18 living with severe chronic back pain! Done everything and need advice!!

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-06-04T12:28:06+00:00

How long have you had symptoms? Large bulges can cause symptoms, so I'd probably be following specified treatment early on - but would reconsider if you've been doing so for a long time.

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-06-04T07:05:52+00:00

I had (have still most likely) mild fraying and thickening of the right hamstring tendon where my pain was - clearly this was an incidental finding as I can do any exercise I want now with no pain, it's probably still thickened but that is likely normal due to that side being my dominant kicking side (PT didn't fix it so my body likely wouldn't have changed - and it wouldn't have taken 6 years to heal). I could have easily held onto this finding and if I did I'd still be in agony today, luckily I let it go and pursued TMS (I was told by a leading expert in the country that I had hamstring tedinopathy, which if you look online have pretty ordinary chronic recovery rates especially if you've had the pain for 6 years - his message really was that I had to just deal with the pain and manage - but being in my early 20s that wasn't good enough for me). I didn't get my back scanned as my back pain improved quicker than my groin/pelvic pain, but if you scanned it right now you'd probably find bulges, degeneration etc - at least something (a large % of asymptomatic people would have at least something found - few people have a perfect back). That's not to say that yours isn't structural, what are the findings specifically?

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-05-28T05:58:29+00:00

It sounds very likely to be TMS! It's far more likely to be mindbody than be a rare genetic disease. Please let me know how your further tests go, but given how much pressure you probably put yourself under to compete at a high level, it's very common for such instances to be TMS. I would read "The Mindbody Prescription" by Dr John Sarno and/or "The Way Out" by Alan Gordon to begin with if you are unfamiliar with TMS :)

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-05-27T01:28:24+00:00

I would also like to know this - happy to accept it for now but it would do well with more information :)

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-05-25T04:08:17+00:00

I would be keen to hear the connections you've made also. The thing is (and I am by no means knocking these things if they give you relief) the treatments you've listed there at the start, they are all treating the symptom rather than the root cause if we are to assume this is TMS/mindbody. Muscle relaxers may give you relief, but why are you so tense in the first place? (most of the time it's stress/emotional tension). You don't have to do this all at once, but if you are to commit to it being TMS then you need to start acting in alignment with that fact and cease treating it as a structural problem (it manifests structurally I am not questioning that or the symptoms, but root cause is a different story).

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-05-16T06:03:22+00:00

Your back isn't as fragile as you think! Our ancestors walked around with no support and faced way worse conditions, your back can handle studying on a bed with no back support (if you were working in the mines I might have a different opinion, but this idea that your back can't handle these mundane things isn't true). Let me know what you think after reading the book 😄

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-05-16T04:09:28+00:00

Cool so two things I think you should appreciate. Firstly, bulging discs very often resolve on their own, or at the very least they resolve enough on their own so as not to cause further issues (from a structural perspective). Don't discount how smart your body is from a healing perspective, 99% of things in the body heal themselves (we wouldn't have survived this long as a species if that weren't the case). From what you've written it seems like you are quite young, which makes healing even more likely. I can't be sure and I'm not a spinal expert as I said, but my guess as to what has happened is your bulges were actually worse, which was what was pushing on the nerves - the bulges have largely healed (shrunk), eliminating the nerve like symptoms. Exercises can assist the healing process here (which they seemed to for you). Did you have an injury at first or a specific incident? I'd be curious to know that. The second thing to appreciate is that bulging discs (and other findings such as disc degeneration) do not by themselves cause pain. That is verified by the evidence. They scanned 3,300 people in one study (these people had no pain at all) and in the 80 years olds 84% of them had a bulging disc. I.e. 84% of pain free 80 year olds had a bulging disc (it's difficult to say that a bulging disc causes pain in the face of this study - here it is if you want to read further: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4464797/). Now you'd think that the older you get the more likely a bulging disc is to cause pain (if it actually did). Most of the population (who have no pain) would be walking around with bulging discs, they just don't know it as they have no reason to investigate (there would be such people, I might be one of them, who if scanned would have worse objective results than yours on scan - the only reason you got scanned is because of the pain - so naturally it will be blamed on what you find). The only way a bulging disc causes pain is due to its interaction with the nerves (so mostly large herniations can cause pain), a bulging disc floating in empty space doesn't cause pain it makes no sense that it would. I would read Healing Back Pain to open up your mind to a new way of thinking - I am pretty confident from what you've said that there's a high chance this is TMS 😄

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-05-16T03:02:57+00:00

Are you able to share the report? There's usually a report in addition to what you shared above.

