Placebo sweet spot identified in brain

[Tennis Tom]

In my opinion TMS people need to be circumspect about painting with too broad a brush or categorically diagnosing others. That old saying that we love to apply to people who misdiagnose back pain, to someone with a hammer everything looks like a nail, works both ways.

This is the internet and you're certainly welcome to express your opinion. Since this is the TMS Wiki
(in honor of Dr. John Sarno) I'm going to keep hammering away --just like they do at all the other sites dealing with specific topics--visit a feline diabetes forum if you want some real diversity of opinion--It's kind of like when you go to a Chevy website and you post that "Chevy's suck! Fords rule!", you're bound to get a few people who will vehemently disagree with you and tell you to put your F-100 where the sun don't shine. And, when I'm painting, I only use a brush for cutting in, a spray gun and a roller are much faster in the modern era.

Pspa, are you a professor? You certainly have an extensive vocabulary.

 

[pspa]

One can certainly believe in TMS without believing that all people with chronic fatigue syndrome really have TMS, so I don't follow your analogy really. And I am certain that even within the TMS community there is a wide diversity of opinion on how many ailments, once one gets beyond chronic pain, are or are not TMS/equivalents.

And I am sure you have seen the cautionary tales of people misdiagnosed on forums or even by TMS doctors just as I have. One needs to be circumspect is my only point.

 

[Tennis Tom]

... And I am certain that even within the TMS community there is a wide diversity of opinion on how many ailments, once one gets beyond chronic pain, are or are not TMS/equivalents.

...And I am sure you have seen the cautionary tales of people misdiagnosed on forums or even by TMS doctors just as I have. One needs to be circumspect is my only point.

What do you mean by "TMS community"? Dr. Sarno says it's about 80% TMS. If your definition of community is everyone who has posted at a TMS message board, your results might vary.

Are you Alexis/alexythemia by another name? She was always putting out those NOCEBOS over at the TMS Help Forum that you said I destroyed--thanks for giving me those super-hero powers--or am I a super--TMS villan? Her one and only only example, I recall, was a guy who got dx'ed with a "vitamin deficiency"--like everything on a message board it's hearsay--show us the labs or the images. Since CONFIDENCE, BELIEF or FAITH in the good doctor's TMS theory is fundamental to banishing the NOCEBOS passed out by the "PAIN INDUSTRY" and their media messengers.

No one comes her first!--or I have NEVER seen one here who hasn't first emptied out their wallets and days of their lives seeing a slew of allopathic physicians, specialists, lab tests, images, seen complementary, holisitcs, accus., chiros., voo-doos and late-night infomericalists.

If you've gone the usual route and THEY missed something structural, hire a lawyer and sue for malpractice and pitch the TV show about rare diseases that go miss-diagnosed : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_Diagnosis (Mystery Diagnosis - Wikipedia). The premise at this site and in the preface to ALL the TMS books is to FIRST see a physician to eliminate real structural issues such as cancer, trauma or infection that needs to be treated by traditional medicine. FYI, it's right in the forward to SteveO's newest book.

BTW, I was asked to join this forum by Forest, it's founder, and for several years I resisted. I'm here now spending hours of my time referring sufferers to TMS doctors, so folks DON'T get miss-diagnosed! How many times have you taken your time to refer to a TMS practitioner listed at this forum? Once again, the fundamental step a sufferer with TMS needs to take--after being cleared medically--is to have CONFIDENCE, FAITH, BELIEF--take your pick of words that resonate best with you--in the Good Doctor's TMS theory. Passing out NOCEBOS, that something structural was missed, doesn't help to create confidence in those who need it.

You sound like a word-smith, what do you do for a living?

 

[pspa]

You seem to be responding to points that neither I nor anyone else has made. A straw man argument, in other words. To repeat, my only point is that we should be cautious in extending a TMS diagnosis to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and that is hardly heresy whether or not you view it as such. Relax, nobody is attacking TMS, so you don't need to defend it.

PS people with severe CFS can be bedridden. Their blood pressure can drop dramatically if they stand up. They can run constant low grade fevers and have swollen lymph nodes. Are you comfortable saying they're just depressed or have nothing wrong with them, that that's all just a distraction from their emotional issues? I am not.

 

[Tennis Tom]

To repeat, my only point is that we should be cautious in extending a TMS diagnosis to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,

You've made that point innumerable times and that's what I was responding to--a strawman argument seems very appropos since it's Halloween. And, since you gave me the opportunity, I expanded on it. ANYWHO, it's good TMS info--don't you think? Forest pays me by the word.

 

[Tennis Tom]

So, what is your definition of "TMS community"?

 

[pspa]

So you are confident telling people who are bedridden, whose blood pressure drops dramatically when they stand, who have constant fevers and swollen lymph nodes, that all that is just a benign distraction from their emotional issues? I am not.

 

[pspa]

So, what is your definition of "TMS community"?

I guess I would define it as the group of people who believe that chronic pain can and does have psychogenic causation.

 

[Tennis Tom]

So you are confident telling people who are bedridden, whose blood pressure drops dramatically when they stand, who have constant fevers and swollen lymph nodes, that all that is just a benign distraction from their emotional issues? I am not.

You are NOT reading or failing to COMPREHEND my posts to you. I answered that above--SEE A PHYSICIAN FOR SERIOUS SYMPTOMS! Preferably a TMS physician, so you stand a fighting chance not to get ensnarled by the pain industry.

We are just wasting each others time--and it's time for me to play TENNIS!

 

[pspa]

Oy. This started with you quoting Sarno about how CFS was a TMS equivalent, implying that you agreed. Anyhow, enjoy the match.

 

[Tennis Tom]

Oy. This started with you quoting Sarno about how CFS was a TMS equivalent, implying that you agreed. Anyhow, enjoy the match.

Yes, I AGREE and the majority of fibro too, it's in his books--last I looked this is the TMS site. Do you disagree that the majority of cf and fibro are NOT? What percentage are and aren't?

 

[pspa]

Last post and I promise you can have the final word. For me, just because it's a TMS website, one does not have to believe everything Dr. Sarno said is gospel or be guilty of heresy, particularly where Dr. Sarno may have been venturing out of his field of expertise which was physiatry. I can't say he is right, I can't say he is wrong, and I certainly can't put percentages on it I don't know nearly enough about it or have medical training. I only have my opinion which is worth as much, or as little, as yours.

 

[Tennis Tom]

...everything Dr. Sarno said is gospel or be guilty of heresy...

Those are your words, not mine or his, he allows for things not being TMS, but approximately 80% is, and I'll happily take those odds. He started out as a physiatrist, but early on questioned traditional medical diagnoses. He had a fifty year clinical practice, wrote four books about all the symptoms that could be TMS. I would speculate if he had to do it over, he would come back as a psychiatrist--or a Guru.