Author: Forest

Dr. Sarno’s first book “Mind Over Back Pain” called out to me as it sat unassumingly on a book shelf at the Coliseum Book Store in New York City many years ago. It was hiding amidst some thick intimidating books on “health” that one would have to spend a year reading. So I purchased that book and I still remember the first night I read it when it opened up a whole world that felt like it had been hiding in my brain always. And I began my journey with this wonderful doctor//teacher/sage and all his other writings.

Dealing with TMS is not by any means easy for me but I know it is true and real and usually I just have to remind myself that’s what is wrong. We are only scratching the surface of the mind/body connection and we are so lucky to have had a courageous warrior like Dr. Sarno to come forward  way ahead of his time.  In the future when they understand it more than we do now, he will be revered. Thank you Dr. Sarno and I will be grateful to you all my life.

I am also grateful to the TMS Wiki site (and Alan Gordon and Howard Schubiner) which has been a huge saving grace to me in just this past year and is an inspired refuge for so many on the internet.

Katherine

Ken

About twenty years ago, I was poor as a church mouse working survival jobs and trying to pursue an unsuccessful acting career. I had a herniated disk, and unbearable back pain. Prior to the injury, I ran about 4-6 miles daily. With the onset of back pain, I was sidelined for over a year, desperate for relief from chiropractors and doctors that I could not afford. Unsuccessful actors can’t really afford health insurance. I was in a LOT of pain and very depressed about my lack of physical mobility.

One day after work I went to the large library in midtown Manhattan in search of books that could offer me exercises to relieve my back pain. Instead I came across Doctor Sarno’s book,”Mind Over Back Pain, the Mind-Body Connection.” I remember checking the book out from the library and reading the entire book, cover to cover, one afternoon in the middle of Central Park. Everything about TMS resonated so strongly within me.

Three days after finishing the book, I was back on the treadmill running my daily miles. I’ve been running and swimming four or five days a week since.

I have a Pay It Forward policy regarding Doctor Sarno’s books. Whenever a friend complains of back pain, I purchase the book as a gift with the insistence that the friend passes it on to someone else who may complain of back pain in the future.

My copies of Sarno’s books retain a prominent place on a shelf in my home library.

Thank you, Doctor Sarno. Our world is a sadder place without you today.

Much love and gratitude,
Michael C

Thank you Dr. Sarno.

As a poor college student, paying to go to a chiropractor every week to manage my headaches left me with just enough money to break even. I felt stuck and google searched for alternatives. I found your book, got it, read it and applied it. Haven’t been back to a chiro since. It’s been over 3 years.

God Bless!

Dear Dr. Sarno,

I can never thank you enough for saving me from not only crippling pain but also from seeking relief with back surgery.

I stumbled onto a back pain forum 5 months ago looking to see what others were thinking about after being told that surgery was the only answer, and someone mentioned your name and books.

They have been my saving grace.

This morning I went to look at the TMSwiki.org forum and saw that you passed away. I am only sorry that you did not receive the Nobel Prize for saving so many from a lifetime of pain and suffering. I will do my best to honor your legacy by sharing my own experience to all who will listen, and even to those who won’t!

Rest In Peace.

Thank you, Doctor!!
Jack

In the late 90s I suffered from neck and upper back pain.   I was truly suicidal as I was living in pain 24/7 and was told I would never be able to do physical activity again.  Back then back and neck surgery meant being in a body cast for months.

I tried everything, from acupuncture to mediation, to needles in the neck.    Nothing worked.   Until one day I was walking in a book store and decided to buy his book.  Everything made sense. I was cured within 2 weeks.    I have shared my story to anyone who would listen and I know dozens who have also been cured.    I haven’t had any issues since then and I also read his book “The Divided Mind” which has also helped me overcome other pains that I would have otherwise been alarmed at.  Thank you Dr. Sarno for being my hero, my God.  There will never be another like you.

