Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection
by John E. Sarno
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Book Summary Information
Author: John E. SarnoEdition: Paperback
Published: 1991-02-01
ISBN: 0446392308
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Warner Books
Accessories:
- Airborne Effervescent Health Formula, Original Orange, 10 Tablets (Pack of 3)
- RESPeRATE Blood Pressure Lowering Device
Book Reviews of Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection
Book Review: 24 Years of Back Pain Gone Overnight
Summary: 5 Stars
A friend of mine suggested I read this book about a year ago. I went to Amazon and read the comments and found both positive and negative comments. The fairly consistent chorus of negative comments led me to decide not to buy it. It was that and the fact that I just didn't believe that the mind could "heal" the very "real" and debilitating pain that I had experienced for 24 years.
Several months after my friend's recommendation, I found that my back had started to hurt more in direct correlation to an emotionally stressful situation that lasted several weeks. Since I was doing nothing physically that would have elevated the back pain, I realized that there was a psychological connection. So I bought the book, paid for the overnight shipping so I could read it on the plane to my surfing destination.
Surfing has always been hard on my back. My previous surfing trip to New Zealand was compromised by my back pain, I surfed about half as much as I could have without the pain.
On the plane I skimmed thru much of the first chapters and read the ones about the cure. The next day my back pain was gone. I surfed 5 days straight in powerful surf with some really heavy wipe-outs that would have killed my back without the knowledge in this book. On one wipe-out I was slammed hard to the bottom, hip-first. That would have normally put me out for a few days, but I surfed the rest of the day completely pain free (except for a bruised hip). I was able to surf with abandon, without fear, with joy again.
I can't express in words how elated and amazed I am and how grateful I am to Dr Sarno for this book.
Obviously, by reading the comments it doesn't work for everyone. I have a theory about that. In his book Dr Sarno says that the suppression of emotions are what cause the back pain. But the clincher for me was this fact that he laid out:
(I'm paraphrasing) The largest bone in the body, the femur, if broken will heal itself and you will be able to run a marathon on it again. If a muscle tears, it will heal itself also. The human body heals itself physically, period. There is nothing special about the muscles around the lower back (or anywhere else). It makes no logical or medical sense for a muscle strain or injury in the back to cause pain for years.
It was this statement that made tremendous sense to me. Literally overnight, I decided to not believe the b.s. I was telling myself subconsciously -- that I had a "bad back". The pain has been gone ever since. It's been 3 months of consistently pain-free life. Walking a distance of 10 blocks used to cause the pain to get worse, as did sleeping on a soft bed, or sleeping on my stomach or slouching in my chair. None of that bothers me any more. I hike 3-5 miles regularly, play volleyball (that would have destroyed my back), sleep on my stomach, slouch in my chair if I feel like it, no longer bring an air mattress to hotels. What a tremendous liberation -- it's really amazing!!
So back to my theory of why I think it doesn't seem to work for everyone:
Under-developed rational thinking skills.
In the U.S. and probably in all of western society (at least), we are not taught how to think rationally. It took a few months or more for me to learn (or re-learn) how to truly think rationally. I now know that my back pain was a myth that I had believed in. I have since proven that it was a myth, but it takes a very deeply rooted belief to create the kind of pain I experienced, and for so long. My theory is based on having enough of the proper mental skills to destroy that myth. My hypothesis is that those who read the book with poor results are lacking rational thinking and myth-busting skills.
My rational thinking skills were helped tremendously by the philosopher Stefan Molyneux (of freedomainradio dot com). I really think that it takes a mind that is well versed in rational thinking to truly grasp the power of Dr Sarno's book and to truly destroy the myth of back pain that is deeply rooted in the mind.
To truly and deeply understand that the body heals itself and that it makes no sense that the muscles around the lower back -- that they, and only they, just don't heal -- takes genuine rational thinking skills. Actually, I think it's the myth-busting rational thinking skills that listening to Mr Molyneux's podcasts and reading his books can help with immensely. So if Sarno's book hasn't helped, try taking the "red pill" of rational thinking and myth-busting that Mr Molyneux delivers. It will be the most potent (and liberating) red pill you will ever take.
So read Sarno's book, put it into practice, and if it doesn't work within a couple weeks, work on your rational thinking skills and read it again.
Summary of Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection
Healing Back Pain promises permanent elimination of back pain without drugs, surgery, or exercise. It should have been titled Understanding TMS Pain, because it discusses one particular cause of back pain--Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS)--and isn't really a program for self-treatment, with only five pages of action plan (and many more pages telling why conventional methods don't work). According to John E. Sarno, M.D., TMS is the major cause of pain in the back, neck, shoulders, buttocks, and limbs--and it is caused not by structural abnormalities but by the mind's effort to repress emotions. He's not saying that your pain is all in your head; rather, he's saying that the battle going on in your mind results in a real physical disorder that may affect muscles, nerves, tendons, or ligaments. An injury may have triggered the disorder, but is not the cause of the amount or intensity of the resulting pain. According to Sarno, the mind tricks you into not facing repressed emotion by making you focus on pain in the body. When this realization sinks in ("and it must sink in, for mere intellectual appreciation of the process is not enough"), the trick doesn't work any more, and there's no need for the pain. (Healing Back Pain should not be used for self-diagnosis. Always consult a physician for chronic or acute back pain.) --Joan PriceHealing Back Pain promises permanent elimination of back pain without drugs, surgery, or exercise. It should have been titled Understanding TMS Pain, because it discusses one particular cause of back pain--Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS)--and isn't really a program for self-treatment, with only five pages of action plan (and many more pages telling why conventional methods don't work). According to John E. Sarno, M.D., TMS is the major cause of pain in the back, neck, shoulders, buttocks, and limbs--and it is caused not by structural abnormalities but by the mind's effort to repress emotions. He's not saying that your pain is all in your head; rather, he's saying that the battle going on in your mind results in a real physical disorder that may affect muscles, nerves, tendons, or ligaments. An injury may have triggered the disorder, but is not the cause of the amount or intensity of the resulting pain. According to Sarno, the mind tricks you into not facing repressed emotion by making you focus on pain in the body. When this realization sinks in ("and it must sink in, for mere intellectual appreciation of the process is not enough"), the trick doesn't work any more, and there's no need for the pain. (Healing Back Pain should not be used for self-diagnosis. Always consult a physician for chronic or acute back pain.) --Joan Price
Dr. John E. Sarno, author of the revolutionary book Mind Over Back Pain, is a medical pioneer whose program has helped thousands of patients overcome their back conditions--without drugs or dangerous surgery. Now, using his latest research into TMS (Tension Myositis Syndrome), Dr. Sarno goes one step further: after identifying stress and other psychological factors in back pain, he demonstrates how many of his patients have then gone on to heal themselves without exercise or other physical therapy. Find out:? Why self motivated and successful people are prone to TMS? How anxiety and repressed anger trigger muscle spasms? How people "train themselves" to experience back pain? How you may get relief from back pain? How you may get relief from back pain within two to six weeks by recognizing TMS and its causes With case histories and the results of in-depth mind-body research, Dr. Sarno describes how patients recognize the emotional roots of their TMS and sever the connections between mental and physical pain and how, just by reading this book, you may start recovering from back pain today.
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