Forest I have a question for you

I have been a patient of Dr. Sarno's since July 1998 and I owe him my life because working his program and believing that it can be TMS cured me. My daughter is 27 years old and is healthy and works out. This past November her toe swelled on her left foot and she didn't think it was anything. She thought possibly she banged it and it would get better. Two weeks after that she was preparing for finals and about 6 other toes swelled. We have been going to doctors and am presently seeing a rheumatologist and she diagnosed her with psoriatic arthritis. Has anyone ever had this or know anyone and also do you know if we are able to contact Dr. Sarno because he is a brilliant doctor and I feel he would be able after all his years of experience to know if this is the equivalent to TMS since it is autoimmune? I would really appreciate if you can help me with this.

 

Hi Forest,

Thank you so much for getting back to me. The list of doctors was very helpful. I knew that Dr. Sarno retired and that Dr. Rashbaum studied under Dr. Sarno. I have been rereading Dr. Sarno's book, The Mindbody Prescription and Dr. Sarno describes some of the TMS equivalents. Psoriasis is considered to be a TMS equivalent and psoriatic arthritis is in the same family as psoriasis. She does not have rheumatoid arthritis. At first the doctor thought she had Raynaud's which is a TMS equivalent. If you ever hear of anyone having this or something like it, please let me know. I am trying to get as much information as I can.

 

Susan, you might be interested in Dr. Gabor Mate's book "When The Body Says No". He doesn't talk about Dr. Sarno and he never uses the term TMS. What he does do is to describe, in scientific and medical terms, the physiological changes that occur in the body as a result of the stress of repressed emotions. Dr. Mate clearly believes that most, if not all, of the auto-immune conditions result from this stress. He even includes MS and ALS - that's pretty radical, but he makes a very strong case for both of them.

At some point you have to ask yourself the question: what harm is there in assuming that your condition is TMS? I'm also speaking to your daughter, of course.

If the condition s not currently life-threatening, and if there is no effective treatment other than palliative, which tends to be the case with many AI conditions, then practicing the self-examination techniques recommended by Dr. Sarno (and many others) absolutely can't hurt, and will probably help, if nothing else, the anxiety and the heightened sensitivity brought on by anxiety, and bring back a sense of control over the situation. And everyone knows that stress reduction is one of the recommended "treatments" for AI conditions, since they still don't really know what causes them (which is why they are probably all TMS - or whatever you want to call it, re Dr. Mate)

To give a very simplistic example of the value of general TMS knowledge: if you break your leg, and if you understand TMS theory, your experience of the pain and your expectation of the prognosis will be very different than that of someone who knows nothing about the mind-body connection - and your healing may be easier and more complete. I really really REALLY believe this. TMS theory applies to the way we live our lives every single day, not just to specific conditions that may or may not be on Dr. Sarno's list.

What I'm saying is that everyone can benefit from learning about the mind-body connection. It's never too late, and your daughter is young. Get her started yesterday.

Jan
(self-diagnosed at age 60 - never saw a TMS doctor - just lots of practitioners who "couldn't find anything wrong". Discovering Dr. Sarno and TMS theory explained a lifetime of symptoms)

 

Psoriatic arthritis can be erosive, meaning that if it's left untreated it can lead to physical destruction of the joints, so it's usually treated with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) or biologic meds to preserve joint function. With inflammatory arthritis, many conventional doctors think that most joint damage suffered over the course of the disease occurs in the first few years after the onset of symptoms and that early treatment is very valuable. That said and since TMS doesn't (as far as I am aware) lead to the destruction of tissues or joints, I'd be cautious about treating your daughter's condition in exactly the same way as TMS.

I think, though, that there are emotional connections to any condition, whether it is a TMS equivalent or not. I also think a lot of the techniques used by TMS-ers can help anyone better manage a chronic health condition and that they'd be helpful to supplement any conventional treatments your daughter might need. Personally, I'm still waiting for the results of some tests myself to determine if I have something that is not TMS or an equivalent, but am still finding that things like journaling, meditation and being aware of emotional triggers are incredibly helpful in the meantime.

 

Jan, I noticed your aside about the stress-AI disease connection where you mention that Gabor Mate:

This is only anecdotal of course, but your comment reminded of my late next door neighbor Tom. He had worked as an electrician for maybe 20 years for the city and was ready for retirement and a pension. However, at the same time he retired was also the same time his mother died. His wife noted that there was something "different" about Tom following his mother's death. With a reduced income, he became obsessed I noticed myself with lowering the costs of heating his home. He cut down all the tall pine trees in the front yard, installed a wood burning stove, and began filling the whole neighborhood with smoke, burning the wood to heat his house. Then, "it" happened. He developed ALS, began to degenerate, and died about 6 months after his mother did. Now Tom was a Boy Scout leader (perfectionist and goodist?) and always seemed quite hyper and many noted how angry he was. I can't help but think that stress caused by his retirement, reduced income, plus the death of his mother all at nearly the same time must have triggered the gene for ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) that had always been in Tom's DNA. It's also interesting how so many people who knew him always testified about my next door neighbor's anger, rage even. Interesting, too, how after he developed ALS, Tom became sweet and nice while being walked in and out of the house in his wheelchair - a complete volt face from his old personality type. Mate also notes this about ALS patients in general.

If you check out this video in the Media section of this Forum you'll see that the added stress of care giving actually speeds up the aging process in your chromosomes:

http://tmswiki.org/forum/media/dr-gabor-maté-how-stress-can-cause-disease.39/

This applies very much to my own TMS, which developed about six months after my mother's death in 2001. She had dementia and I had had to care for her for 5 years since the death of my dad. I'm sure five years of repressing my feelings had a lot to do with it, but I bet being a caregiver for so long must have weakened my immune system. It seemed like I "could take anything" at the time, but that attitude is very much of a psychological defense. In sum, I would suggest that getting good and physically run down first must make it easier for psychosomatic symptoms like TMS to manifest.

 

Wonderful video, MorComm - and an excellent companion to Dr. Mate's book. Also an accessible introduction to one of the other brilliant doctors in this field. But do allow time - it's some 50 minutes long. No more time than a TV drama without the commercials...

Susan, I highly recommend this video for you and your daughter. Dr. Mate says, near the end, that no matter what condition arises, and no matter what you need to do to treat it, also stop to consider the emotional component to your condition, because doing so can help you to recover.