Why you need to 100% believe in TMS to heal from TMS

One of the initial doubts I had about TMS was the emphasis on belief. I couldn’t accept this as central to the treatment because, in my mind, if the diagnosis was correct and the treatment worked, what does belief have to do with it? I even wondered if TMS was just another new-age healing cult because there are certainly plenty of those out there. After about a year of on-and-off studying TMS, and in particular while reading Steve Ozanich’s book The Great Pain Deception, I finally had a breakthrough in my understanding.

Belief has a major impact on how we feel. It’s the power behind the placebo effect: if we believe in the treatment or drug we’re receiving, pain seems to disappear almost immediately. This phenomenon has been well-documented scientifically, and almost everyone can recount a personal experience with it—whether it’s from visiting a confident chiropractor or listening to an inspiring speech from a charismatic guru. However, placebos do not last, and the pain inevitably comes back, along with doubt, because the root cause (emotions) has not been resolved.

A big reason TMS pain persists and becomes chronic is due to the harmful opposite of the placebo effect: the “nocebo” effect. If placebo (false) diagnoses and treatments can make us feel good, a nocebo (also false) diagnosis can make us feel bad. Nocebos can originate from several sources, such as:

• Misdiagnoses from doctors, e.g., spine issues such as herniated disks and sciatica
• Chiropractors and alternative treatment practitioners who scare us into paying for long-term treatment packages by claiming we have problems with our back, muscles, spine, neck, etc.
• Obsessively researching symptoms online and convincing ourselves we have rare, serious diseases

When we believe in these false diagnoses, the belief that “we are broken” permeates every aspect of our daily lives. This acts as a continuous "nocebo" effect which follows our every thought and dictates our actions, so of course we feel BAD, all the time! We then become hypochondriacs, constantly obsessing over our health and chronic illness.

With this realization, I finally understood why belief in TMS is essential for healing. We are not believing in a magical cure or following a cult leader named Sarno. A big part of healing comes from undoing the false beliefs (nocebos) that keep us stuck in a cycle of fear and worry. This is why simply reading a book or acquiring knowledge about TMS can be healing: we are replacing false and harmful beliefs (nocebos) with the correct diagnosis and true understanding of what’s really going on. Then, we can finally relax and begin to heal, after accepting that our bodies are fine.

I think it’s also important to note that there’s a difference between truly believing in TMS and merely thinking “I believe in TMS” in the hope of a quick cure. That’s not real belief, and you know it because real belief can be sensed from somewhere much deeper than the intellectual mind. If you’re not there yet, a simple exercise is to list any doubts you have about TMS and work on eliminating them one by one. You’ll know when your belief is 100%, because by then, you’ll likely already be healed!

 

The best understanding one can do is by understanding that your body cannot "heal" if you are in active fight or flight which anyone that has dealt with TMS has been stuck in.

Your body needs to be in the rest and digest response, and you can only do that by being calm with your thoughts, beliefs and emotions. Once i understood this is when i began my healing journey, whilst i still have someway to go the difference between 8 months ago to now is phenomenal and i know its just a matter of time.

 

I have had many symptoms just by HEARING someone talk about them!! I am That sensitive.
The day of the 'incident' that started my voyage in the back pain industry, some of the older guys told me to 'watch out or your going to hurt your back'... I walked away from them and BLAM, My butt spasmed!
Now, when people start going on and on about their condition, or warning me, I use that 'Charlie Brown Cartoon adult voice' in my head to block it out

"Wah wah wah whah wah wah wah wahah a wah"

The current little annoyance I am battling started the day my Doctor gave me a scary diagnosis on my OTHER hand!
I actually told him as much last week when I spoke to him "Dude....you scared the crap out of me!"

also, yesterday when I was just doing the 'personal battle' stuff of TMS, It occurred to me that a very strong image was printed in my brain when I was young and still watched TV. In ads for OTC pain killers and creams and stuff they always showed an OLD person flinching in Pain (and then magically feeling better after using their product)
One of the rage makers I am coming very aware of is being OLD. Alone. USELESS. A Burden on society. My worst fears.

But all of the Nocebo's from the advertising world need to be rooted out and laughed at, and a lot of times we don't realize how much traction they got in our unconscious. The Ego doesn't like it, but it is true.

