Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by John E. Sarno
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Book Reviews of Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection
Book Review: Got rid of my sciatica and back spasms!
Summary: 5 Stars
I remember my first true back spasm in college: I bent down to get something out of a drawer and for no apparent reason, my back "snapped." I was walking crooked for days. I tried laying still, struggling through some sit ups (I recalled a friend in high school who had been given such "back strengthening" exercises for his back pain) and just hoping it would go away. From time to time, my back would "go out" again and I'd suffer for a few weeks as it slowly healed and I tried to take it easy. One time, my back hurt so bad, I had to take several minutes just to get out of bed!
In 2005 I was vacationing at my parents'. I spent many hours on the floor playing games with my brothers and my kids. I noticed a slight numbness in my leg.At first I thought it was constantly falling asleep from being cross-legged on the floor for hours. It gradually grew and traveled down my leg until I had full blown sciatica (with lower back pain too)! One day, browsing at Barnes & Noble, I was looking for some sort of book about back pain and how to get rid of it. I found this book. I read through it quickly and a day or two after I finished it, the sciatica was completely gone. It has never come back and the worst I ever get is a "stiff" back which is easily dealt with through the principles of the book.
The essential thesis is this: Back pain (as well as several other ailments) is caused by an unconscious denial of blood to a certain part of your body. Your brain does this subconsciously to take you away from dealing with the things that are actually causing stress, anger and anxiety. This is NOT saying that the pain is "all in your head." It's an acknowledgment of real pain. But that pain has a cause. The essential steps for dealing with the pain are: (1) Living, working, acting normally as if your back is not injured, that is, not favoring it, "going easy" on it, etc. and (2) identifying what is causing you anger or stress and dealing consciously as necessary with the issue.
After I read that, I actually could trace the beginning of my pre-sciatica numbness to an email I had gotten regarding work which had really made me angry. Once I realized what I was really upset about, the pain was gone. In the days since I've read this book, my back has only once or twice really "snapped" and I immediately began going through the events and frustrations of my mind. The pain is usually gone within a day. Even that is quite rare now and whenever I have a stiff back, I simply do the same thing: run a mental catalog of stressful or anger-inducing items while doing nothing to favor or "baby" the back and the pain fades.
The author, Dr. Sarno, describes this important mind-body connection in a way that poles some fun at current medical practice (so many ways to treat a bad back? Why? Because who knows what will work? The problem isn't the back! It's the things causing your brain to mess with your back!). Dr. Sarno can get a little Freudian sometimes and even recommends deep Freudian therapy to bring out the worst of the issues that your brain might be trying to block. But other than that, I think his thesis is a solid one. It's certainly attested to by others but I have the best evidence of its truth: It worked. Plain and simple. I no longer get nasty back spasms that leave me walking crookedly for weeks on end. And when my back does get stiff, then that is now a signal that I need to run a mental check and deal with the things that are bothering me that my mind is avoiding.
I've read and used the book. It's worked for my wife. The principles have been useful with the kids ("growing" pains) and I've ordered and given copies to friends. Call it bunk if you like but the thesis sounds good to me and it works!
Book Review: Try It- You'll Like It.-Cured My Pain
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was recommended to me by someone who had had back pain for 11 years. Within 10 to 12 weeks after reading this book his back pain was cured and never returned. I had had back pain for well over one year. I spent a lot of money on chiropractors and massage therapists with no sustained relief. Had I bought this book off the shelf without a recommendation, I probably would have not applied its principles because it would have seemed "Too Good To Be True". However, since it was recommended to me by an individual who had cured his 11 year back problem, I figured I had nothing to lose. Well, I did lose something and that was my back pain!!!! I did it in about 7 weeks, but some people might take a shorter time and some longer. [...]There is a lot of meat in those 5 mere pages if you apply them. Why is it that many people think that for something to be effective that it has to be complicated? I recommend you think KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). I have recommended this book to numerous people. Some have read it and others not. