Chronic Pain and Unconscious Emotions

Some of the most common ailments my clients present with is chronic pain, chronic fatigue and conditions like fibromyalgia and Epstein-Barr. Over many years I have attended courses, gained qualifications and researched widely to better understand these conditions.

The interesting thing is that many of these ailments often do not stem from tumours, cancers or other medical conditions, but they are still very painful and have a massive negative impact on life and wellbeing.

One book I have recently read provides a fascinating insight into the interplay of complicated processes, both physiological and psychological, that contribute to the kinds of problems I see on a daily basis. The book is The Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain by John E. Sarno (1999).

Dr Sarno describes the way our mind and body are in constant interaction and out conscious thoughts and unconscious emotions have a far greater impact on our bodies than we realise. As he puts it, this makes us beings of ‘infinite complexity and wonder’, but also susceptible to ailments that are outside of our conscious awareness and control.

Dr Sarno’s insights have offered a fascinating perspective to many of my colleagues, friends and clients and I am happy to share some of those with you in this blog!

Who was Dr Sarno?

Dr Sarno was an American physician and former professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University Medical Center. Over many years, he encountered many patients with chronic neck, shoulder, and back pain and discovered that 88% of his patients had a history of tension or migraine headaches, heartburn, hiatus or hiatal hernia, irritable bowel syndrome, asthma, eczema, and a variety of other disorders that were commonly thought to be caused by tension.

He also noticed that most of these patients tended to be hardworking, conscientious, compulsive, and perfectionist; traits. After ruling out tumours, cancers and other medical conditions, he developed diagnosis and treatment of “TMS” (Tension Myositis Syndrome, also known as Tension Myoneural Syndrome).

Why did he write The Mindbody Prescription?

Of the 11,000 plus patients he has treated since the 1970s, Dr. Sarno estimates that he has cured over 90% using his approach, and many more people have read his books and put his principles into practice without ever having met him.

The fascinating thing about his diagnosis and treatment is that it involves the whole person, their physical body, as well as their mind and intellect, and their emotions and will. He did not just provide drugs that would stop the physical symptoms without also dealing with the emotions and thoughts.

What can cause chronic physical pain?

Dr Sarno did not dismiss his patients’ intense physical pain just because there was no observable medical problem. He began to see that while their pain was very real (including stiffness, burning, pressure, numbness, tingling) much of it was caused by ‘mild oxygen deprivation in the muscles, nerves or tendons involved in each case’, p.141.

This oxygen deprivation was, he theorised, a ‘coping strategy to deny the presence of unpleasant, threatening thoughts and feelings’ and evidence of ‘the unconscious mind diverting your conscious mind away from those thoughts and feelings’.

He used the term ‘mindbody’ to describe the close connection between physical symptoms and emotions as a normal part of being human. And his descriptions of the power of the unconscious to produce physical symptoms does not’ imply mental or emotional illness or abnormality’.

What is the role of underlying emotions?

Dr Sarno described how emotions can stimulate physical symptoms and cause real physiological pain. As he put it, ‘everyone generates unconscious feelings; sometimes they are troubling enough to stimulate physical symptoms’ p.117.

Many other people have recognised that emotions can clearly modify immune system function and you probably know this from your own experience. When you are feeling low or stressed or overwhelmed, you pick up more colds or pull a muscle more easily or have silly accidents or a flare-up of a chronic condition.

Since emotions have such an effect on our physical health, it is important to process them. A paper published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology in 1994 reported a decrease in antibody titers for the Epstein-Barr virus in people who were able to write or speak about repressed feelings and had the opportunity to consciously acknowledge and process them.

You can find out more in All The Rage, a documentary that explores Dr. Sarno’s radical approach and examines the connection between emotions and pain. It includes interviews with Sarno, patients, and other experts.

(As a brief aside, I would like to point out that Dr Sarno uses the work of Sigmund Freud as a theoretical framework, but you do not need to like or even agree with Freud’s theories. I found that Dr Sarno’s work with his patients was insightful and helpful without that theoretical framework).

What can be done?

As Dr Sarno pointed out, ‘chronic pain that does not take into account the role of emotions can too easily lead to unnecessary surgery and over-reliance on drugs and medication’.

One of the main ways of reducing chronic pain and fatigue is to not allow the unconscious mind to relocate the pain so that it become chronic physical pain. It is important to acknowledge and accept the underlying psychological causes that are causing oxygen deprivation and pain. And also to know that you can change this process! Again, to quote from Dr Sarno, this research is so important because ‘our greatest enemies are fear and misinformation.’

You can listen to Dr Sarno describe his research and work at a US Senate hearing from February 2012 (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee). The chairman of the committee had personal experience of using Dr Sarno’s approach to cure his own debilitating back pain.

I would like to end with a final quote from Dr Sarno that I whole-heartedly agree with and I hope gives you the inspiration and confidence to read the book for yourself and explore his ideas more if you are suffering from chronic pain:

“We are much stronger than we know, and have the capacity to influence what is going on in our bodies. But we must learn how.”

With every blessing,

Emma

Emma Maitland-Carew – Registered Nutritional Therapist

Dip.ION, mBANT, CHNC Registered Practitioner,

Metabolic Balance® Coach, HeartMath Coach, Accredited Wellbeing Coach.

Find out more

Dr. Sarno on Larry King Live – The TMS Wiki The transcript of an interview with Dr. John Sarno on the CNN talk show Larry King Live, which originally aired on August 12, 1999 at 9:00pm Eastern Time.

Read Other books by Dr Sarno

Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection (1991)
Healing Back Pain has sold over 150,000 copies and has also been translated into 12 different languages.

The Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain (1998)
Dr. Sarno draws on his clinical practice and identifies other chronic health issues that can occur.

The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders (2006)
Other medical professionals join Dr Sarno in discussing the spectrum of psychosomatic disorders and the history of psychosomatic medicine.