Bookmark

... said anyone throughout human history who was desperate to deny a new possibility - from ancient times to today's deniers. Pick your topic.

@JDSR71, what makes you think that the medical community is any less susceptible to doubt than you are, when it comes to physical symptoms that they've been taught must have a cause that they can cure with modern drugs and surgery? Doctors live to "fix" things, after all. How do you think they feel, and what do you think they do, when faced with an obviously physical issue that they can't fix? The medical community has been duped before, after all, many times, and quite recently (eg: the word is finally getting out about the ineffectiveness of back surgery for chronic pain, never mind all of the recent dietary reversals). And for crying out loud, don't forget how beholden the medical industry is to the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. There is no research money from those guys for mindbody research.

Look, over-thinking is one of the primary functions of our "TMS brains" - it comes from our need to analyze threats. It's also a great distraction a la Dr. Sarno, because you can be so easily convinced that you're accomplishing something by spending a ton of time analyzing what it considers to be a threat.

You are not.

What you're doing is spinning your wheels and avoiding doing the emotional work, which your brain reeeeally doesn't want you to do. Which is inherently silly, because doing the emotional work is non-invasive, and costs practically nothing - other than time, which I get is not easy for someone who has a job and possibly family. Popping a pill or going to PT once a week would sure be easier, right?

The mindbody approach to physical conditions has been around for centuries, way before Dr Sarno. All he did was repackage some of that knowledge in an efficient format that makes sense in today's world, although some of the details of his original theory (such as oxygen deprivation) are outdated and mostly ignored by most of us who have been evolving our understanding along with neuroscience. Nevertheless the central premise remains valid, as has been proven over and over by many of us who simply sat down and forced ourselves to do the work.

Doing the work with self-honesty and personal integrity is not at all easy for most individuals, because we are fighting against a primitive fear-based survival mechanism that is extremely strong. The problem that the medical community has is that they can't measure or explain why some people can do the work more easily and achieve results while others struggle for months with many setbacks, and still others never get it. It's really hard to quantify, and thanks to the ever-changing and ever-increasing stressors in our modern lives, there is no such thing as a permanent cure without a 180-degree change in the way we think and react to stressors.

I'm still existing somewhere between 75%-90% freedom from symptoms most of the time - which is not bad enough for me to do what I know needs to be done to get to 100%, which is to meditate at least 45 minutes a day. My brain completely sabotages me all the time, by convincing me that I'll do it "later". And "later" never happens. Still - even a 75% day is significant compared to where I was at when I discovered Dr. Sarno eleven years ago at age 60, when I was well on the path to becoming housebound with multiple pain, GI, neuro, and mental symptoms. It's starting to get a little more difficult for me to separate TMS from age-related issues, but I'm still so much better off at 71 than I was then - and I owe that 100% to incorporating mindbody knowledge, techniques, and belief into my life.

You've received excellent advice from @miffybunny, @Cactusflower, and @Duggit, all of them well-established "luminaries" of this forum. Don't discount it because your brain wants to convince you that it's not valid or somehow not relevant to you. This is your brain on TMS - I know, because I've been there, they've been there - we've all been there. As human beings, we're all in this together - and the forum is here for you when you're ready to do the work.

~Jan