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 Carpal Tunnel
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Jeff

USA
68 Posts

Posted - 07/09/2021 :  04:43:36  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
All -- I have suffered with minor carpal tunnel symptoms for years, but they were sporadic and didn't bother me that much. Starting this past May, the symptoms intensified and now they are interfering with my sleep. I know Dr. Sarno wrote that carpal tunnel is another form of TMS, and I have surmounted a wide variety of TMS symptoms and equivalents in the past, but I'm hoping to find some success stories in this forum. I think it's interesting that websites on carpal tunnel no longer claim it comes from computer keyboards or really any kind of repetitive motion -- so Dr. Sarno has been proven right about that. Thanks in advance.

Jeff

Jim D.

USA
63 Posts

Posted - 10/16/2021 :  09:58:23  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Jeff, I am having the same issue with what the symptoms suggest is carpal tunnel and have, like you, had many TMS "illnesses" over the years and have overcome them, until now. The problem, of course, is that everyone around me says, "Go to the doctor. You can damage your hand/arm by ignoring this." Those views really undercut any progress I might make in treating this as yet another manifestation of TMS.

I had eczema and an accompanying severe itch for the past year, and that has mostly gone away, only to be replaced by the aching, tingling wrist and arm. I even found a TMS-oriented therapist and had 10 sessions with him, which helped somewhat but turned out to be beyond my financial resources. I have a hobby-turned-business of making filled, decorated chocolates. This requires incredible attention to detail (just what a TMS personality looks for!) and brings out all my perfectionistic tendencies. The therapist helped me see that the itch (which began with chocolate production last Christmas) was probably related to this work--the business was succeeding, the praise was gratifying, but I was unable to accept that and developed an itch to punish myself for the success and divert my mind. Now comes carpal tunnel, and of course it is just before I was about to begin production of this year's holiday chocolates. I love doing this work--but not at the rate of making (singlehandedly) 3000 pieces for holiday sales. It's difficult not to see a more or less direct connection between not being able to use my hands for the work and the fact that I was dreading it this year. I have decided to cut production this year and limit customer quantities, so maybe the carpal tunnel is a way of punishing myself, this time for that decision to limit my production. The TMS "doctrine" says that getting a medical diagnosis is important to eliminate a diagnosis of physical injury. But I am reluctant to go to a doctor because I know what the diagnosis will be and I feel certain that, at my advanced age, any imaging will show some irregularity in my wrist or arm area, an irregularity that has not caused pain until now.

Jeff, can you make any connection between your carpal tunnel and other things going on in your life?
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Jeff

USA
68 Posts

Posted - 10/27/2021 :  18:05:55  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Jim -- Yes, I made a clear connection between my carpal tunnel symptoms and stuff going on in my life. In fact, the day it started (May of this year) I had just returned to my hometown to move a parent into nursing care and sell the family house. My symptoms were bad for 2-3 months, but now they have abated significantly. They still come back from time to time (usually when I am stressed about something), but they are much less of a problem. Yes, it is hard to ascribe this to TMS when the Internet tells you the damage can be permanent if you don't get it treated immediately. But the doctors no longer know what "causes" carpal tunnel (they no longer believe it comes from repetitive motions), and I'm told the treatments are hit or miss in terms of their effectiveness -- this confirmed to me that it was TMS. Also, there were some mornings when I was certain I had not slept on my right arm and yet it was numb and tingling when I woke up. Every day when it happened, I used it as an occasion to talk to myself -- OK, I know you are TMS, and you are trying to tell me something about what I'm stressed about, and I'm hearing you, so please leave me alone. Finally, it did leave me alone, although, as I said, I still have mornings where it is there when I wake up, but at this point I just ignore it. Hope this helps.
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Jeff

USA
68 Posts

Posted - 10/27/2021 :  18:10:03  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
One other note -- my symptoms were not just hand and wrist, but my entire right arm. The medical theory of carpal tunnel is that your nerve gets compressed as it goes through your wrist into your hand. But that can't explain your entire arm getting tingly and numb, so that also helped persuade me that this was TMS, not something physical.
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altherunner

Canada
511 Posts

Posted - 10/27/2021 :  20:43:35  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Hi Jeff - I didn't have carpal tunnel, but I did have numbness in my shoulder and weakness in my right arm, a doctor related it to my neck and I had an injction in my neck. Next step was surgery, I read the success rate was poor, and I read about Dr. Sarno. No more numbness!
That was a long time ago, recently I had some, but I think it is to do with the crap going on for the last 18 months.
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