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. The ones who I know that "drank the water" and took the time to read it cured their pain. In fact, one individual is a Christian Counselor who had it on her book shelf for months. One day she finally decided to read it. Now she recommends the book to everyone since she also cured her shoulder pain. Healing Back Pain is Dr. Sarno's first book on the subject. This book deals with mostly Back, Shoulder, Neck and Sciatic pain. I also recommend you read his subsequent book titled "The MindBody Prescription" AFTER you have read Healing Back Pain where he discusses other medical issues which can also be relieved such as Fibromyalgia, Migraine headaches etc.... (There are some excellent customer reviews on his subsequent book). Also, I cured another medical issue that had been very debilitating after reading his subsequent book. I strongly recommend you read Healing Back Pain from cover to cover without skipping ahead. Part of the therapy is reading the book. It is truly amazing. One other comment., we have become a fast food society. We want to take a pill and be cured immediately. I had had back pain for well over 1 year and it took me only about 7 weeks to cure my pain and as mentioned previously the person who recommended this book to me took 11 weeks to cure his 11 year back pain. The point I want to make is that you need to do the action plan daily until you are cured. It might take some people a couple of weeks and it might take some 6 months or longer and perhaps for a small percentage of you it might not even work. I believe that 80-90% of people suffering can be cured. When I was doing the daily action plan, I did not know if it was going to work for me, but what I did know was that I was tired of the suffering and I was tired of paying exorbitant fees to medical professionals so I just trusted the person who recommended the book to me and persisted with the action plan on a daily basis on faith that it would work. I don't know how long it will take for your particular case. Also, it does not matter if you believe your pain is due to a car accident, sports injury, old age or whatever else your doctor might have told you. Just read the book anyway. If you have had pain for quite some time and have had no relief then do as I did, take a chance, read the book and do the exercises/action plan daily ( It takes very little time to do). You have nothing to lose other than your pain!!!!Book Review: Please, please read this book
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a 57 year old that has suffered from numerous conditions and much pain since I was a teen. Just to name a few since most of us need to see ourselves in someone else's experience,
-chronic prostatitis (started when I was 15 and still flares up occasionally)
-dizziness
-tinnitis (ringing in the ears)
-numbness in arms hands and legs
-paralyzing fear of MS for at least 10 years
-irritable bowel syndrome
-debilitating back pain, shoulder pain, neck pain (my wife went ALONE on our 30th anniv. trip because I was on the floor in pain)
-TMJ and ear pain
-chronic fear that I have "one of the big ones" (they just haven't found it yet)
-severe depression
I could go on but this gives you an idea. Invariably when one issue faded, another began. My wife tells me I was essentialy absent in the raising of our children because of my preoccupation with my health issues. It makes me want to cry when I think that my wife was a "married single" for all those years.
About 2 years ago I was looking up back pain books on Amazon and came across "Healing Back Pain" by Dr. Sarno. The reviews were unbelievable and being that the book was not new there were a lot of them. I ordered the book and devoured it, finding myself in every page (as you often hear). And like so many others on this forum I began to seriously consider the information presented. I ordered "The Mindbody Prescription" and read it as well. I ordered Dr. Sarno's CD and listened to it while travelling.
I finally came to understand what was causing my pain and how to relieve it. I would say that over the last 2 years I have been 85% successful in moving past the pain/fear issues that would have previously crippled me. I remember shortly after I was beginning this process, my wife and I were on a one month trip to the UK. We were going to go for a walk and I bent over to tie my shoe when I had a stabbing pain in my lower back...the beginning of a usual episode. At first I panicked as we were only in the second week of our trip. "Oh no! I'll have to spend the next two weeks on my back. What am I going to do?" Instead I immediately remembered what my brain was trying to do and thought "No. I'm not going to let this ruin our trip. This will pass." We went out walking and during the afternoon everything returned to normal. This has happened many times since then. Also has happened with all the other issues mentioned above.
I might reread a section of one of Sarno's books. I might just give myself a talking to. I might just press on. In any event, the issue passes. I have not had pschycotherapy because I cannot afford it but it doesn't seem to matter that I don't know the exact root. Also I have not seen a TMS doctor because there are none that I know of in the area.
I am not 100%. I suffer from some depression but I'm so thankful that I'm not where I was. This information (wrong word because it's much more powerful than that) has been life changing for me.
BTW, I am finishing "The Divided Mind". It's great because it presents other physicians experiences on TMS and it's equivalents.
Sorry to be so long. There is hope. For those who find this forum and haven't read the books...just do it. Meditate on the principles. If you can accept them you'll be on your way to a much better life.
Book Review: Not for Everyone, but DEFINITELY for MANY!
Summary: 5 Stars
There is no doubt in my mind (or, from reading the book, John Sarno's mind) that there are people who suffer from chronic back pain due to illnesses like cancer or bone disease that this book cannot cure. This book won't cure cancer. It won't cure osteoperosis. It won't cure any disease (unless you define pain due to chronic stress as disease).
I won't argue either way about the definition of disease because I'm not a doctor. I will assert that since I have suffered for more than 20 years with lower and upper back pain and debillitating nerve pinches, I know firsthand that psychosomatic pain is real.
