What Is TMS Or Mindbody Pain?

You may have heard the phrase psychosomatic pain before, it means emotional stimuli (psycho) creating physical symptoms (somatic). It was also called TMS (Tension Myositis Syndrome) by the well known pain doctor, Dr John Sarno, as well as PPD (Psychophysiological Disorder) and Neuroplastic Pain.

For the purposes of ease I refer to it as MINDBODY PAIN. Mindbody pain does NOT mean that you’ve made your pain up, or that it isn’t real. Mindbody pain is a real mechanism initiated by the body, which pain science has recognised for decades.

Mindbody Personality Traits

The term TMS (Tension Myositis Syndrome) was discovered by Dr John Sarno, a pioneer in the healing of chronic pain conditions. Amongst his chronic back pain patients, he noticed no correlation with their structural abnormalities. However, he did see commonalities with their personality traits. People with certain personality traits process emotions in similar ways, a term I call ‘Mindbody Personality Traits’.

People with these mindbody personality traits tend to bury certain emotions, and in response the brain creates mindbody pain. This process is happening in the brain on AUTOPILOT, neural pathways are habitually sending pain signals around the body. It does this as the brain thinks certain emotions are too ‘dangerous’ for you to feel, so it distracts you from feeling them by creating pain.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

ACEs are regularly studied in relation to chronic pain patients. Studies show that people with more ACEs are most likely to develop pain and illnesses later in life. Growing up in a toxic environment has a significant impact on the formulation of the brain, the effects of which are often carried into adulthood. The most noteworthy study, lists ten ACEs which have a significant impact on people.

Any of the ACEs will hardwire the brain to avoid certain emotions by creating mindbody pain on autopilot. That’s why if you have more than 4, your brain is much more sensitised to constantly creating mindbody pain. However, you can retrain your brain to respond to emotions differently.

Chronic Stress In Four Components

Another common cause of mindbody pain is chronic stress. In the short term stress is vital for survival, however in the long term all of the systems of the body are negatively effected. Blood pressure rises, the digestive system agitates, muscles tighten, the immune system weakens.

The level of stress or health is determined in 4 ways. All four components must be regularly looked after in order for the body to be of optimal health, and stress in any of the four components will create mindbody pain. It’s common for treatments to overly rely on just the one component and neglect the others.

Your Physical Pain Should’ve Healed Within 6-12 Months

Have you suffered with pain for longer than 6-12 months? If so, your body should have already healed from the pain. Just like the body heals open wounds on the outside of the skin, it does the same inside the body. If you’ve suffered for longer than this, there are most likely mindbody elements to the pain.

The Most Common ‘Unexplained’ Pain Is Usually Mindbody

Did you know that 45% of visits to the doctor are what’s known as medically unexplained pain. Even though mindbody pain has been researched and proven for decades, the conventional approach to treating chronic pain still focuses on symptoms not causes. Here is a list of the most common mindbody pain symptoms, click the links to find out more:

• IBS

• Back Pain

• Fibromyalgia

• Other Common Mindbody Conditions