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honeybear
10 Posts |
 Posted - 08/30/2013 : 17:21:58
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I've had TMJ problems over the years, but nothing like this...
For the past six months or so, the pain has been significantly worse. Recently, I've noticed that even random teeth, tongue, lips, and cheek tingle from time to time and different teeth hurt...two specifically that I had root canals on last summer! My whole face hurts, including my head, neck, and shoulders. I think this TMS has just kicked into high gear. Wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that my oldest daughter moved into the dorms a couple of weeks ago, I have returned to school, and my husband's employer has told him he has to relocate to Portland...
I first read Dr. Sarno's books in February of 2011 and still listen to them on audio regularly. Also, I have been working with a TMS therapist for about nine months now. I do yoga/meditate daily, practice self-compassion, and work hard at allowing the feelings to just be what they are and to love and accept myself anyway. I have journaled, tapped, breathed, and relaxed...and still I am in pain every day to varying degrees.
All of these strange pains and symptoms in my mouth now are really starting to worry me. Just hoping someone out there may be able to relate and give me a little hope that I am still on the right track
Thanks for reading. |
Edited by - honeybear on 08/30/2013 17:24:48 |
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gigalos
Netherlands
310 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2013 : 04:15:56
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Hi Winnie,
Sorry to hear your struggle, but you answered your question yourself. You mention three things that have a substantial impact on your stress levels. It would have on me I imagine.
If you want reassurance I suggest you go visit your doctor and dentist to rule out anything serious, but I doubt they'll find anything.
take care |
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njoy
Canada
188 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2013 : 20:58:39
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Winnie, you've got more than enough reason to write yourself a tms ticket! I had a horrible case of it for years. One day my husband reached out and pressed rather lightly on my neck -- poof, 9 months of hell OVER. Now when it threatens I am able to tell it to get lost. Still can't sleep on that side, though, unless I am feeling especially calm and relaxed. Then, it's okay to sleep any way I like.
*****
"It's worth considering that tms is not a treatment but rather an unfolding of the self, and a way of living as an emotionally aware and engaged soul." Plum |
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mala
Hong Kong
774 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2013 : 01:46:19
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njoy, can u explain how your husband touching your neck made it go away.
Thx
Mala
"It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know
what sort of disease a person has." ~ Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.)
Mala Singh Barber on Facebook |
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GTfan
USA
84 Posts |
Posted - 09/04/2013 : 10:37:49
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| I've had TMJ for close to 2 years. Its an obvious form of TMS, due to how it is "on the run" through my body. I have felt it move between my jaw, teeth, throat, mouth, neck, chest, etc. |
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Cath
116 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2013 : 04:30:24
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I've had TMJ for four years now. All of the symptoms you've described I have every day. I made my symptoms worse with fear, and allowing a maxillofascial surgeon give me an unnecessary steroid injection into my jaw joint and a jaw manipulation.
I'm having more success by treating these symptoms as psychosomatic, but the pain is still relentless, and I have bad days and better days. But all I have now is the TMS theory, having explored everything else, so I will never give up trying. |
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tennis tom
USA
4746 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2013 : 11:45:31
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quote:
Originally posted by Cath
...I made my symptoms worse with fear, and allowing a maxillofascial surgeon give me an unnecessary steroid injection into my jaw joint and a jaw manipulation.
Could you please elaborate on how you feel the steroid injection and the manipulation made things "worse"? |
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honeybear
10 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2013 : 19:32:28
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Thanks for all of the replies! It really helps to know I am not alone.
I do try to remember that TMJ = TMS, but sometimes it is hard, especially when the pain gets so bad. I forgot to mention that my throat feels sore all the time as well. I guess my brain really did pick a place that was most "credible" to me. When I first started my TMS work, my biggest issue was the constant headaches I was having which would get severe for 10-12 days every couple of months or so. Seems since that has gotten better, now the jaw stuff is more prevalent. About 10 years ago, I saw an orthodontist/oral surgeon about my headaches/neck/jaw problem (all the same crap). He told me, "You will never get out of pain until you have that surgery." The first step, I was told, was to see a TMJ specialist who would fit me for a splint that would artificially correct my bite. If that significantly reduced my symptoms, then I should consider the more permanent means.
Well, the splint did nothing for my pain, so I never went for the surgical fix. Also interesting to note that several years ago, during a pretty significant mid-life crisis, my pain was almost non-existent. Physically, I never felt better in my life! My brain didn't need to give me pain to distract me. I had enough of a distraction as it was teetering on the fence about whether or not to leave a 17 year marriage! To me that is confirmation enough that TMS is what has me in its grips.