Dear Dr Sarno,

You are my hero. You saved me. I had lost my life to chronic pain and disability. Your dedication and selfless pursuit for the wellbeing of others restored faith in me. From the moment I accepted your work I knew I could deeply trust and believe that I would be cured. You did not let me down. Your expert work will not be in vain. The truth you uncovered all those years ago will become mainstream treatment for those in chronic pain. I hope there are other true doctors out there like you. We have lost the best one.

Rest in Peace

Susan (birdsetfree)

Dear Dr. Sarno:

I am writing you to let you know that your book Healing Back Pain: The Mind Body connection has greatly changed the course of my life.

You see I had become a slave, my mind and the medical system worked together to make me believe my back was not well. I was as sure of this fact as the night is black.  For years, I spent thousands of dollars on medical treatment and rehabilitation which provided temporary relief at best.

Your beautiful book rid me of my shackles. I am happy to report to you that I am now a free man. I have transformed from a boy who dreaded picking his clothes off the ground, to a powerful 31 year old man who is capable of deadlifting 200 pounds off the ground with ease. This became a reality thanks to your work.

I hope this letter finds you well and I hope you know what a powerful and positive impact your work has had on this planet.  The world is a better place because of you.

Thank you Dr. Sarno.

Unlike many of the contributors to this project, I have had lower back pain for less than ten days. Your book, Healing Back Pain, has transformed those ten days into a blessing, because it helped explain to me not just my back pain but so many other problems I have been having all my life. It has also revealed to me a very strange side of my mind.

I have heard about your book before I had any back pain. So I never read it. I was told about it by my spiritual guide and teacher, in a casual discussion. He said anybody who has back pain should read that book, explained a little about your argument, and told me one should be cured by the time one finishes reading the book.

Then, two months later, I was suddenly suffering a terrible pain in my lower back. I was sure: A Disk. Because of so many hours driving my car. I don’t want to go to a doctor.

Then, I remembered the book and found it on Kindle. And downloaded it in ten minutes. Now I know my story may not be typical because of two things: First it was my teacher who told me about it, so I was already convinced with the argument before I have started. Second, I have already read Feeling Good by Dr. David Burns, also recommended to me by my teacher, and was aware of how cognitive therapy works and convinced of it.

Then I started reading. Half way through the detailed description, I stopped. I told myself, I don’t need convincing, or understanding, I got the point and I am totally game, and skipped to the chapter about treatment. As I started reading that chapter, my pain was already going away. But it is what happened after and is still happening that is amazing, and in a sense creepy.

First, I started talking to my brain and exploring my feelings. Luckily I am very close to a lot of negative feelings and resentments. As I did, the pain in my back started going away. Next day, I decided to start driving again. The pain would come, I would think about by negative emotions, and talk to myself, and it goes.

Then, the following day I was driving. Back pain. Talked to myself. Pain went away. But then, I started having a headache, and stiffness in the shoulder muscles, the usual symptoms I get when driving. At that moment it dawned on me that this is also TMS. I immediately started talking to my brain again, and both went away.

During the last three days, this has happened so often. The pain and stiffness rotates very rapidly and with immediate response to my train of thoughts. Last night, I was feeling pain in my back, talked to myself, pain went away, but then, I was kneeling and my knee cracked and I felt a soaring pain. For a second I was taken aback. Something has snapped in my knee. Then, I realized what was going on. The crack has nothing to do with the pain. I focused on some negative feelings, and talked to my brain, and I got up walking pain free. Same, with heartburn. I don’t usually have heartburns. But since I started the exercise, the brain seems to be trying to find an outlet for the deception.

This is not the end of my story. I don’t know how it is going to end. But certainly it is a startling start for a self-discovery journey, and hopefully for a pain free life. Thanks to you, Dr. Sarno.

