The bond between our minds and bodies remains one of the most captivating yet enigmatic frontiers in medicine. Contrary to common belief, the brain serves as the epicenter of all pain. It’s the conductor orchestrating the symphony of sensations, while the body simply acts as a messenger, signaling distress. Picture touching a scorching stove; it’s your brain that interprets the pain, not your hand. Similarly, emotional turbulence like stress or suppressed feelings can trigger the brain to dispatch signals of discomfort throughout the body. Moreover, our bodies can manifest physical reactions to past emotional upheavals, exemplified by war veterans grappling with PTSD, often exhibiting physical symptoms. This phenomenon, termed psychosomatic pain or mind-body pain, embodies a genuine ache crafted by neural pathways in the brain and sustained by the autonomic nervous system.
Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS) is a concept discovered by Dr. John Sarno, a pioneer in chronic pain treatment, describing various forms of pain conditions. Tension TMS unveils various forms of pain conditions, where actual physical symptoms like chronic pain and gastrointestinal issues arise, not due to pathological or structural irregularities, defying diagnostic tests. In TMS, pain symptoms result from mild oxygen deprivation by the autonomic nervous system due to suppressed emotions and psychosocial stress.
The theory behind Tension Myositis Syndrome suggests that the mind creates pain symptoms to help suppress subconscious thoughts and feelings. Dr. Sarno’s theory posits that your subconscious essentially determined that suppressed thoughts, feelings, or emotions would be harmful if you became aware of them. Therefore, the mind generates pain syndromes (e.g., back pain) to distract attention and prevent repressed thoughts from reaching your consciousness.
Symptoms in such chronic conditions stem from suppressed emotions and long-standing environmental and neurophysiological conditioning. Thus, healing must occur through an active path involving patient education, exploration, and discovery.
“In the same way your stomach tightens when you’re nervous, or your chest constricts when you’re sad, the body regularly creates physical responses to emotional stimuli.”
The primary goal of the body in creating mind-body pain is to guide sufferers towards resolution:
Suppressed emotions
Chronic stress or past stress
Current stress (emotional, mental, spiritual, physical)
Trauma
Complex post-traumatic stress disorder
Adverse childhood experiences (ACE)
Others’ approval needs
High achievement needs
Perfectionism/OCD
Dr. Sarno’s observations while treating chronic back pain patients revealed no correlation with structural anomalies but did exhibit shared personality traits. These individuals, characterized as the “pain personality” or “mind-body personality” type, tend to bury certain emotions, fostering years-long tension in the central nervous system, eventually manifesting as pain.
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE)
ACEs are regularly studied concerning patients with chronic pain. Research shows that individuals with more ACEs are most susceptible to pain and illnesses later in life. Growing up in a toxic environment significantly impacts brain shaping, with consequences often carried into adulthood. Each ACE will program the brain to avoid certain emotions, inducing mind-body pain on autopilot. Therefore, if you’ve experienced more than 4 ACEs, your brain will be significantly more sensitive to continuous mind-body pain creation. However, you can train your brain to react differently to emotions.
List of ACEs:
Emotional abuse
Physical neglect
Physical violence
Substance abuse
Abused mother/father
Sexual abuse
Parental divorce
Criminal behavior
Emotional neglect
Family mental illness
4-part chronic stress
Another common cause of mind-body pain is chronic stress. In the short term, stress is essential for survival, but in the long run, all body systems suffer its negative effects. Blood pressure rises, digestive system function is disrupted, muscles tense, and the immune system weakens.
The stress or health level is determined by four components: EMOTIONAL, MENTAL, SPIRITUAL, and PHYSICAL. These four components holistically define health and must be regularly nurtured for optimal well-being. Chronic stress in any of the four components will result in mind-body pain. Often, medical interventions overly rely on the PHYSICAL component and neglect the others. Most therapies focus on dealing with physical pain symptoms rather than treating the actual causes.
A holistic (multidimensional) approach to health:
EMOTIONAL (learn not to fear pain or unpleasant emotions)
MENTAL (find out which traits, beliefs, and childhood issues prolong pain)
SPIRITUAL (discover the importance of creative expression and enjoying life)
PHYSICAL (learn more about diet, sleep, holistic methods, movement)
Focus on psychological causes, not physical symptoms.
Research shows that the same brain areas are activated regardless of whether the pain is emotional or physical. This means that if you experience chronic body pain, there’s a chance that an emotional element is involved. Learn how the mind affects your body.
According to Dr. Sarno’s concept, structural abnormalities DO NOT cause pain.
Have you been told that a slipped disc/scoliosis/degenerative disease is the cause of your pain? Or perhaps a lack of good gut flora is causing IBS? Low serotonin levels causing your depression? These structural or chemical abnormalities may contribute to pain, but according to the TMS approach, they are NOT the cause. Pain science shows that a high percentage of people who don’t experience pain also have scoliosis or spinal degenerative disease.
Every pain is real, whether emotional or physical.
Perhaps you’ve been told that your pain is in your head because doctors couldn’t find a cause. All pain is real, created by neural pathways and maintained by the central nervous system. But when there’s no defined physical cause, our brain signals a “false pain alarm.” Learn to turn off this false alarm using effective, scientifically proven tools.
“The goal of therapy is no longer to perceive chronic pain as diagnosable pathology, but rather as a mechanism initiated by the body to guide you back to balance and healing.”
Treating pain syndromes caused by TMS does not involve injections or surgery. Pharmacotherapy or physical therapy may be included supportively to alleviate symptoms. Treatment involves psychoeducation, developing insight, and releasing suppressed emotions from the subconscious and body. Sometimes insight-oriented psychotherapy is necessary, focusing on bringing repressed emotions into consciousness.
Understanding and applying TMS concepts often alleviate pain.
