What’s the treatment for mindbody syndromes? How is TMS treated with psychological help?
Dr. John E. Sarno says that his mindbody syndrome treatment focuses on helping patients become aware of repressed feelings and process them in a healthy way. He then outlines his specific approach to treating TMS as well as other disorders (such as fibromyalgia) that, according to Sarno, may be psychosomatic.
Discover how patients can overcome their mindbody syndromes.
Self-Awareness and Psychological Help
The first step of the mindbody syndrome treatment is educating patients about how the mind can create real physical symptoms as a way to mask emotional issues. He then instructs each patient to keep a journal and to write down any recurring thoughts, powerful emotions, or sudden insights that they experience, paying special attention to thoughts related to anger and other negative feelings. Through this journaling process, Sarno’s patients work to build self-awareness and pinpoint any significant sources of emotional tension, anxiety, or trauma that may be contributing to their physical symptoms.
Once uncovered, the patients must actively face and work through those repressed thoughts and feelings. This step often involves psychological counseling and therapy. Remember, Sarno’s patients have been repressing their emotions because they were too much to handle—they often need professional guidance and support to help them finally resolve those negative feelings.
(Shortform note: Keeping a journal can be an effective way to get in touch with your inner thoughts and feelings. A variation of the journaling that Sarno describes is called writing therapy, which differs from regular journaling in three key ways. First, while journaling generally means just jotting down your thoughts, writing therapy focuses on answering specific questions or completing certain exercises. Second, writing therapy seeks to analyze the person’s reactions to events and their approaches to solving problems. Finally, while a journal is generally assumed to be private, writing therapy is usually guided by a mental health professional—they’ll ensure that the journaling is helpful and that the patient doesn’t get overwhelmed by the thoughts and feelings they uncover.)
Finally, Sarno encourages his patients to resume normal physical activity as much as possible, using their newfound understanding of mindbody disorders to overcome their fears of causing themselves more pain. He also frequently teaches psychological techniques, such as positive affirmations, to help patients rebuild the relationship between their mind and their body. For instance, they might start each day by looking in the mirror and saying “I am not injured, I am not broken, I am healthy and strong.”
By proving their physical capability to themselves, and reinforcing it with psychological techniques, patients can overcome their mindbody disorders.
(Shortform note: Ignoring pain, or the fear of pain, is both difficult and potentially dangerous. This is because pain is a deeply ingrained survival mechanism—it warns you when something is wrong (such as an injury) and teaches you to avoid dangerous situations like touching sharp objects. Therefore, it’s crucial to first get a diagnosis so you can be certain that your pain really is psychosomatic. However, if you do find that you need to overcome pain or fear of pain, Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius (Meditations) offers some insight: Pain alone is not harmful to you, and therefore you can endure it if you must. Pain is only a warning; if it’s a “false alarm,” so to speak, then there’s no actual danger in continuing an activity that causes pain.)