Moatasem al-G, Cairo, Egypt, 2/5/2017

Dear Dr. Sarno,

Last March I read Healing Back Pain, and it has been responsible for completely solving my 9 and a half year problem with pain. It didn’t happen overnight, but took about 6 months for me to internalize and embrace. I recently went on a 4 day backcountry skiing trip, where you work for every turn. I climbed longer and pushed it harder than I ever have in my life. I truly have my old life back, and am even stronger than I was 10 years ago.

I tried chiropractors, physical therapists, acupuncturists, massage therapists, psychologists, orthopedic doctors, a cranial sacral specialist, a kinesiologist, an Osteopath, a Fibromyalgia MD, a Hypnotherapist, hormone specialist, and half a dozen others. Nothing provided any substantial relief. But now I know that the physical defects that show up on the MRIs are not responsible for all that pain.

I’m also writing to say thank you for a friend who has also identified with TMS and is thrilled to have read your book. She also is getting her old life back. I’m currently in the process of sending your book with a note to past doctors and therapists that might benefit from my story. I hope others find relief from your book. Thank you for your years of hard work!

Best,
Alison

I am a 63 year old physician. Short story–

-I was an ENT surgeon- In 1982 (age 29) began my own practice.
-By 1994 I had so much neck, back and shoulder pain that I had to stop operating.
-I went into business (non-medical)-opened 40 franchises in 2 years and hated every day of it. (Made a lot of money)
-In 1996 I began a 3 year dermatology residency program. It was broken up by 3 surgeries, addiction to prescription pain
medication, PT, acupuncture, chiropractic, osteopathic therapies. It took me 6 years to complete the dermatology
residency and I began to practice as a dermatologist in 2002. The neck, shoulder and back pain continued at a 4-5 level
daily with flares at times.

I was introduced to your books and philosophy by an MD colleague in 1994. My head was not in the right place to even consider anything new.
Howard Stern mentioned your name on radio about 3 weeks ago. I pulled out your books. I have stopped my Celebrex 200mg BID that I started when Vioxx when off the market. I have tried unsuccessfully to titrate to lower levels.
I stopped my 45 minute 4 times a week back and neck exercises and began riding an upright bike again (I’ve only been able to ride a recumbent since 1994). Today I bowled 2 games. I tried that 10 years ago and suffered for weeks.

My pain is about 70-80% better at the 3 weeks mark! Having been trained in osteopathic medicine, I have never been able to prove what we did actually helped patients, but it did.

Thank you for your continued observations and beautiful documentation and writings.

Dear Dr. Sarno,

I love you! I got your book a long time ago. It’s copyright is 1991, and it is the only book I never loan to anybody, though I do recommend it. My book is currently “decorated” with 17 post-it markers for salient points.

You helped me with back pain all those years ago, and for that I am grateful. I made up a bracelet – kind of like a rosary – to review the Daily Reminders, which I use periodically.

After a year of mega stress, my heart, which had been checked out (atrial ectopic beats) and was deemed to be okay, started acting up. I again delved into your wonderful book and the reminders. This morning my heart started kicking up a fuss, so I sat still, located the anger I was not dealing with, and happily my heart went back to normal, and I went on to do the work planned for the day.

“Think psychological not physical”, is my mantra! Yay!

I am an American living in New Zealand (since 1980) so even though I am not geographically near to NYC anymore, I am near to you in my heart. You have done such wonderful work, and I am so very very grateful to you.

Much love from “a free range oldie” living in a “Foreign Land”

Penelope

My Special Thanks to Dr John E Sarno, MD!

I’ve wanted to write you for several years just to express my gratitude for you healing my back pain but I’d always set it aside for one reason or another, then when I googled your name to help out someone else recently with your info, I found that you had retired and that there was a letter writing campaign for you. Well, this is my opportunity to thank you personally…

Just some background first, I work in the building industry selling new homes and in 1993 I stubbed my toe when I hit the plastic mat under my office chair while assisting some clients. It hurt so bad that I wanted to scream but I had to wait until they left and then when they did, I started experiencing back pain in my lower right hip, a severe stabbing-like pain! A co-worker suggested that I go and see a chiropractor that she knew, he was able to get me pain-free temporarily but little did I know at the time that I would be visiting him off and on for the next 10 years!

