Hi, KayBaby. Most of us are so convinced that our aches and pains and anxiety or other emotional stresses are caused by something structural.
That's what most doctors have told us and given us medications from pharmaceutical companies that pay them to push the pills.
So it can take some doing to accept the MindBody philosophy that our emotions can cause physical pain, as Dr. Sarno writes in Healing Back Pain and the Structured Educational Program tells us. I learned about TMS three years ago when I was 82 and had severe back pain. I thought it was from lifting something heavy at the supermarket.. a case of 36 cans of beer! I did not really physically hurt my back and discovered by journaling in the SEProgram that I had been repressing emotions since I was seven when my parents divorced. Most of my pain then went away, but not entirely until I convinced myself that I believed 100 percent in TMS. That's what it takes to heal totally.
I urge you to be patient and continue working the SEProgram and journaling to discover the emotions causing your symptoms. The alternative will be more waste of time and money on physical tests and pills that do not get to the root of the problem. Have faith and be positive. You are going to heal.
You are skeptical because that is one of the things he subconscious sends us so we work harder to uncover our repressed emotions. It is not our enemy but our friend.