Is Tension Myositis Syndrome real at all?

One of the biggest struggles for anyone interested in healing TMS (Tension Myositis Syndrome, later renamed Tension Myoneural Syndrome or MindBody Syndrome) is actually getting to believe in the existence of TMS itself.

Given that the term is new to so many people, it is understandable to find it strange that your symptoms can actually qualify under this condition. And yet, I’ve seen it over and over again - once people start learning about TMS, things start to make sense for them, and pain levels start to decrease.

But is Tension Myositis Syndrome real or not? You may still ask.

 In this article (and in the video below) I shall attempt to answer this question from a more ‘global’ perspective, without focusing too much on my own story.

Tension Myositis Syndrome is real because…

So if you’ve been wondering whether Tension Myositis Syndrome is real, consider the below data:

• Out of 371 randomly selected chronic pain clients in 3 studies conducted by Sarno at the Rusk Institute, 72% of them reported being free or nearly free of pain when interviewed 6 months up to 3 years after undergoing TMS therapy. One of these three studies included only clients with documented herniated discs, and more than a third of these had been recommended surgery. (Gordon 2010: p. 17)

• Hundreds of people have claimed getting better just after reading one of Sarno’s books or learning about TMS. You will find success stories everywhere these days, from the TMS Wiki to YouTube and Facebook Groups.

• Sarno claimed to have healed over 10 thousand chronic pain patients, and most of those who were randomly contacted years later confirmed that they were still pain free.

• There are no identified structural causes for chronic ‘conditions’ like most lower back pain cases, IBS, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, myofascial pain, tinnitus, and so many other chronic symptoms.

• There are dozens of TMS therapists, coaches and practitioners out there educating people on a daily basis, with great success! Most of my clients typically experience a decrease in pain levels or complete pain elimination after one or two sessions, or after completing the online program.

What’s more, if you can identify with any of the below situations, you are likely to be suffering from TMS:

• Your chronic pain started during or after a particularly stressful time in your life, or at a time when something important was taking place (or maybe whenever you happen to be visiting your in-laws) - this is a very significant indicator!

• You or someone you know got a new chronic pain symptom right after you got rid of an old one (let’s say, after you had surgery)

• You suffer from the same kind of chronic pain on both sides of the body or in different areas of the body, which are structurally unrelated and cannot possibly result from the same damaged nerve? I mean, how broken can a single person be?

• A harmless activity like walking, sitting down or even lying down can cause such an intense flare up.

Yes, Tension Myositis Syndrome is real…

 Almost everyone experiences mindbody symptoms to a certain degree at some point in their lives, but a lot of people are spared the severe pain, either because they get a treatment that they believe in 100% (which activates the Placebo effect and makes them better), or because they they do not respond to the pain with such intense fear or worry (the very emotions that cause symptoms to persist).

But if TMS hits when you least expect it, especially when you are more emotionally vulnerable, then you may end up experiencing the very worst of it. Add to this some faulty medical advice that scares the person out of his or her wits about a certain symptom, and a personality that always tends to fear the worst, and TMS may just take over one’s life.

…but it’s not just in your head

Another important thing to keep in mind and which may make you feel a tad better if you believe you’re just going crazy is that although TMS is essentially psychosomatic pain and is caused by intense negative emotions, the pain or condition is still ‘not just in your head’.

People with TMS don’t just imagine the pain or create it in their heads, but there is actually something happening on the physical level that affects the muscles, ligaments and/or nerves, causing intense pain.

Sarno explains that this is probably oxygen deprivation, which is painful but does not cause any structural damage. You could also think of it as tightness or lack of blood flow in your muscles.

Whatever it is, it’s not in your head. It’s just the cause, the trigger that is in your brain. You can find a more detailed explanation in my article , What is TMS, as well as in my video above.

Neuroscientists today believe that there are a number of physical consequences that occur as a result of our repressed emotions, stress, anxiety or trauma. These also include inflammation, allergies, and even cancer - all very physical symptoms.

Here at PainOutsidetheBox, I don’t go into much detail when it comes to conditions other than pain, for the simple reason that a mindbody approach on its own may be risky, especially if the condition is life-threatening (such as a peanut allergy or cancer).

With chronic pain, however, things are different. Most sufferers have already tried various treatments and remedies, and have already tested for any serious illnesses or conditions. Since this type of chronic pain is in no means life-threatening, the TMS method is perfectly safe to apply, even if you do so in conjunction with other treatments, at least in the beginning.

Why don’t people accept the TMS diagnosis?

The best answer is, it’s extremely easy to attribute chronic pain to something else. We find it much more acceptable to blame our pain on a structural cause, because of our ego and the expectations we have of ourselves, we are much more ready to accept that there’s something wrong with our bodies rather than acknowledge that we are repressing certain feelings or that something is effecting us pretty badly on an emotional level.

So if you’ve got back pain and you also happen to have scoliosis, and you find a practitioner who confirms that your pain must be coming from the scoliosis, you’ll quickly accept that diagnosis, and even feel pretty satisfied with it. And then you get surgery and the pain persists, or you mysteriously get a new symptom.

Stop calling your symptoms by any other name!

One of the best nuggets of advice I can share with you at this stage is to stop calling your symptoms by any other label besides TMS, if you think or strongly believe that you have TMS.

The brain cannot properly register the fact that you have TMS if you keep calling it a herniated disk, carpal tunnel, or fibromyalgia. All of these medical diagnosis will keep feeding you the message that you are in some way broken, or that your symptoms are purely physical. But if you’re treating symptoms as TMS, you need to repudiate this.

If it’s TMS it’s TMS. The herniation or the osteoarthritis is just a structural and incidental fact that is not related to your pain. If you believe this, you’re already more than half way towards recovery.

I’m not saying that all pain is TMS. But if you’ve got too many coincidences around your pain, you’ve seen plenty of doctors already and they can’t find anything wrong, or you feel that it just doesn’t make sense to be in so much pain, then think again. Read as much as you can about TMS. Try out TMS coaching or a program, even alongside other treatments. At a certain point, you’ll just know that you’ve got it.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is Tension Myositis Syndrome real?

   Yes, also known as MindBody Syndrome, Tension Myositis Syndrome is a real condition experienced when pain and other symptoms manifest in the body due to a specific trigger, and not because of an acute injury or illness.

2. Can you cure Tension Myositis Syndrome?

   Every Tension Myositis Syndrome cure depends on the individual’s pain triggers. However, TMS can be cured mainly in 3 ways: education, self-awareness, relaxation - including self-care and mindfulness - and deconditioning (undoing habitual behaviours or thoughts that cause the symptoms to persist).

3. What is the best Tension Myositis Syndrome treatment?

   There is no single treatment that can be applied to every individual, because everyone manifests TMS pain differently. Therefore, the best Tension Myositis Syndrome treatment is one which helps the individual identify what triggers their symptoms, and how to react and behave in order to deactivate the pain pathways in the brain. TMS Coaching can help immensely with this process.

4. Is TMS pain imaginary?

   No, TMS pain is never in your head. It is always a real physical response to a stimulus. Every emotion produces minor changes in the body, such as chemical changes in the brain, which may result in pain and other symptoms.