Next, I went to my family physician who prescribed over time anti-inflammatory drugs, anti-depressants, painkillers, physical therapy, various exercises for the back and possible future surgery and/or steroidal shots to the spine which I objected to since the pain moved around and would change in intensity on a daily/weekly basis. In the meantime, I’m trying acupuncture, traction, chiropractic adjustments, electro-stimulation, heat and cold therapies etc., from alternative medical providers.

Around 1999, I decided to change professions and rent office space and begin work as a business broker. It just so happens that the office manager named Juli, tells me about your books after a discussion of our various back ailments and how she was bed-ridden on some days and that the book had cured her!

Well, after much skepticism I eventually went out and bought the book, Healing Back Pain and went straight to the chapter regarding the cure and wondered how this book would cure me without any medical procedures. So, when nothing happened I put the book down and proceeded to have back pain over the next 4 years.

It was 2003 and I had gone back to selling new homes again, but one day came down with a severe back and sciatica attack down my right leg it was so bad that I had to crawl up the stairs to my loft at home and have my wife bring food to me! I told my boss that I could no longer drive the hour plus trip one way to my job each day and that I would wait the 3 months for something closer to home to open up. At this point, I ended up buying Dr Sarno’s two other books, Mind Over Back Pain and The Mindbody Prescription and read them all. It was like the information was jumping off the pages because everything that I was experiencing was there. Yes, I had an MRI earlier which showed a bulging disc in the L4/L5 area but as Dr Sarno explains it was just aging of the spine.

His discussions of personalities, especially perfectionism and goodism hit me right between the eyes they were so right on!  Also, some of the equivalents like eczema, stomach discomfort, frequent urination and respiratory infections among others were common with me. So, to get cured I started writing out all of the things that could be causing my internal unconscious rage and ended up with several legal-sized pages starting from childhood to now….

Most of it work-related since I’m in an imperfect business selling new homes where I have no control over interest rates, construction times and quality, loan approvals, buyer qualifications, monthly sales totals, etc.,

Needless to say, I was cured in just two or three weeks! I could now do the elliptical and stairmaster at the gym which I had stopped doing for years due to the back pain. I can say now that I’m entirely pain-free except on occasion when I’ll get that nerve pain again but I can usually figure out what brought it on right away.

So Dr Sarno, I wish to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your dedication and determination to find THE CURE for BACK PAIN thru your TMS diagnosis and going against the established Medical Profession and risking your very livelihood in order to help us! You were a God-send to me and others and I know that you have been blessed immeasurably by all of your patients who’ve gotten their lives back!

Eternally Grateful,

Wayne

A little over 20 years, in my early 30s, I was a very active, visiting the gym daily, playing a lot of tennis. Seemingly out of the blue, I began to have back pain. It became debilitating. There were days I could not go to work. There were times when walking down the street, my back would freeze and I would have to lay down on the sidewalk, in pain. I tried every technique: rest. breathing. stretching. It only go worse and worse. When not prostate, I walked hunched over. It was frightening.

Someone told me about Sarno’s book. I bought a copy and walked across the street to a park where I sat and read it all the way through. As I read, the pain lifted. Completely. It has never returned, except for very brief and minor occasions. When it does return, I either thumb through the book, or try to recall its message. It always works instantly.

I realize this sounds unbelievable. But it happened exactly as described. His theory is very persuasive and the evidence in my case is absolutely conclusive. My back pain was connected to financial stress and upon realization of this, the pain disappeared.