I also saw another poster on here last December who was also told she needed surgery to correct her bite and opted instead for the splint. It didn't help her either. She went on to heal herself with TMS theory. I can't remember her name now, but I did try to contact her to no avail. I think I will search for her story again now...
Meant to add that I just finished a great new book by one of Dr. Sarno's former patients, Stephen Conenna. It's called "Use Your Mind To Heal Your Body". Currently, you have to order it directly from the publisher, McNally Jackson Books, but it is well worth it. |
Edited by - honeybear on 09/05/2013 19:36:02 |
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Cath
116 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2013 : 04:03:09
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Hi TT - I had high hopes that the steroid injection and manipulation was going to be the answer to my pain. It all began with really bad migraine-like headaches, on the left side of my head. I say migraine-like because they had a neurological element, but having suffered from classic migraine since I was 9 years old, I knew they weren't actually migraine. I was told by my doc that they were simple tension headaches, but the pain spread into my neck and I had some unsuccessful sessions with a chiropractor. Then the fear really began to get a hold of me. I saw a neurologist who prescribed neurontin. In the meantime, I was diagnosed with skin cancer (melanoma) on my righ cheek. The melanoma was removed, and after the op my face swelled up quite badly on the right side, which made opening my mouth, chewing, talking etc diffucult.
After my cheek had healed (meanwhile, still having the headaches), I couldn't open my mouth more than one finger width wide. Hence, my visit to the maxillofascial surgeon. He said it would help me get the mobility back in my jaw, so I put my confidence in him, and went ahead. The injection was put into the left side, because this was where I was getting most pain, and less manoeuverability. After the op, my ear on the left side felt numb, and there was a crackling noise inside my ear. Anyway (trying to cut this short now), my pain increased intolerably over the next week, and I went back to see the surgeon. He couldn't explain the increase in pain, and prescribed a cocktail of diazepam and tramadol. He also referred me to a neurologist. A couple of weeks later, I contracted a really high fever. The pain in my head, neck, shoulders and jaw was on fire, and I was having severe rigors. My doc thought it was a kidney infection, but tests were inconclusive, although I did have a high white cell count, indicating infection somewhere.
What I wasn't informed of before the injection, was that steroids radically reduce the body's immunity, and my likelihood of contracting illnesses and infection was greatly increased. I have never recovered from that illness. And my pain has spread down my back into my shoulders and hips. Now they call it myofascial pain and fibromyalgia. But none of the docs asked me what was going on in my life. My son had been going through a bad time taking recreational drugs when I began having the headaches, and I was scared witless for his safety. Then my mother died with pancreatic cancer. I had given up work because of the stress - a big life change for me.
Honeybear - I have been down the route of orthodontal splints - they also made my pain worse, and I wouldn't have one of those evil devices in my mouth again. This IS TMS, pure and simple.
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tennis tom
USA
4746 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2013 : 09:24:07
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quote:
Originally posted by Cath
...I was told by my doc that they were simple tension headaches, but the pain spread into my neck and I had some unsuccessful sessions with a chiropractor.
...Then the fear really began to get a hold of me.
...But none of the docs asked me what was going on in my life. My son had been going through a bad time taking recreational drugs when I began having the headaches, and I was scared witless for his safety.
...Then my mother died with pancreatic cancer. I had given up work because of the stress - a big life change for me.
...This IS TMS, pure and simple.
Thanks for the reply Cath, you gave an excellent and concise summary of your situation. You have a good handle on this TMS stuff relating the symptoms to the stressful events with your son and mother. Modern industrial medicine does not have the time to explain the downside of surgery and invasive procedures and give credit for the mindbody being its best healer.
Migraines were Dr. Sarno's own TMS symptom that lead him to develop his TMS theory.
It may have been Wavy Soul (Katie) who you were thinking of who had the jaw pain amongst others.
Good luck to you! |
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joan
34 Posts |
Posted - 09/07/2013 : 08:22:18
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quote:
Originally posted by honeybear
I've had TMJ problems over the years, but nothing like this...
For the past six months or so, the pain has been significantly worse. Recently, I've noticed that even random teeth, tongue, lips, and cheek tingle from time to time and different teeth hurt...two specifically that I had root canals on last summer! My whole face hurts, including my head, neck, and shoulders. I think this TMS has just kicked into high gear. Wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that my oldest daughter moved into the dorms a couple of weeks ago, I have returned to school, and my husband's employer has told him he has to relocate to Portland...
I first read Dr. Sarno's books in February of 2011 and still listen to them on audio regularly. Also, I have been working with a TMS therapist for about nine months now. I do yoga/meditate daily, practice self-compassion, and work hard at allowing the feelings to just be what they are and to love and accept myself anyway. I have journaled, tapped, breathed, and relaxed...and still I am in pain every day to varying degrees.
