Ross Douthat NY Times Piece

Ross Douthat in the New York Times has a piece on his chronic pain and illness and almost ALL the symptoms and life changes he’s been going through are boiler plate TMS and absolutely no one is commenting on that (except for me) in the comments of his piece. It’s worth it for people with NYT subscriptions to go in and comment on his piece, because it’s so clearly a TMS process that hopefully he can get some real help!
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/23/opinion/lyme-disease-chronic-illness.html?referringSource=articleShare (Opinion | How I Became a Sick Person)

 

I felt the same watching the Netflix documentary "Unrest" about the filmmaker's chronic fatigue syndrome. Clearly TMS, but it even has a segment where it mocks the idea of emotions and psychology being involved as outdated, ridiculous, and cruel. Long way to go...

 

I thought same thing. I believe the main girl was either in or had gone to med school. After learning about TMS I recall thinking of that film and remembered all the diets and pills etc she had tried. I also thought of all the people on that documentary and wondered if any of them ever found their mind/body connection. Also the show "Diagnosed." A few refused and were infuriated to hear their diagnosis was mind/body. It's a hard thing to accept I'm just so glad I'm able to and others can as well. I think you have to get to a point of complete suffering and be willing to accept and do anything.

 

Each time I read or hear about yet another celebrity complaining of chronic fatigue or chronic pain, I am quite positive it is TMS. I found an article in Washington Post about CRPS and how patients suffer until their last day on Earth. I reached out to the author and tried to explain that it is a reversible condition and tell her that she can make a big difference by putting this information out to the WaPo audience. Sadly, her response was "I already wrote about CRPS". I was very disappointed.

 

My sad experience: a vast majority of people with symptoms very suspicious of being TMS/MBS just don't want to listen to the message of hope provided by Dr. Sarno (and followers).
It's crazy ! ... but the reluctance (even agressive rejection!) that awakens our "extraoficial" explanation is widespread. Very dissapointing, of course.
M

 

A good reminder of what many of us went through and how Dr. Sarno saved us.

Unfortunately, the comment section is closed, so I couldn’t add mine but the fact that many of his doctors saw stress as a factor or possible cause was a good sign that the mind-body connection is more widely accepted.

 

Fred, you are right that more doctors associate the stress with the cause of the disease, there is still a show-stopper for most of them: they do not believe that it can be reversed by the psychological thinking of the patient, which is the cornerstone of Sarno's method. This is why they just don't see light.

 

Here is more, fresh off the press, in Washington Post, on the subject of mysterious chronic illnesses:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/10/25/special-torment-mysterious-chronic-illness