 

Great post! You are so right about this. So many people want something outside themselves to heal them and they want it fast. With TMS you do the work (a lot of work!) to heal. But it’s the real diagnosis and the real cure.

It took me months of daily reading of Sarno and other books and visiting this wiki to believe I have TMS.
I also took the Dan Buglio test and the PPDA self assessment to discover if I had TMS. (I passed with flying colors). Another good thing I did was make a list of inconsistencies in my TMS to refute any thoughts I had of medical fears. If you think hard enough, there’s a lot of them.

 

@Fal
So positive and filled with hope! I love this! I feel the same way.

 

This is SO hard for our age group! I think it’s key to start realizing there are countless ways to be useful beyond what you’ve done to earn a living up until now. You can never be useless! As long as you share your heart with others, you will never be alone.

 

Speaking of nocebo, there is an epidemic of Tourette's Syndrome going on right now, caused by viral TikTok videos. Teenage girls are the most affected due to being the most impressionable:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9733629/ (TikTok Tourette’s: Are We Witnessing a Rise in Functional Tic-Like Behavior Driven by Adolescent Social Media Use? - PMC)

 

gosh, me too. it's pretty frustrating. and i know what you mean about advertising. there are so many pharmaceutical commercials on these days and everyone of them (except the covid vaccines strangely enough) have these long list of awful side effects. and i'm thinking 'wow i sure don't want to have to take that medication!'

 

A psychologist who worked at the pain clinic I was sent to, told me about this. He gave an example of shingles in the normal population. There might be 20 cases for every 10,000 people, but a shingles specialist will move into a small town with a population of 20,000 and then miraculously have a couple hundred cases. Just like “dancing illness“ many things catch on simply because they become real for a small exposed group. Back pain was extraordinarily fashionable in the 90s. Then came RSI. Now I see people posting acronyms that I don’t even know what they are. But the point is we are all very impressionable, though our ego doesn’t think so. Unfortunately, the truth about TMS has to get past the bouncer at the door, and that bouncer is our slavery to reason and logic, and thinking we are clear thinkers.

 

My rule of thumb is that the more words are in the diagnosis, the more likely it is TMS.

 

Scary!

 

Yup I can relate, I had many new symptoms flare up or intensify as I was googling them and reading about rare chronic diseases.

It's crazy what the mind can do and unfortunate that we live in a world where there's so much fear-based advertising and messaging...kids are especially vulnerable, TMS should really be taught in schools

 

Thanks for the post. What do you people think about the belief in the healing itself, though? I mean, I know I have TMS, but when the symptoms are louder, my anxiety tries to drag me into the hole about thinking that I'm gonna be one of those people that doesn't get healed...

I've clearly progressed, 8 months into the process, and I know I gotta become more patient to let my mind rest and digest better. But I'm somewhat afraid I'm stuck in the process.

Also, those stories of great short recoveries really don't help me hahahaha I'm happy for them, but my anxiety starts blabbing about my own recovery

 

Sorry for jumping in here but this was one of the main things that was holding me back. I just had to get over it and make peace that hey maybe I’d never get better (obviously this is not true) but when you’re being thrown around and punched by your brain, yeah it pretty much feels like it.

It’s so easy to get seduced by the negative/depressing thoughts. You have to redirect redirect redirect. Talk to your brain. “Stop, I hear you, but we’re not going there” and redirect to X task. Don’t let it pull you down that path. You consciously have to break those habits. It gets easier with time. That’s when you see changes.

 

Thanks Jan! This website and forum is a truly a goldmine of knowledge for TMS sufferers and I'm glad to contribute even if it's just paraphrasing what I've read from others

Some strategies I use when I get symptom flare ups:

1) Recognize and accept that it's 100% TMS, without doubt. If you find yourself ocassionally seeking alternative treatments, your belief is not strong enough and thus more reading/education on TMS would be good for you.
2) I talk to my brain and say something along the lines of, "I know this is just TMS, I know what you're up to, you can keep giving me pain/symptoms but I'm not going to care and just continue on with my life/task". Work towards a goal of not letting your symptoms interfere with your daily life, as trying to accomodate the symptoms will just reinforce the fear and keep you trapped in anxiety. Stand up to your brain, TMS, symptoms, and anxiety with full confidence (Thanks @Baseball65 , I learned this from you). Note that this does not mean resisting and fighting the symptoms, but rather allowing them to be present without giving into the fear. This becomes easier the stronger your belief in TMS becomes, because doubt in the diagnosis is one of the main sources of fear and anxiety.
3) Understand that you are exactly where you need to be in your healing journey. Everyone heals at a different pace depending on our unique individual circumstances. You will come out of it as a stronger and more authentic version of yourself!

