A term that would make people want to learn more?

[Forest]

Hi everyone,

Nothing makes me happier than to help other people learn about TMS. For this reason, in addition to having started this website, I also participate as a board member of the PPD Association. We will be working to spread the word this coming year, and we are looking for a term to use when introducing people to the idea that their symptoms may be caused by the mind-body connection. The other board members asked me to conduct the poll above.

Basically, if you had never heard anything about TMS, which of the above terms would have made you most open to learning more about the mind-body connection?

Feel free to select as many options as you think would be helpful.

Thanks for your help! There are no right or wrong answers and your responses will be used to help introduce fellow sufferers to the power of the mind-body connection.

PS, if you've never heard of the PPD Association, perhaps the best way to learn about it is via its board. The board currently includes David Clarke (author of They Can't Find Anything Wrong), Alan Gordon (who donated one of our recovery programs), Howard Schubiner (author of Unlearn Your Pain), Alicia Baton (an MD who posted her success story on our site), Darek Sapico (a cofounder of the Pain Psychology Center), David Schechter (whose most recent book, Think Away Your Pain was recommended highly by Dr. Sarno), and myself (who founded this site). Jessica Shahinian is the Outreach Director. If you want to learn more, here is our new website: https://www.ppdassociation.org/ (Psychophysiologic Disorders Association)

 

[Ellen]

Hi everyone,

Nothing makes me happier than to help other people learn about TMS. For this reason, in addition to having started this website, I also participate as a board member of the PPD Association. We will be working to spread the word this coming year, and we are looking for a term to use when introducing people to the idea that their symptoms may be caused by the mind-body connection. The other board members asked me to conduct the poll above.

Basically, if you had never heard anything about TMS, which of the above terms would have made you most open to learning more about the mind-body connection?

Feel free to select as many options as you think would be helpful.

Thanks for your help! There are no right or wrong answers and your responses will be used to help introduce fellow sufferers to the power of the mind-body connection.

PS, if you've never heard of the PPD Association, perhaps the best way to learn about it is via its board. The board currently includes David Clarke (author of They Can't Find Anything Wrong), Alan Gordon (who donated one of our recovery programs), Howard Schubiner (author of Unlearn Your Pain), Alicia Baton (an MD who posted her success story on our site), Darek Sapico (a cofounder of the Pain Psychology Center), David Schechter (whose most recent book, Think Away Your Pain was recommended highly by Dr. Sarno), and myself (who founded this site). Jessica Shahinian is the Outreach Director. If you want to learn more, here is our new website: https://www.ppdassociation.org/ (Psychophysiologic Disorders Association)

Quite a prestigious and knowledgeable group of people. Glad you are there, Forest.

 

[miquelb3]

What about

Physio-psychological symptoms (or syndrome) ?

 

[Forest]

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for your votes! This was very helpful. I'll report back to the rest of the team.

Thanks for your kind words, Ellen. It is always a real pleasure to see your name on the list of recent posters. I know you are giving out very wise advice.

Miquelb, when I read that term, that could definitely be a compelling. I hesitate to add it now only because the other terms have had a head start. Also, it seems quite similar to Psychophysiologic symptoms/syndrome, which we'd probably prefer. The reason is that we're sticking with the name Psychophysiologic Disorder (PPD) when communicating with medical and mental health practitioners. We're potentially looking for a new term for dealing with people who have the actual condition. So if you like "Physio-psychological symptoms," then perhaps you could vote for "Psychophysiological Symptoms," as it is similar and would allow us to use the same term with practitioners and patients.

Make sense?

 

[miquelb3]

Hi Forest!

I agree with you, no doubt.

By the way, Adam Heller has coined one more term «diversion pain syndrome»

Too many names for the same concept! Very confusing.

All the best.

 

[Time2be]

This is such a great initiativ!
I opted for stress illness symptoms. One the one hand people can easily relate to stress and on the other hand its only 'symptoms', not disorder etc. As for the 'illness': there is a difference between illness and disease. Illness is very much the subjective feeling of being ill. While disease or disorder are well-defined and terminological fixed medical conditions. I am not sure if everyone knows the distinction. And then 'illness' would also indicate a sort of disease. That would be rather unfortunate. So, maybe the more general 'mind-body-symptoms' is the best one.
And btw I am really happy that it is not called a syndrome! Syndrome always indicate that you don't know what it really is, like Bladder-Pain-Syndrome.

Here in Europe, people are not so afraid of calling it psychosomatic. But I know that this for many people means 'its all in your head' and that it doesn't emphazise the new research on neural pathways etc.

I guess it is really good to distinguish how to adress this condition for the academic and medical community and how to phrase it for the wider public. However, this can also lead to confusion.

Wish you and the group success!

 

[Andy Bayliss]

Thanks for asking, Forest.

And thanks to everyone in the PPD Association, which has a great website presence, and to which I've sent physicians, psychologists to learn about PPD.

