The Great Pain Deception (By Steve Ozanich) - Favourite Quotes

[Adam Coloretti (coach)]

Hi everyone,

This was inspired by @BloodMoon sharing some of her favourite quotes from Dr Schubiner's new book (which I have just got my hands on) - sometimes I feel as if book quotes can hit quite hard, in ways that other communication can't.

I've tried to select ones that hopefully make sense even without the context around it (although I'm more than happy to provide it and discuss any of them), but I've been going over my highlights and here are the ones that stood out to me (I've tried to keep it to around 10). If anyone has others from the book to add, please feel free to (note that I believe I have the most up to date paperback version, the blue cover with the yin/yang symbol, for the page numbers) :


- “As with all TMS equivalents, it is the attention paid to it that keeps it in perpetuity” (pg. 60).

- “Pain and illness are messages from the inner self revealing that we have become out-of-touch with our inner self. The pain dramatically rises when we aren’t listening – determined to hold our attention” (pg. 71).

- “There is no epidemic of back pain in Asia. Do Americans have weaker spines? No – just shorter deadlines to meet” (pg. 139).

- “The symptoms bound around in the body for two reasons: to keep the conscious mind focused away from the threatening emotions, and to send messages of discontent from the unconscious back to the conscious side – to be resolved” (pg. 170).

- “If pain and illness are viewed as enemies, there can be deleterious effects on health because no one comes to peace with an enemy, thus they are enemies" (pg. 183).

- “Perform any routines for the sake of themselves, never for pain reduction” (pg. 197).

- “The pain or illness is the messenger. Don’t kill the messenger; invite him or her in for an intimate conversation” (pg. 219).

- “So, life is a constant dance for balance between intellectualisation and feeling – repression and expression” (pg.228).

- “If the individual senses entrapment due to his circumstance, his body reveals the price paid for his silent compliance” (pg. 260).

- “The desire of total control results in the loss of all control” (pg. 267).

- “The more unthinkable and reprehensible the thought, the more self-punishment [in the form of symptoms] must be imposed to assuage the guilt that society has instilled in us for possessing such condemnable images” (pg. 275).

- “Fighting anything – either mentally or physically – gives power to the object of resistance” (pg. 307).

- “A watched pot never boils, as a watched body never heals” (pg. 331).

- “…if I had to give the cause of pain an emotional label, it would be guilt... we cannot fully concentrate on worrying about others and our own happiness simultaneously, and so we suffer from experiencing deep inside what we would like to be doing instead of caring about them. Guilt is the residual conflict from trying to be good and right, while simultaneously not wanting to be good or right” (pg. 343).

- "Happiness first, and good health will certainly follow" (pg. 343).

 

[Cactusflower]

“The desire of total control results in the loss of all control” (pg. 267).

“Fighting anything – either mentally or physically – gives power to the object of resistance” (pg. 307).

Thanks @Adam Coloretti (coach) - let's hope this is the answer to the newest symptom of foot pain. It began when I was diagnosed with a true physical ailment and tangled up in some other feelings of loss of control (the aging process) and yup "guilt" for a condition I probably had absolutely 0 control over...absolutely know all this is there but sometimes we just need to see it in blazed in front of us to let the mind and brain let it sink in....

 

[BloodMoon]

Fabulous, @Adam Coloretti (coach)! Thank you — I’ll be reading through them all regularly.

My personal favourite: “A watched pot never boils, as a watched body never heals.”

You've inspired me back... When I get some time, I'll post up some quotations that I highlighted in The Pain Reprocessing Therapy Workbook by Vanessa Blackstone, and some from The Hidden Psychology of Pain by Dr James Alexander. The latter was the book that got me believing in TMS and taking my first steps on my journey out of pain.

 

[Bonnard]

- “There is no epidemic of back pain in Asia. Do Americans have weaker spines? No – just shorter deadlines to meet” (pg. 139).

Thanks for these quotations!

The shorter deadlines can apply to one individual, where pain starts when responsibilities and pressures increase, then subsides as the burden gets lighter, and shows up again with a sudden loss, and on and on....

 

[Adam Coloretti (coach)]

“The desire of total control results in the loss of all control” (pg. 267).