Hello Dr. Sarno,

In 2008 I contacted an energy healer. I had never done anything like this before but I had been suicidal for nearly two long years at that point. My issues were completely emotional up to then until the day of my session with this energy healer. That morning I found I couldn’t lift my head off of the pillow and I had severe body pain like never before. I couldn’t believe how much pain I was in and I called my twin sister to tell her that something was seriously wrong with me physically.

During my session this energy healer asked me what was worse my physical or mental issues? I couldn’t believe it but I actually had to say “physical”. Weeks prior to this first session through email contact, I had learned about “goodists” and he gave me a question sheet to answer and talked with me about hidden anger. But it was during my first session with him that I learned about you. He had seen you and been treated by you and was able to tell me about his own back pain and how he was a “energy healer that could help everyone else but he couldn’t even help himself.”… and then he told me about the affirmations and how important it was to see that my body pain had an emotional root or component and that the pain was a distraction. He asked me if I wanted to know why after 6 weeks he had found that made his back pain vanish. I said, yes, of course. And he said “nothing”. It just left.

Dr. Sarno, I never took medicine for and never allowed a doctor to document the diagnosis of “Fibromyalgia” in my file and I never felt hopeless about the body pain. I’ve always from the start been saying the affirmations and I didn’t have any trouble coming to terms with the emotional root of the body pain. TMS gave me hope enough to begin to build within myself the solution to the whole of my life’s situation.

It was for me to see, for me to work through, to build, to change, and succeed with and your insights and contributions through TMS gave me the tools so I could experience true inner power. Thank you for your sight and your vision. If I had learned about Fibromyalgia through any other means, I know I wouldn’t be here writing this right now. TMS empowered me. No words can thank you enough, Dr. Sarno and I’m thankful for the opportunity to write you. I won’t stop talking about TMS and sharing your books.

Hugs and Love,

Lisa

I am a reader from Shanghai, China, of Dr. Sarno’s brilliant books – Healing Back Pain, The Mindbody Prescription and The Divided Mind.

I feel so lucky that I could come finally across the ones providing enlightenment and shedding light on the problems that have puzzled me for about a decade. I began to have a persistent upper back pain ten years ago, and meanwhile have intermittent (in fits and starts) pains in joins of arms or legs and unspecific loci across the back trunk. When in bed at night, having to once sit up before I needed to roll over laterally. Visiting a lot of physicians over many years ended up in fruitlessness.

Earlier in this year, I tried to find out some medical book on the symptoms overseas at amazon.com and located ‘Healing Back Pain, The Mind-Body Connection’ by Dr. Sarno. The striking phrase at the bottom of front cover, ‘Without drugs, without surgery, without exercise, back pain can be stopped forever’ appealed to me largely. How incredible the remark is! But as I got through down the book, the skepticism gradually faded away.

The principle behind the TMS theory perfectly fits in with an obscure idea of mine (or a hunch?) that mind must have something to do with body. The obscure idea has been around in my mind for several years due to the disappointment and frustration after the inefficiency and inefficacy in the diagnosis and treatment of my symptom. Saying ‘an obscure idea’ is because it has been purely my subjective conjecture based on no ground and unsystematic. I have no medical background. Thanks to the potential or underpinning of my own idea, I was able to assimilate the idea of TMS very quickly, and on the point when finishing the reading, I feel getting relieved. Inspirited miraculously, I continued reading ‘The Mindbody Prescription’, and got further insight into the unconscious. I am currently reading ‘The Divided Mind’ and very much impressed with Dr. Sarno’s remarkable findings of what disorders are mediated through the autonomic-peptide system.

