Needless to say, this book is controversial. I finished it a few days ago and have adopted the proposed solution to my pain issues presented within. What else do I have to lose?
I went back to my third rheumatologist this week who prescribed me much stronger pain medication and a much stronger anti-inflammatory. I wasn’t thrilled with that idea and I’ve been taking a regiment of pain medications and an anti-inflammatory for months now which has only resulted in more significant pain.
So here’s a summary of what the book presents as the problem:
1. Feelings generated in infancy and childhood permanently reside in the unconscious and may be responsible for psychological and physical symptoms throughout life.
2. Strong, painful, embarrassing and threatening feelings, like rage, grief and shame, are repressed in the unconscious.
3. Repressed emotions constantly strive to come to consciousness – that is, escape from the unconscious and become overt and consciously manifest.
4. The purpose of symptoms, physical or emotional, is to prevent repressed feelings from becoming conscious by diverting attention from the realm of the emotions to that of the physical. It is strategy of avoidance.
The controversial claim is that some of our physical or mental pain originates in the brain as a result of emotions like rage. That is, they are psychosomatic.
My shoulder problem (bursitis and tendonitis) is presented as a common problem to originate in the brain. Both of these issues have a diagnostic confirmation (and I’ve had numerous ultrasounds to confirm that a physiological problem exists). What Dr. Sarno proposes is that those physiological abnormalities do not cause the pain I am experiencing. Rather, he believes the brain reduces the amount of oxygen flow to my shoulder which gives an experience of pain. He believes the brain does this intentionally as a means to avoid dealing with difficult underlying emotions. In other words, the brain uses pain as a distraction.
This all seems a bit absurd. However, I felt as though I could identify with a number of things presented in the book. I started to track when my most intense shoulder pain would manifest. Without exception, it was always around a stressful event. I didn’t think I experienced much stress here, but there are some moments.
The solution offered by Dr. Sarno is the awareness of what the mind is up to. That sounds trite, but so far the results have been pretty shocking. As I feel the pain, I take a moment to think about what’s going on, what I’m thinking about, what might be prompting the pain, and so far there’s always been something. And just the process of thinking about what’s going on has caused the pain to go away. And the pain has been rapidly diminishing since the first day (a couple days ago). I have total control of both of my arms now and feel less pain than I have in months. And I stopped taking my medication two days ago. So perhaps this theory is legit.