In 2003 I was diagnosed with TMS by Sarno for ankle pain. Within 24 hours I ran 6 miles without pain. Months later the knee pain arrived but eventually dissipated after several months. Three years ago the back pain started. Textbook, I thought, almost cliché. I "argued" with it. No luck. Still here; and for the most part I do my activities: running, swimming, yoga. I even, despite crazy pain, do backbends. The pain sometimes swaps sides and often ranges in severity, but is always there (though there was one week a year when it disappeared). My doc who introduced the whole Sarno concept says it shouldn't be this hard, and I agree: as I was wholly confident in the diagnosis and it still didn't go. Now he wants to administer prolotherapy to resolve what must be loose ligaments .
Where I struggle most with the Sarno method is what I perceive to be a faulty approach to a pristine premise. Absolutely, there are no clear lines between our mind and body; our body and mind are indivisible and it is perfectly appropriate that emotions trigger physical responses, just as physical sensations stir emotional reactions. I find fault with the idea that we “argue” with our brain; if our brain is our body, our body our brain, why are we fostering a dichotomy that doesn't exist? For me, the symptoms seem to subside (but do not go away) when I just let them be. When I trust my health and strength. When I get angry at my brain, the pain increases. Anger, after all, begets anger. Right? In the spirit of mindfulness, I think it all boils down to acceptance, even of the mental wrangling about trying to “figure it all out”—which I know I shouldn’t do, but, as a human, my brain just does. It is not the pain that matters or what I am doing; it is all about acceptance, including the acceptance of the fear and anxiety so entrenched around pain and activities. Any comments, suggestions, different ways of looking at this?

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