Most Chronic Pain May Be Psychological

95% of it!

According to Sarno, patients with flawless MRI scans are often the ones complaining about chronic pain. Surprisingly, patients with actual physical abnormalities usually have no pain at all.

The remaining sufferers have pain that is truly biological in nature, but it usually resolves within weeks at most.

Eventually, Sarno coined a diagnostic term for this psychosomatic phenomenon, which is tension myoneural syndrome or simply TMS.

The illusion is that the pain was triggered by an event. For example, an individual watches television sitting on a new chair. The next day, the individual experiences back pain.

However, there was probably a recent traumatic experience. What might have happened is that the individual broke up with a long term partner.

The brain diverts the sufferer’s attention away from the psychological pain by mildly depriving a body part from oxygen, often in the back. He or she is oblivious of the mild oxygen deprivation’s purpose to divert attention away from the heartbreak.

The sufferer will usually assure him or herself that the misery is based on the physical pain, further reinforcing the brain’s attempt to divert attention away from the root cause.

Everyone has probably experienced some level of physical pain. Thus, people can easily empathize when the issue is physical, which is more comfortable to talk about than the somewhat taboo topic of mental health.

Dr. Sarno has written three books: Healing Back Pain, The Mindbody Prescription, and The Divided Mind. Some claim they were healed only a few pages into his first book. Others might need to absorb every book.

If you were athletically active, you likely stopped exercise for a speedier recovery, but you can resume normal exercise to prove you are no longer falling for your brain’s trick. Think about the traumatic experience that initiated your pain instead of avoiding it.

You might have bought a special cushion to cope with your pain, but you do not need it anymore. In reality, it will likely exacerbate the mental trick.

You might resolve TMS immediately after it peaks instead of it gradually dissipating, although the latter is also possible.

You are not mistaken that there is actual physical pain in your body. However, there is no valid reason that a new chair caused you months of back pain while others your age sit on worse chairs and feel fine. That is a sign to seek answers within so that your brain stops the charades.

If you overcome TMS, future pain can be a reminder to think internally rather than externally. It might be a blessing in disguise and a motive to address unresolved trauma.

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