I like the use of Symptoms, which is the first I've seen in this way. It is much better in my opinion than Disorder or Syndrome because it is less scary, less stigmatizing, and recognizes more the universality of TMS, and it sounds less permanent, more plastic. "We're working with symptoms, not a disorder."

Illness is a little softer too for me than Disorder or Syndrome, but still not as easy to digest as Symptoms.

I like the 'Stress' word because it is easier for most folks to accept, including physicians. On the other hand, many like me were not aware of what we think of as "stress" as the causality, so the word stress may seem confusing.

Andy B

 

[Duggit]

I used to think "psychophysiologic" was a good way to avoid the stigma of "psychosomatic," i.e., all in the head, because it implies that psychological factors can produce actual physiological changes. But recently my wife saw a copy of Dr. Schubiner's new book, co-authored with Dr. Allan Abbass, on my desk. She glanced at the title, Hidden from View: A Clinician's Guide to Psychophysiologic Disorders, and instantly said pschophysiologic = psychosomatic.

What about terminology that Abbass has also used, that appears on one of the pages of tmswiki.org, and that has a nice acronym like TMS: medically unexplained symptoms (MUS).

 

[Forest]

Thanks for the additional feedback, everyone. I hesitate to add any new terms at this point because they would be at a disadvantage compared to the other terms.

It's nice to see the positive reaction to the words "symptom" and "stress." It made me think, how about simply, "stress symptoms." If any phrase could explain how TMS is part of the human condition, that would do it. What do people think of that?

MUS might be hard because the goal is to say that we have an explanation for the symptoms now. Also, I remember when I first discovered MUS, and I interpreted it as "there is no medical explanation, so it must be 'all in your head.'" I'm happy to bring it up with the others, though.

 

[miquelb3]

and what about AOS (Autonomic Overload Syndrome) by Dr. Scott Brady ?

 

[lowella]

Yes to stress symptoms. A LOT of people don't want to look at TMS as a possible healing method purely because there is a psychological component and they can't admit it to themselves (and can't see how this would be a problem). But they know they have stress in their lives and can admit that. I was in this boat just a year ago. I never would have guessed that anything would've been wrong with me psychologically.

 

[ladyofthelake]

I personally think psychosomatic pain is a mighty fine descriptor but people are very defensive. I like TMS too, Sarno was clearly trying to find the perfect way to describe the pain and the source of the pain and I have so much respect for that.
I don't like anything related to "stress" or "overload" because, to me, those imply that if you just meditate, do yoga or "de-stress" you will feel better and not only is that missing the mark but that sort of pop culture idea of stress and it's cure becomes another perfectionist/not good enough obsession.

 

[miquelb3]

I personally think psychosomatic pain is a mighty fine descriptor but people are very defensive. I like TMS too, Sarno was clearly trying to find the perfect way to describe the pain and the source of the pain and I have so much respect for that.
I don't like anything related to "stress" or "overload" because, to me, those imply that if you just meditate, do yoga or "de-stress" you will feel better and not only is that missing the mark but that sort of pop culture idea of stress and it's cure becomes another perfectionist/not good enough obsession.

I agree with you.
TMS is the best option. Changing from «tension myositis sindrome» to «tension myoneural syndrome» to « the MindBody Sindrome» reflects the evolving meaning of that extraordinary phenomenom and is the perfect tribute to the sagacity and intelligence of dr. John Sarno.

 

[Ellen]

I am going to retract my vote for mindbody symptoms. I watched this movie on Netflix called "Heal" in which people used the term "mindbody" frequently, but in the context of a New Age/Holistic Health model that includes diet modifications and various alternative healing strategies. It is not consistent with the treatment recommended for TMS, as I understand it. So I think we need to distinguish ourselves from the New Age/Holistic Health community.

I don't really like any of the terms listed above to be honest. I think psychophysiological symptoms is most accurate, but I understand why people are turned off by the "psycho" part, as the term psychosomatic has been misused and misunderstood for so long. We do need one, acceptable term to use. Guess I'll change my vote to neural pathway symptoms.

 

[ladyofthelake]

I am going to retract my vote for mindbody symptoms. I watched this movie on Netflix called "Heal" in which people used the term "mindbody" frequently, but in the context of a New Age/Holistic Health model that includes diet modifications and various alternative healing strategies. It is not consistent with the treatment recommended for TMS, as I understand it. So I think we need to distinguish ourselves from the New Age/Holistic Health community.

I don't really like any of the terms listed above to be honest. I think psychophysiological symptoms is most accurate, but I understand why people are turned off by the "psycho" part, as the term psychosomatic has been misused and misunderstood for so long. We do need one, acceptable term to use. Guess I'll change my vote to neural pathway symptoms.

Yes, these are my exact thoughts! Both these terms are so ever present with entirely different and unhelpful ways.