In China, the mainstream modern medicine which is ultimately physical-chemical has been ubiquitously and inveterately deep-seated in the minds of the Chinese people to an extent that, as I observed, is more overwhelming than that in the United States as Dr. Sarno commented. For example, when I talked about the psychosomatic mechanism to the people around me, including my family members, I was considered ‘being absurd or simply nonsense’. Citing Dr. Sarno’s mention in ‘The Divided Mind’, on page 31, ‘Experience suggests that in the United States only 10 to 20 percent of people with a psychosomatic disorder are able to accept the fact that their symptoms are emotional in origin. Many are downright hostile to the idea. Though there are large numbers who seek psychotherapy or psychoanalysis, they represent only a small portion of the entire population.’ Comparably, however, the percentage of the acceptance of the idea by people in China is much less. My father-in-law, 82, has recent years been experiencing heavy attacks, about 7-8 times in a month, from headache, abrupt blood pressure elevation (around 200 mmHg./150 mmHg.) usually accompanied with dizziness, vomiting, tinnitus at uncertain times, possibly whenever in a day, whether in daytime or at night and whether the postures when standing, sitting or being prostrate. What seems to be odd is that he restores gradually to the normal with high blood pressure subsided after three or four hours silently lying in the bed. Seeking to get the cause of the disorders clarified, we took him to the examinations by specialists for several corresponding sections of the medicine using CT, MRI, electrocardiogram, blood-testing and some other measures, and also hospitalized. Unfortunately, however, no exact or accurate cause has been determined until now. I realized in light of TMS manifestations that his symptoms are inclusively characteristic of and pointed to TMS in origin featuring symptom imperative. It is regrettable that the lack of the practitioners specializing in psychosomatics in China gets us into trouble finding an appropriate way of treating him.

I make an effort to try to enlighten my wife about the psychosomatic idea by acquiring a Chinese-translated version of The Mindbody Prescription for her in hope of a further influence on other family members.

I really found myself enjoying every sentence of excellence in all the three books by Dr. Sarno. Dr. Sarno challenges the contemporary mainstream medicine not only in the U.S., but in the globe including China by bringing to light the truth of the ultimate (root) cause of seemingly structural abnormities in terms of the psychosomatic connections and interactions. In my view, the creation of the TMS theory ought to be qualified and eligible for Dr. Sarno to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In spite of the colossal impedance and hurdle by the prevailing mainstream medicine facing the psychosomatic medicine, the laureateship of Dr. Sarno is prospective, and it is not until in a historical stage in the future that in which the psychosomatic medicine transcends physical structural medicine and supersedes its status as a dominant medicine.

I admire your groundbreaking works and your wonderful wisdom, and heartily thank you, Dr. Sarno.

In July 2014 I desperately went to what I thought was “yet another physiotherapist” to find a solution to my chronic tennis elbow symptoms. I could barely lift a mug of tea despite having had 4 steroid injections over the course of 18 months, innumerable sessions of physio, physical therapy, magnets, kinesiology, kinesio taping, you name it, I tried it!

I went to see a therapist in Galway thinking that he would finally physically strip the muscles back in my forearm and free up the pain in my elbow. No. Instead he told me that there is no such thing as tennis elbow or tendonitis and recommended I read The Mind Body prescription.

I’ve since gone on to read A Divided Mind. I distinctly remember a morning when I got severe elbow pain and I immediately stopped and analysed the emotions that I had just gone through (and buried) just prior to the pain. I was astounded to witness the pain appearing as a distraction from the emotional pain. I stood still and allowed the emotional pain to flow through me. It took about 40 seconds. Then the “debilitating” pain disappeared.

One year on and I rarely even think about elbow pain. When it comes up I can quickly source the anger or emotional pain at its root and it disappears. Most importantly I fully understand that the pain is a manifestation of my mind.

I am a person with severe TMS and I’ve had many equivalencies since. But I’ve also managed to deconstruct and fully recover from lower back pain and piriformis syndrome. I’ve reduced my tinnitus significantly. I’ve vastly reduced the incidence or tension headaches and neck pain. And I have had months long respite from prostatitis and pelvic pain. I’m open now to looking at my food allergies.

Even just listing all the pain disorders here is an eye opener yet again to the effect TMS has had on my life and the wonderful cure and opportunity that Dr Sarno has offered to me. Thank you!