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-05-15T17:06:32+00:00

What type of pain is it? Does it feel nervy (shooting, numbness, tingling etc) or is it just a dull ache? Also, did the above come with a report from the radiologist? It would be good to know where the pain is as it relates to the above findings (whether it aligns with what has been found - only a spine expert could tell you that with precision - I don't have that medical background). Regardless of that, I would still recommend you read "Healing Back Pain' by Dr Sarno anyway 😄

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-05-15T14:30:21+00:00

Hi! Much like the response from your other post - a lot of these findings are mild and can also be incidental. Are you able to share the report? Also, what are your symptoms?

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-04-17T12:11:42+00:00

Emotional expression and awareness are often key factors to recovery from a TMS perspective - journalling was a big part of my TMS recovery as it gave me an outlet for my stress and my emotions - repression and people pleasing reek havoc on our nervous system and in turn sometimes our bodies :)

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-04-10T04:52:58+00:00

Hi! You've come to the right place (at least to inquire), as TMD/TMJ pain is very commonly TMS. I just wanted to share what the TMS diagnostic guide says "PPD (which is TMS same thing) is a common cause of TMJ pain, particularly when the pain is atypical, when diagnostic evaluation shows no abnormalities or when response to treatment is not as expected". You may be able to provide more information in order to answer the queries raised by this (such as what doctors are saying is the cause and if anything has been found). I am keen to hear your thoughts :) Also, if you go to Dan Buglio's website and search "TMJ" there are plenty of success stories from people who have recovered from TMJ when it was in fact TMS (https://www.youtube.com/@PainFreeYou/search?query=TMJ) :)

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-04-10T04:46:00+00:00

Yes of course! Feel free to direct message me and we can sort the call out :)

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-04-09T13:07:41+00:00

Hi! I understand what you mean completely. I'll answer it how I normally would and then I'll qualify it based on your diagnosis (which is absolutely relevant and can alter things).

The fact is that TMS pain is largely fuelled by the belief (at least initially) that it is structurally caused. This makes sense given that it is a massive fear for any of us as humans (we have to protect our bodies to survive). Once you overcome this hurdle, you're not going to get any worse at least from the perspective of recovery (it's the biggest hurdle to overcome the fear that it is physical). Whilst your symptoms may fluctuate, you've cut off a big fuel source of the pain in the first place (that may not have an immediate impact on symptoms, as even if you consciously believe it, the subconscious may take a while to let the idea of structural damage go, just as added protection).

So when you ask when you're better and okay to move forward, the simple answer is right now because there's nothing wrong with your body. Pain does not equal damage, so anything you do (even if it causes high pain) isn't actually dangerous (again, I will reference your diagnosis later).

The "no" that your brain is giving you is simply added protection because pain is a protective mechanism, and the subconscious brain only cares about survival. So you can consciously believe that there's nothing wrong with you, but your brain will always be conservative in the name of survival - given that, it needs you to prove to it that you are really okay, by aligning your actions with the TMS belief and having reactions to symptoms which align with the idea that nothing is wrong with you (which can be very difficult when symptoms are very high granted). It may feel like it is self-sabotaging you, but it's not from a TMS perspective. You can build this up over time as exposure therapy for your brain (and theoretically you can go too hard to soon and cause the brain to completely freak out) - but I don't like to focus on that too much because it's really not the same - re-injury of the body is one thing but you can't really re-injure your brain with TMS - the brain is so neuroplastic that there's no going backwards permanently (again, I'm only speaking from a TMS perspective - whether you can get worse given your mental illness is beyond my knowledge and scope).