“Fighting anything – either mentally or physically – gives power to the object of resistance” (pg. 307).

Thanks @Adam Coloretti (coach) - let's hope this is the answer to the newest symptom of foot pain. It began when I was diagnosed with a true physical ailment and tangled up in some other feelings of loss of control (the aging process) and yup "guilt" for a condition I probably had absolutely 0 control over...absolutely know all this is there but sometimes we just need to see it in blazed in front of us to let the mind and brain let it sink in....

It's tricky when there's a true physical ailment there, even counter-intuitive in a sense to do this - and that's it repetition to let it sink in

 

[Adam Coloretti (coach)]

My personal favourite: “A watched pot never boils, as a watched body never heals.”

Clever isn't it!

Oh and please do! I'd love to hear them

 

[Diana-M]

Love these! Thank you @Adam Coloretti (coach)
I’m happy to see these, and realize that I’m starting to feel a little better, just as I begin to grasp some of these concepts! Especially:

I’ve got to finally be a priority. (No guilt if what I need makes someone else unhappy. I have to walk again, so that’s the price!)

i firmly believe that for me, my symptoms are speaking to me, not distracting me. They are actual emotions in my body like, grief, anger, sadness, loneliness. They want to be recognized and discharged. If I allow them, they fade. This is happening in waves.

 

[Adam Coloretti (coach)]

i firmly believe that for me, my symptoms are speaking to me, not distracting me. They are actual emotions in my body like, grief, anger, sadness, loneliness. They want to be recognized and discharged. If I allow them, they fade. This is happening in waves.

Yes! And I'm glad Steve looked at it from both perspectives, it makes more sense to me too that they can operate as both a distraction and/or a message

 

[MWsunin12]

Hi Adam and all,
I don't want to hijack your post, but I thought I'd add some things that Steve O used to post on this forum. I started collecting his answers to others and it always helped me. The guy deserves multitudes of credit.

All Steve O below:

As long as the person fears, there will be odd disorders for the brain to torture you with. I would like to publish a paper on the wild things people have told me they've gotten. The brain has carte blanche to do what it wants if you allow it. You can't keep going back to the dark side, it feeds your fear.

TMS results from confusion as does most suffering, and/or cognitive dissonance (that divided mind the good doctor penned). In the East it is called "Maya." Doctors are of course the primary cause of our confusion regarding health and so are causing much of our suffering. However, they can only harm you if you believe in them, and so you are the ultimate determiner of your suffering. Who do you believe Dr. Sarno and the millions who have healed from your same symptoms? Or your doctors? The same is true for mindbody docs that come here occasionally, they are harming people by confusing them. They say one thing about TMS and practice another, they claim Dr. Sarno is wrong here and there further confusing people adding to Maya. People get mixed messages and can leave confused. never healing.

TMS produces real physiological changes in the body, grinding, cracking, popping, burning, swelling, numbing, etc., but the problem is not from the body. The symptom is only the effect of a deeper need that is not currently being filled. As long as you obsess on what your body is doing your symptoms will continue. Your brain's intent is to create something that you might believe is "real" hoping you obsess on it, in OCD fashion. If you obsess then your brain has done its job nicely. This is called TMSing. The more you talk about what your body is doing, and think about it and pay attention to the details of the sensations the better job your brain is doing in keeping you running away from the true cause.

After a while, once you truly understand what tms is and you have created a healthy relationship with your body (ie. Not fear-based), you begin to see all manner of aches, pains, tingling, light-headedness and such for what they are. And what they are is nothing more than neurochemicals cruising through your nervous system.


The more you fret and freak out about it, the more intense is the sympathetic nervous systems response because as far as it knows there is some kind of threat out there. It doesn't know that this perceived threat is all in your mind and brain.


The whole point of tms healing is to overcome these mind-games by learning not to react in ways that trigger the fight-flight response. Every time you pay a visit to Dr. Google you scare the bejezzus out of yourself, you tell your body there is something to fear, you focus on this, the fear ramps and your nervous system goes out to lunch taking all good sense and reason with it.

 

[Adam Coloretti (coach)]

Hi @MWsunin12, not at all and thanks for sharing, this is all great!