All of these strange pains and symptoms in my mouth now are really starting to worry me. Just hoping someone out there may be able to relate and give me a little hope that I am still on the right track
Thanks for reading.
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Wavy Soul
USA
779 Posts |
Posted - 09/08/2013 : 22:03:01
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GREAT! I just came on the Forum to talk about teeth.
First of all, honeybear, if your teeth that had root canals are hurting, you know that is TMS, because the nerve has been removed.
Anyway, I have had a huge realization about my stuff with my teeth. I have written about it quite a bit, because 6 years ago, I had the TMJ to end all TMS, after I had 16 teeth recrowned. I was on major painkillers. The dentist who had done my whole mouth restoration sent me to various dentists who give you splints and every other imaginable thing like that. I very nearly spent another $7K on that nonsense, and then I suddenly wondered if it was TMS. Oops!
At that time, I happened to be teaching a weeklong seminar about TMS and the principles of mind-body. I had this absolutely desperate screaming pain all through my mouth and head, and I decided to use it as an example of TMS. I told the group that even though it felt incredibly real, and dentists were telling me I had a bite problem, etc., that I knew that my TMJ was really TMS, and that it was using the occasion of the major dentistry as an excuse to manifest in that area and really scare and freak me out. So that I wouldn't feel what I was really feeling (which was about a nasty divorce and stuff like that).
I continued to state that it was TMS for a week, and I had a lot of support - people had read Sarno and so it was easier than usual to maintain the complete belief that it was TMS and not go into thinking about what I needed to do to fix it, other than painkillers when needed to function. But by the end of the week, the pain was no better.
As I was driving home for a few hours, I decided that I would just keep going with not buying into the physicality of the problem. But I was wondering if I was being crazy. And the next morning I woke up and the pain was COMPLETELY GONE! Not one of the 16 teeth - each of which had been having its special little pains - hurt again for years.
The reason I'm here to share about this now (how cool that Tennis Tom was just mentioning my experience, and I just decided to come on the Forum after many months!), is that I recently had another crown replaced, and have had some shooting pains around it. In the past, when I have had these pains, I have focused on them fearfully, and in the case of many of my teeth, the pain has then gotten worse, in a TMS fear-loop, and I have ended up having the tooth root-canaled. What I have now realized is that the 12 root canals in my mouth were probably all (or mostly) caused by TMS gone crazy.
Does that suck, or not?
It's all water under the bridge now, but I am observing the process by which the pain is trying to come and tell me that yet another tooth is "going down," and I am having to think differently about it several times a day. It has been a couple of weeks, and I'm pretty sure that I'm going to make it through with this tooth.
But how amazing, that TMS can have effects even in the seemingly very "physical" realm of dentistry.
Oh yes - what am I stressed about? My 94-year-old mother is dying. Very slowly, in the UK (I live in California). I am heading over there in 2 weeks for about the 6th time in 2 years, and it's very, very painful. I feel responsible for her suffering. I know I'm not, but it feels agonizing. She has Alzheimers and has had a stroke and is kicking and slapping her caregivers. I don't want to go and face this, but feel I need to go perhaps to help her transition.
So the dental emergency thing could be a good distraction, but sorry Mr Tooth, I'm not buying!
Love is the answer, whatever the question |
Edited by - Wavy Soul on 09/08/2013 22:09:11 |
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njoy
Canada
188 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2013 : 02:27:01
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Mala, I'm sorry to be late answering your question about why my husband was able to reach out and touch my neck and my tmj began to disappear at that moment and was gone within a couple of days or so. Hoobie-doobie? Woo Woo? Nah, tms. I was ready to let it go and he gave me an excuse. That's my best guess, anyway.
I really think that tms is weird stuff and I also don't think that any one theorist has it all together. I do think that tennis tom said it: "Very few people on the planet are open to the idea that their pains are caused by being overwhelmed by stressful emotions."
Once a person "gets it", she gets it. I got it because I DO NOT believe my husband cured my tmj. Closest I can come is that I was getting serious about killing myself (first time before or since, btw; I am not a suicidal person) and my brain thought "Oh fiddle, may as well quit." Like, really, why would a person's brain want to drive them to suicide. That would be really silly.
That could be wrong, of course. How do I know? I just know that my tmj was not "real" -- the cause was not physical, and I was "being overwhelmed by stressful emotions" that I was flatly refusing to acknowledge.
Nice of my husband to try, though. I appreciated that and so there may have been an immediate placebo effect. That wouldn't have lasted (years, now).
*****
"It's worth considering that tms is not a treatment but rather an unfolding of the self, and a way of living as an emotionally aware and engaged soul." Plum |
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Has anyone had TMJ like this?
