Chronic back pain, tendonitis, neuropathic pain, rashes, hot and cold flushes… As a TMS / MindBody Coach whose job it is to help people overcome their chronic symptoms, I’ve heard about all sorts of symptom manifestations that end up having a psychological root.

It is a bit difficult initially to believe that neuroplastic symptoms can manifest in so many different ways in different people (and even within the same individual). However, in this article, I shall be exploring the reasons why this happens.

Why do some people get back pain but not knee pain (and vice versa), if they have a common trigger (e.g. chronic stress)?

Why are there all sorts of weird symptoms that can be classified as psychogenic?

These are some of the questions I shall attempt to answer.

First things first: Your Symptoms are Not ‘Special’

Here’s an interesting fact: almost every person I know who suffers from chronic symptoms believes that his or her symptoms are somehow different or special. Most of them believe their symptoms are more complex and difficult to overcome than anyone else’s.

This is one of the traps one can fall into when embarking on a mindbody healing journey. Because of a specific way that symptoms manifest, or because of a past injury or issue that the individual links to his / her current symptoms, the belief persists that a specific symptom is harder to address.

It’s not my intention to put everyone in the same box. However, there’s this curious thing about chronic neuroplastic symptoms: although they manifest so differently, they are ALL a result of a conditioned response that is fuelled by emotional distress. And therefore, the ‘cure’ is still one and the same:

You need to somehow reduce the amount of pressure and distress in your life. And, you need to believe that your symptoms are reversible and mindbody in origin, so that you can shift the way you respond to them.

Then why do I get my specific symptom or set of symptoms?

Sometimes, under times of stress or emotional turmoil, we may get random symptoms pop up. I myself have had a good number of them: heel pain, ankle pain, knee pain, acid reflux, elbow tendonitis, etc. This is our body’s way of manifesting the accumulation of tension and inner rage.

However, there are some symptoms that stick, and others that don’t. According to Dr John Sarno, the doctor of Rehabilitation Medicine who came up with the term Tension Myoneural Syndrome to explain such conditions, the symptoms that ‘stick’ are those that provide the most effective distraction from repressed emotions.

I find the concept of TMS as distraction extremely intriguing, even though at first it was hard to digest. That said, Sarno’s explanation makes perfect sense; the pain can really serve to distract us from any other bothersome issues that we are denying or trying to run away from…

And what better way to distract us than by manifesting in a location that structurally makes sense to us? This is often why TMS symptoms manifest at the site of an old injury. It simply makes logical sense to believe that that part of the body is damaged or weak! And therefore, the distraction works.

But hold on, there’s more… From years of working with clients, I’ve also realized that the symptoms that stick are those that threaten us and consume our attention the most. This is why athletes, for example, tend to get TMS in a crucial part of the body that’s essential to their performance (example tennis / golfer’s elbow).

I experienced this myself twice; first chronic shoulder pain, and then tennis elbow, both during a period when I had reached a level of discontent in my climbing.

Athletes in particular find these symptoms the most ‘threatening’ and frustrating because they can totally sabotage their career. And to make matters worse, it is easy to ‘fall for’ such symptoms and believe that they are real structural issues, because of all the false information circulating around ‘overuse’ injuries and conditions.

A ticket to less pressure and responsibility…

However, to keep at the athletes’ example, the very fact that their symptom prevents them from performing may be the main purpose behind the symptom: to get them out of a situation of chronic pressure, and serve as a ticket out of the risk of enduring shame or failure.

The same could be said of symptoms that prevent individuals from fulfilling their respective roles, such as frequent migraines in someone who has a stressful office job, or back pain suffered by a manual worker.

Sometimes, chronic TMS symptoms serve as a ticket for less responsibility and less pressure in one’s life, and are likely to arise when the individual has let things pile up too much (one common example being when someone doesn’t dare say ‘No’ to all sorts of requests, or who is used to take on too much responsibility).

But wait, couldn’t it really be an injury?

Yes of course. In that case, the symptoms will resolve with rest, surgery and/or rehabilitation.

I realized that my elbow tendonitis was NOT really the injury it masked itself to be when the symptoms stayed the same, then went away suddenly one fine evening when I immersed myself in an environment that led to a mindset shift.

This was confirmed when the symptom returned again, then went away as soon as I went on holiday. Classic TMS!

You’re more likely to get the symptoms that scare you or threaten you the most…

This is most unpleasant but true.

As we fear getting the same kind of symptom, we give that body part more attention, and as we do so, we are more likely to strengthen the pain pathways between the brain and that part of the body. Strangely, the brain and body learn to keep recreating that symptom, thanks to our memory and negative expectations.

The more ‘hooked’ you are by your symptom, the more at risk you are of strengthening these pain pathways. In essence, your focused hypervigilance can increase pain sensitivity in one or more areas of the body, and cause what is known as central sensitization. This is the core cause behind Fibromyalgia and CFS in particular (VeryWellHealth).

And yet, if we get a symptom that doesn’t bother us, that symptom is usually quicker to disappear. Let’s say I get a twinge in my knee but I know that my knee is fine. In my case, knowing what I already know about the MindBody Syndrome, I would immediately link it to a source of emotional pressure or distress and dismiss the symptom as being just a little inconvenience.

That’s because chronic TMS pain works on the basis of danger messages: if we react to a symptom as if it were dangerous, then the alert will stay on. If we react as if the symptom were no big deal, and are convinced in the knowledge that it will pass, then the danger signal is deactivated.

And so, it is always fear or preoccupation that keep the alarm bells on, and that is why the symptoms that stick are usually those that we fear the most!

Next Steps: How to stop fearing your symptoms and initiate healing

You might find it disheartening to hear that the symptoms that you find the most scary or bothersome are those that will likely persist. However, there is hope if you adopt the right mindset.

Here are a few guidelines to think about:

1. Make a case for your symptoms being neuroplastic. There are online quizzes as well as programs and tools to help you, plus a supportive doctor can help by ruling out any other serious medical issues. Knowing that there is likely nothing serious causing your symptoms will reduce fear and tension.

2. Stop believing your symptoms are more difficult to tackle than everyone else’s. Remember that everyone else believes this too. You’re likely not special. Chances are, if you’ve had several medical tests, you do not suffer from a rare, life-threatening disease.

3. Don’t identify with diagnostic labels if possible. Calling your symptom TMS or a ‘mindbody symptom’ instead of ‘tennis elbow’ or ‘fibromyalgia’ will help destroy your identity as a person suffering from a specific condition, and make it more clear in your head that no matter what manifestation your symptoms are taking, it’s still a mindbody symptom and can be dealt with psychologically.

4. Implement Pain Reprocessing Techniques. These tools can help you shift your perception of symptoms, so that you can eventually eliminate fear-based reactions and turn off that alarm!

The above are just the first initial steps you need to take to kickstart your journey. There are of course, other things to learn and other tools that can help tackle the sources of emotional distress and undo the pain conditioning response.

This is why a TMS-based Recovery Program is recommended if you’ve been suffering from chronic symptoms from a very long time that have limited your life somehow.

That said, it all starts by educating yourself on the MindBody Syndrome (also known as TMS and neuroplastic symptoms). Trust me, once you really understand what’s happening and start to heal yourself, you wouldn’t have wanted things to be any other way!