Day 13 question to ponder

What book/article/etc. has convinced you most so far about the validity of TMS?

The SEP has been very helpful but for me the Healing Back Pain book by Sarno was best for me in terms of convincing of TMS. People say this often, but I literally saw myself in like every page. How could it not be TMS, right? I read the book so fast (well, listened to audiobook) and I truly enjoyed the hell out of it. I was calm during the few days I spent reading it, the pain was minimal and I was just focused on reading. Unfortunately I didn't get better just after reading, like many of you did. That's why I am on here. I read it and said, "well what now??" I can't see Sarno in person (RIP) so what should I do? So I'm here.

 

I didn't get better after reading it either. I read it over and over and over with deeper and deeper understanding each time.

You make a good point for us to clarify. I always tell people I got better after I read a book" BUT in truth, I got better after I absorbed the information in that book until I almost knew it by heart. THEN whenever the manifold little nuances Dr. Sarno describes about TMS and it's manifestations appeared in my real life I could say "Hey! This is just like page so and so" or "Hm.. I'm in pain right now, But I really HATE being at the Mall..."

I still own my original copy of HBP. The cover is Blue tape, and the text is so over written in different colors of Hi-liter pen that it's like trying to read a rainbow. The margins are chock full of little notes to myself and dates for reference.

The book's most useful purpose is it makes me ask questions to myself. I am ineveitably "OK" any time a new symptom might try and sneak in so reading about Sarno's experience and that of his patient, finding out what I don't have...all of those are were important to eventually waking up ne day and about halfway through a cup of coffee noticing "Hey... it's gone"

But the thing that convinced me the most about TMS was the answers to the questions that Sarno's work implies...e.g. My own experience. What would better explain my problem? The TMS theory or the MMM (Medieval Medical Mythology)....what was going on in my life when the symptoms came? Why would NOW be a good time for me to need a distraction? What is going on in my life that is so fucking rage inducing I am afraid to think about it lest I do something illegal or immoral?

His other book "Mindbody Prescription" also helped because it made a huge distinction between 'perceived emotions' and 'Unconscious emotions' and he had worked with TMS for longer at that point and had widened out the scope of the diagnosis and success treating it.