Tension Myositis Syndrome

[Birch531]

I'm not sure if anyone has posted about this before, but I've recently discovered a very interesting topic and wanted to share. This especially relates to those of us who have physical symptoms from our anxiety. And those of us with health anxiety/hypochondria.

There's a syndrome called Tension Myositis Syndrome, or Mind Body Syndrome, commonly referred to as TMS. It absolutely does not deny that physical symptoms are real and painful, but the premise is that the cause of the symptoms originate from psychological causes. I myself have high anxiety, and I've had various unexplained symptoms throughout my life, including urinary symptoms that I thought were interstitial cystitis (basically frequent urination and a constant feeling of having to pee). The more I've read about TMS, the more I think that's my issue. And, the TMS experts believe that IC - even fully diagnosed - is a manifestation of TMS. They also think that fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, many forms of back pain, etc can be due to TMS.

Anyway, so I've started treating my issues in the TMS way and have seen some improvement. I think that for me, these symptoms are originating from my anxiety and other psychological issues. There are even personality traits typical of people with TMS (perfectionism, people pleasing, legalism, responsibility, wanting people to like you, etc), and I have pretty much all of them!

I just say this as something to consider. If you are interested in learning more, some good websites are:

www.tmswiki.org
http://www.unlearnyourpain.com/index.php
http://anamsong.com

I have also started doing guided relaxations/meditations, and tried to especially focus on relaxing my bladder and that has seemed to help!

Hopefully you're not offended by any of this. It's certainly not the answer for everyone. I wanted to post this in the forum just to get it out there in case it could help even one person.

A big issue in TMS is that the fear of recurring pain or physical symptoms just feeds them and makes them worse. So when we have a numbness in our leg, let's say, and start fearing the worst (believe me, I've been there!), it just makes the numbness worse, the anxiety worse, etc, even though there is absolutely nothing wrong with us physically. I'd be interested to hear what others think of this theory.

[mustang65]

I recently heard about this myself, and find it an interesting concept.  I checked out John Sarno's book Healing Back Pain from the library, and am hoping to read it soon.  Were the websites that you listed where you got all of your information from?  Or did you read any books, articles, etc.?

I'm glad that it's working for you!  And I am definitely more anxious to start reading the book that I have now!