing tms work. You seem to be under a lot of self pressure, and that is always the crux of TMS. As for the physical (for just a moment) if your muscles are tense, they can affect other areas of the body like ligaments.. but we heal, so there is no harm and you will find (reading Sarno) that there are many normal abnormalities in the body - they don’t cause pain because pain is only generated in the amygdala.
I myself have been told of many abnormalities but they now do not cause pain.. or if they do it can be momentarily or for a short time. Inflammation is directly influenced by chemical secretions from the brain when it is anxious, fearful and in fight/flight/freeze. Dr. Hanscom has written quite a bit on this in his blogposts on his website. He also writes a lot about anger, being stuck in an angry mindset and how to move through it.

 

Thank you for your kind reply. Yes, I have read the book. Sorry, I made a literal translation from my language (broken tendon = tendon tear).

In my case, there are some things that I don't understand well. I had an extremely stressful situation. Soon after muscles in all my body tightened and everytime I went running or walking connective tissue in all body started to feel like burning. I was sure it was TMS, it makes sense. But then I started feeling joint (bone) pain in the inner part of the knees. So I did an MRI and that's when we saw that there was a tear in the lateral inner tendon of both knees.

So maybe the stressful situation could have created all this tendonitis-like feeling. What surprises me is how they ended up tearing (strangely in both sides after light exercise). Before this stressful event I used to run 20km every weekend without problem. Can tendonitis created by TMS end up in a tear? Maybe the widespread muscle tension caused the tendons to overwork?

I am sorry, I just re-read your answer and I see now that you already answered the question I am asking. Thanks