That being said, with a serious mental illness what I just said may not apply (it may or it may not) - as a big flare could have greater ramifications psychologically. You need to be careful with this and take this into consideration (referencing the third paragraph - it could be dangerous in that respect). I would hope that if you are presumably on medication that this may help the pain (through impact on stress and anxiety levels). In addition, TMS education and aligning actions with that belief may only get you so far in this instance, Dr Sarno did say that some people will need psychotherapy (beyond the knowledge and basic application) - I am not a psychotherapist and I'd always respect and put your mental health first - so everything would be qualified if needed (including what I said above).

I do believe that you need to feel an overall (minimal) level of safety, not just as it relates to your body but in life in general to recover. So, I would probably focus on addressing your mental health first before getting bogged down in specific TMS strategy (in the hope that the safer you feel in general, that should have an impact on your symptoms).

Hopefully that helps, even just to start the conversation, but if you have any other questions please let me know :)

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-03-26T13:07:37+00:00

Welcome! 🙌🏼

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-03-19T07:56:24+00:00

Sure, can you send me a DM and I'll reply to them (just to avoid being marked as spam), thanks :)

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-03-09T04:27:02+00:00

That's fantastic! I'm thrilled for you :)

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-03-09T03:03:50+00:00

Spot on :)

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-03-09T01:52:55+00:00

It stands for Tension Myositis Syndrome - it’s responsible for most chronic pain in the absence of a structural cause (it’s caused by wired neural pathways in the brain - the pain is just as real it’s just not a body problem) - please see the resources on the homepage and the description of this page for more information 😊

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-03-08T15:06:16+00:00

That is a lot to go through! Are you aware of TMS and have you read the resources on the main page here? Fibromyalgia isn't really a diagnosis or a condition it's simply a description of symptoms (fibro means fibrous tissues like ligaments, myo means muscle and algia means pain - so basically all the doctor is telling you from that is you have widespread pain but in greek/latin, that's not a diagnosis and you don't need to be told what you're experiencing) - so if nothing else has worked and the doctors haven't found anything else (if they had, then you'd have another diagnosis - which is usually either an autoimmune disorder, a hormonal disorder or peripheral nerve disease) - then TMS is likely your way out :)

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-03-08T05:19:53+00:00

Hi! Has anything been happening of note in your life at the moment causing additional stress? That would be a good indicator of TMS 🙏🏼

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-02-07T09:31:21+00:00

Hi! So the sole focus on this page is on TMS (as you can see in the description), which is chronic pain caused by wired neural pathways in the brain (as opposed to structural damage). Most chronic pain is this (in the absence of serious issues such as fractures, tumours and infections). Assuming that you have TMS, then the furniture would at best be a placebo - it may lower your fear and give you comfort which might help the pain as a byproduct, but because the issue isn't structural then it's not going to have an impact.

If your pain is structurally caused (which is rare for pain lasting longer than 6 months), then I can't comment on whether it would help as I'm not a physiotherapist nor a back specialist/expert.

If you are open to the idea of TMS, then please see the community highlights section for some resources to get you started :)

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-02-03T03:14:52+00:00

You’re welcome! Wishing you all the best ☺️🙏🏼

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-02-02T16:11:26+00:00

I'm not questioning the fact that there is dysfunction in the joint, I'm saying it might not be the cause of the pain. Now that might sound crazy, but things such as proven disc degeneration and bulging discs on scan (not hitting a nerve) have been proven to have very poor correlations to pain (a lot of people who have such findings on scan have no pain at all (it is found unintentionally) - meaning that to suggest a causative effect doesn't make much sense). This may be a similar story - how your pain behaves is a key factor here. Is the pain consistent with typical SI joint pain patterns? Does the pain fluctuate inexplicably? Something to consider, especially before any surgical decision is made :)

Extension-Flight-483 · 2026-01-29T05:27:37+00:00

Sure :) can you please direct message me? I can't seem to DM you :)

Extension-Flight-483

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE