HEALING BACK PAIN: THE MIND-BODY CONNECTION by DR. JOHN SARNO.
- This book pertains to psychosomatic illness or Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS).
- These are repressed emotions that trigger tension in the body and deprive the muscles and nerves of oxygen which cause chronic pain.
- He believes that chronic pain is the result of emotional tension. Acute attacks can be triggered by starting a new job, getting married, an illness in the family, a financial crisis, and so on.
- He says the mind creates way to district itself from unacceptable emotions with anxiety, fear, and anger. Unaddressed rage can cause severe back pain or pain in other parts of the body too.
- Sarno says to address the rage and heal the pain, one must think psychological instead of physical. Talk to your brain. Tell your brain you aren’t going to put up with this state of affairs.
- He also says to resume physical activity. You must overcome the fear of bending, lifting, jogging, playing tennis or any other sport. Only resume physical activity when there’s a reduction in pain.
- He says physical therapy is only a placebo cure for the person suffering from TMS. The way to relieve that tension is through psychotherapy. He says the pain must be resolved in the patient’s mind or the pain will persist.
- Awareness is the key to recovery from TMS. Knowing who you are and how you deal with stress will help. He says people who get TMS are often intensely competitive, success oriented, and usually very accomplished. Sometimes perfectionism manifests itself in unusual ways like with tension headache, migraine headache, peptic ulcer, asthma, acne, hives, irritable bowel syndrome.
- What can you do if you’re suffering from chronic pain? I suggest you see your doctor first. Then look inside your mind. Are you angry with yourself or someone? Are you overwhelmed by good or bad stressors? (Like the ones already mentioned). Are you distracting yourself from something so overwhelming that you feel you can’t deal with it consciously?
- These are questions you need to ask yourself.

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