18, male, had anxiety for ages but only been real bad over last 2 years. Mainly health anxiety.
From 5 to 2 months ago (i.e. a 3 month period ending 2 months ago), had psycosymatic wrist painbrought about by stressing asbout potential future issues.
From 2 months ago to 2 weeks ago, only once had a wee bit of wrist pain which was when I was trying to do some push ups.
2 Weeks ago noticed that if I type continually without a single break for 2 minutes, I get tightness and pain in right wrist. No pain when gaming. Continued to use PC for about 10 days, never had any pain when doing this. Over last 4 days have been trying to make sure I don’t have pain. Sat in a weird position 2 days ago which made my shoulder hurt. Next day woke up and shoulder was sore, no idea if this is because of the weird sitting position, as the pain went away after I moved, so I don’t know why it would appear again next day.
1 day later (yesterday) I read about central and peripheral sensitization. Now I have pain on right side that seems to move around constantly, but never in more than one place at once (plus if I pinch myself or induce pain any other way, it stops the other pain).
Now this worries me in 2 ways:
That I was already sensitive to this because of my anxiety, maybe HPA imbalance, idk if that would happen I read about that somewhere. I don’t have panic disorder or anything, just bad GAD and health anxiety. And that this combined with the potential minor RSI in my hand (and not stoping working even after I noticed it (although never had pain when working)) caused some kindof quick onset central sensitisation.
and 2) That the pain I got when trying to do a push up about a month ago, was as a result of some kindof sensitisation from when I had 3 months of psycosymatic pain, and that this could get worse in the future (going into comp sci so gonna be using a computer a lot).
Do you think any of this could be a genuine issue, or is it just that I worry too much and at the momnent just have some psycosymatic pain, and there is no underlying issue?
Do you think any of this could be a genuine issue, or is it just that I worry too much and at the momnent just have some psycosymatic pain, and there is no underlying issue?
Unfortunately it is not possible for us to provide an individualized professional assessment via a forum post. Given your significant health anxiety, our strongest recommendation would be to consult with a professional, whether our rehab team or someone local to you that you trust. They would be able to provide a lot more guidance and advice, as well as answering your questions specific to your situation.
I understand a comprehensive assessment isn’t possible over the internet, at least not in this format, and I do plan on visiting a doctor, however that could take several months to arrange where I live, I was more just looking for people’s opinions. I can’t find anywhere else on the internet where questions like this can be asked, most places I try and ask them I just get banned for asking for “medical advice”, which I’m not really, I just want an opinion, I’m not going to treat myself based on what people on the internet tell me (and if I did, it wouldn’t be their fault or responsibility)
I also think that your reading into this subject is probably not a helpful approach in your current situation. These are ongoing biological processes, happening all the time. If you stub your toe, you experience peripheral sensitization as the area becomes red, swollen, and tender. Some degree of central (“brain”) processes are happening all the time as well, as we try to make our way through the world and adapt to our environments.
All in all, I do not think that attempting to apply these labels to yourself is either likely to be helpful, nor is it likely to alter our recommendations for what to do about your symptoms (which are described here: Pain in Training: What To Do? ). Our rehab team would also be happy to work with you on an individual basis for these concerns as well, if you’d like to pursue a consultation with them.
I understand what you mean. I suppose I can boil down my concerns into more specific non-personal medical issue related questions about chronic pain and central sensitisation:
would be, can you get CS from psycosymatic pain (that is, pain caused by worrying about pain)
and 2) Is there a form of consistency for how this develops? i.e. if you had pain before for 3 months, and didn’t develop CS, is it fair to assume that if you have pain for another 3 months in the future, assuming all other factors are the same, then you also wouldn’t get CS, assuming the pain was of a different level etc? I have asked this specific question elsewhere and got 1 reply which was saying that no, it can vary, which to me seems really weird. That seems like a kindof fundamental aspect of any medical problem, that is, we should be able to predict with a reasonable certainty what will happen. If we can’t do that, how can make any statements about something like CS and hope for them to be accurate, f it isn’t even consistent within the same person.