Okay, all you people who just jumped off because you saw a word with "psycho" in it, this is to you. If you refuse to admit any weakness and you consider anything psychological to imply weakness, craziness or other mental ilness and you're just not going to go there - you may be beyond help. So you might as well stop reading.
For the rest of you, if you want to take a chance that for about 10 bucks, you can eliminate most pain from your life for good - then read on.
I know 4 people - including myself - who have had long-term back pain problems and are now relatively pain free (we all have some pain now and then). We have all been "cured" by reading this book! I put quotes around "cured" because I don't know if the cessation of chronic pain after 23 years is really defined as "curing." I already admitted that I don't know if my chronic pain or that of my friends can be defined as disease.
The theory expressed in this book regarding societal waves of disease: ulcers, back pain, alergy, etc. makes perfect sense. It frames the proof that most pain would result in numbness if it were to last for more than a certain amount of time or if it were really based on some physiological cause. And I found the argument so convincing, that after all my doctors could show no cause that made anywhere near as much sense, my pain began to subside. Once that happened, I knew it was true, and simply believing was what made my chronic pain stop.
I wake up without pain in my back. I can exercise, pick up my children, and do all of the things I had convinced myself were off the doable list for me. I no longer spend my day popping massive amounts of Ibuprophen to ease the aching. I can sit at my desk for hours without any pain. My life has changed!
There is no weird psychobabble or kooky religious stuff in here, just pure common sense, logical thinking and a theory that seems to be based (at least in part) on truths about people and society and stress.
If you suffer from chronic pain, this may be your key to a better life. It worked for me and 3 other people I know. Not to mention the countless others who have posted similar reviews here.
But if you don't want to believe that it can work, or your inclination is to dismiss this guy's work and his book because you have some superior knowledge and choose to live in pain; if you know that your chronic pain is due to a REAL physiological illness or disease (not something your chiropracter told you is a disease that can be managed, like my former chiropracter and my "cervical subluxation"), then save your money.
This book is not for everyone - but it is DEFINITELY for many!
I feel great!
Book Review: Nothing Else Worked But This Did
Summary: 5 Stars
This book has been the most influential health book I have ever read. I sought out a book on back pain being psychological, as I noticed that when I used to go on holidays, my backache would almost disappear and re-appear when I came home. I had spent many years prior to that thinking it was physical and doing various, useless back and stomach exercises and visited physiotherapists, osteopaths, tried yoga, swimming and pilates. Most people would say that their backache improved with exercise. I'm afraid mine got much worse. So much so, that I would have to stop that form of exercise after a few weeks. Only swimming and yoga didn't have an adverse effect, but I could tell they never got to the root of the problem.
I'm just disappointed that no-one ever mentioned the emotional factor. I definitely think anyone with back pain, once having checked that it's not a structural problem (although apparently there's no correlation between structural problems of the spine and backache) should give it a go.
I found 4 fundamental issues to deal with when confronting the pain in this way:
1. To focus on the pain being due to repressed anger and not a physical reason.
2. Not to have too high expectations of myself.
3. To re-condition my thoughts that bending, lifting, twisting, etc...was NOT harmful for my back. I found the bending one particularly hard to dispel. It took several weeks.
4. Not to pre-occupy myself with the pain (I had to stop thinking, "does it hurt?" every time I leant forward, picked something up, etc...) as this did perpetuate it.
Once I addressed these ideas, I made progress.
The whole concept does seem corny - I had to keep taking "thinking time" out for about 15 minutes a day / twice a day that it became a joke in the family. I noticed that within a day or so, after this concentration, the edge of the pain would go. This was the amazing thing.
Now, I'm going to the gym (I haven't been in years), swimming, picking up my child whilst bending my back, lifting heavy shopping with no pain at all. Wow - anyone with backache will know that that's a treat and I'm not obsessed by my back anymore. I remember questioning the physiotherapist a couple of years ago why you shouldn't bend your back when you need to pick something up, as it's the most natural thing to do. So, I'm glad common sense was part of the solution.
I noticed that a some of the readers that gave fewer than 5 stars for this book haven't even tried out the method. There's no point in giving an opinion if you don't KNOW.
Another point is that I wondered that if this sort of thing works and is so easy, why isn't it common knowledge. Well, having mentioned it to a few people, I did get some negative responses, as people were insistent that their's was physical (even though not eliminated). Only a small number of people would try this out, probably after exhausting other options.