MindBody Stuff

April 16, 2005

Remember when people used to get ulcers? It took a while, but the medical establishment finally realized that most ulcers were caused by stress and tension. The general public caught on, and people stopped getting ulcers. Instead, tension now manifests itself with back pain and sciatica, according to John E. Sarno, M.D. Sarno, a professor at NYU Medical School, estimates that back pain has become a $70 billion industry. In his book, “The Mindbody Prescription,” he says that back pain is usually caused by emotions repressed in the unconscious mind.

Sarno writes: “…the brain makes a few adjustments in circuitry and instead of [the person] looking and acting like a nervous wreck, presto—a bellyache or a backache. The reason why the ulcer had to go was that everybody began to realize that it was a phony, that it really meant tension, and that’s not socially acceptable.”

Back pain is the leading cause of missed work in the U.S. Dr. Sarno attributes the epidemic to Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS) and he says certain personality types are susceptible to it—hardworking, conscientious perfectionists. He also states that other symptoms, including repetitive stress disorder and tendonitis, might be manifestations of TMS. TMS afflicts the postural muscles of the butt, back, and neck. It can also affect nerves and tendons in various parts of the body.

Sarno, who also wrote “Healing Back Pain,” bases his theory on his own clinical results, the discoveries of Freud and other groundbreaking psychologists, and data from numerous studies of people with and without back pain. Most people, including medical practitioners, do not believe that emotional states are capable of inducing physical symptoms, according to Sarno. Chiropractors and doctors say that back pain is caused by structural deficiencies in the human back. But Sarno points out that for many hundreds of years people spent lifetimes doing hard labor and no epidemic of back pain occurred. He asks rhetorically why the human skeletal system has become so fragile in the last 30 years. Meanwhile, Americans have become conditioned to think that the back is a very fragile, delicate thing.

Once he’s diagnosed a patient with TMS, Sarno treats patients by deprogramming them. The cure is achieved through education. Many people experience complete alleviation of symptoms, for life, simply by reading his books. When I was laid up in bed with back pain recently, I spent most of my energy reading them. I’d been to three chiropractors and the pain had only gotten worse. So I read the books and thought about what repressed emotions might be causing my troubles.

As I let these thoughts surface, the pain decreased to the point where I could walk. I continually told my brain that I knew it was trying to fake me out with the back pain. Sure, my upper body was totally crooked. Sarno says that’s due to muscle spasms. Following his advice, I forced myself to think of the problem as psychological, not physical. I was deprogramming myself, you see. My gluteal and lumbar muscles started to unlock. Now, a week later, I’m almost pain free as I write—without massage, acupuncture, chiropractors, or a much-dreaded M.D.

In most cases, Dr. Sarno’s process of deprogramming takes two to six weeks. The most stubborn cases, about five percent, are referred to psychoanalysts. I can’t afford that, so, dear readers, thanks for listening.

Justin Bailey is a local chimneysweep. In his spare time he tortures himself
with home improvement projects.