 

Thanks! After reading this I decided to do some IFS and found some part of me that was angry not with the symptoms, but with the healing (for being hard, slow, sometimes confusing, but specially for taking too much of my time). We decided for me to take it slower and focus more on compassion.

Thanks for the strategies. It's kinda funny, I do know it's TMS (also three doctors in different areas told me the pain was chronic but my body was fine). What happens is that catastrophising attitude that tries to protect me using the wrong strategy. I know it's silly and I should just let it spend its energy. It's just sometimes I get really tired and sad, and I'm still not really good at processing emotions. I'm learning though, I'm learning...

 

@HealingMe ,
I know you said this in your success story and I’m glad to hear it again here. This is something I’m trying to do more earnestly now—and seeing it as extremely important.

 

On the topic of talking to your brain, I’ll add this from ACE1, a former patient of Dr. Sarno (I found this elsewhere on the wiki). I love this!

“Work on the mental strain by deconditioning and changing strained habits through the use of mind power, mostly affirmations and good self-talk and by behaving in a peaceful, relaxed manner. My main affirmations were "I take my time, forgive and let go easily" and "I'm calm relaxed, patient and confident". I also really like "I am always easy on myself" and "I am comfortable with doing nothing." It is always better to think of the meaning of the words and imagine what it would feel like to be that way as you say them, but saying them mindlessly still helps. In some situations just repeating one word over and over such as "relaxed" is more effective than the phrases, sometimes the phrases are more effective. You will just have to experiment. Do mind power on an as needed basis (EVERY TIME when having symptoms or psychologically bothered) and around sleep (5 min for each affirmation or visualization before and after sleep, the longer affirmation versus the one word is usually better here because it is more specific to your future goal). You may be doing this all day at first. You also have to be consistent with this on an everyday basis. CONSISTENT MINDPOWER TO REDUCE MY STRAIN WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF MY RECOVERY. Other mind power techniques I also used but not as consistently were visualizations. One visualization I used was imaging myself and what it would feel like to breathe in a white mist, with the mist representing calmness. When I exhaled the mist i imagined it colorless as if the calmness had been absorbed into my body. Another one is imagining yourself in a very peaceful place like a meadow with flowers - I did this when I was in situations where it was more difficult to relax. Visualization can be used in a different way also, you can use it to visualize yourself doing the thing that you are anticipating that is causing you to strain before you do it. You can even visualize yourself in the situation that causes you to strain while you’re ACTUALLY IN that situation, while seeing the objects around you in your mind. It is a form of recognition and from the perspective of the observer; it shows your mind that the situation is not a big deal. It also gives the event/task spatial time and value as opposed to before were you didn’t want to give the task/event any time and you wished it didn't have to be done. Obviously, as you do it, imagine yourself doing it in a easy fashion. One example is let's say you wake up and are feeling strained to rush to finish showering before going to work. Imagine yourself walking into the shower slowly and easily and imagine yourself easily doing and finishing the showering. Alternatively, you can just imagine yourself in the shower as you are actually showering while imagining the water, the shower head and everything around you (it doesn't have to be imagined in real time, it can be in clips but don't do it rushed). One more technique is palming, where you close your eyes and cup your eyes with both hands to exclude light. You could do this while saying your affirmation in the background (this really does work). An important note about affirmations/visualizations is I don't think they are enough by themselves. They are tools to help you break conditioned habits of strain, so use them to help you get to the state of relaxation that you need to get to in the various situations. So what this means is once you see yourself wanting to get too excited about something, you consciously stop from going down that line of behavior in addition to using the additional mind power tools.”