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Years ago I experienced horrible neck pain which also caused partial paralysis of my right arm. I was referred to a neurosurgeon who said I needed surgery immediately (shocking, I know). He said eventually the pain would go away, but the nerve damage could be permanent. My primary care doctor at the time said I should not get the surgery as it is often unhelpful and could even make things worse. I followed his recommendation.

I discovered Sarno’s work and had remarkable success. One night while reading his book, The Divided Mind” the pain just went away. I was thrilled. The partial paralysis had improved quite a bit before that, but left me with numbness on the right side of the pinky and ring finger of my right hand. Classic signs of nerve damage.

I have never had the neck pain again, which at first I attributed to Sarno’s books on TMS, however, 15 years later I still have the signs of nerve damage in my right hand. The mild numbness is still there and my hand has some noticeable atrophy and weakness.

Sarno talked a lot about the pain of TMS being psychosomatic and not physiological, and can be treated by understanding the mind-body connection. That’s great, but the neck problem I had caused actual nerve damage. So was the neurosurgeon right and, as he predicted, the pain went away but the nerve damage is permanent? I now wonder if it was not the TMS work I did that relieved the pain, that may have just been coincidental. The fact that I actually have remaining nerve damage doesn’t seem to fit in with anything Sarno talked about. Perhaps I should have listened to the neurosurgeon.

Has anyone else here experienced anything like this? What are your thoughts. It has left me wondering whether Sarno’s TMS theory is really valid.

Thanks
Mike