My 29 year-old son suffered with TMS for many years. There were hundreds of Dr. visits, tests, etc. before discovering Dr. Sarno. A huge fan of Howard Stern, he heard him talking about Dr. Sarno and told me, "Mom, love him or hate him, you have to admit, Stern doesn't shill for anything or anyone." The interesting thing is that I had told him about Dr. Sarno several years before, after seeing a piece on 60 minutes about his mind body treatment for people suffering from back pain. A normal child, my son discounted Mom's advice and paid attention to the advice of Howard Stern! My son's TMS mostly caused hand and arm pain. As a computer tech, a "diagnosis" of carpel and cupital tunnel syndrome made sense. But, as he slowly gave up using the computer, playing his guitar, playing video games, his pain escalated. The way I remember Dr. Sarno explaining his theory was based on evolution and survival of the fittest. It makes sense when you think about it. Primitive man had to hunt under extremely dangerous circumstances to survive. Stress, fear or anxiety can be paralyzing. If one is paralyzed by fear, how can one successfully hunt and eat? Pain overrides everything else. One could hunt with pain, but not with fear. So, our ancestors with the strongest pain reflexes were the ones most likely to survive. It's no wonder that we have that biological response to emotion today. It's akin to the itch sensation. What do you do, unconsciously, when you have an itch? You scratch it. Scratching cause a pain sensation which overrides the itch sensation. Until that pain sensation subsides, the itch is "gone". But, it returns and once again you will (unconsciously) start to scratch that itch. I am careful to tell people not to believe that "it's all in your mind." But that it's natures way of helping us deal with the stress and anxiety of everyday life. I hope this helps.

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