Pain to most people represents a physical sensation caused by a direct injury/ trauma to soft tissue or muscle tension caused by stress. But what about prolonged lingering chronic pain? Why is it that some people struggle with constant neck or back pain and others don’t? We all suffer from some form of stress don’t we?
You may be interested to know it may all be in the mind. The sensation of chronic pain in most cases is caused by reduced oxygenation in the soft tissues of the body. The standard models of pain are being challenged by the findings of Dr John Sarno who for the past 30 years has uncovered the origins of lingering unexplained pain. The answer…repressed emotions in the subconscious mind. A radical concept yes but his clinical results are irrefutable. The term used to describe this condition if Tension Myositis Syndrome. (TMS)
According to Dr Sarno the primary emotion we repress is anger. This primitive emotion was critical for our evolutionary survival as a species but could you imagine your life today if everyone freely expressed their displeasure. In our current society the free expression of anger is not socially acceptable and usually result in a backlash of negativity from those around you. The one exception to this is road rage…there is something about the isolation of driving that makes us feel safe to vent our outrage towards other drivers. Imagine this happening at the office…anarchy would ensue.
So in order to maintain our socially accepted norms our mind bundles up all our little frustrations and stuffs them into our subconscious mind. Over time these build up like a pressure cooker but our rational conscious mind understands that the free expression of this pent up frustration may do more harm than good in our social network. The solution for the mind? Distraction!
The area in the brain that anger resides is in the limbic system of the brain. It is also in this area that our autonomic nervous system intersects. One purpose of the autonomic nervous system is to control our fight or flight response. Over the eons this has served us well when danger was present as it helped shunt blood to and from specific muscles to assist us in physically dealing with a threat. But now we have no real physical threat…just an emotion we know can’t be let out of the cage. In order to keep itself from the repressed emotion the mind creates physical distractions in the body by reducing blood flow in specific areas. The result…PAIN!
Fascinating yet true…anything bothering you today?
i was wondering if you have therapists that are able to treat tesion myositis syndrome
Thank you for commenting on our blog. In response to your query Michael Desrochers is the Therapist that deals with TMS. Much of the work around TMS involves a 30 day workbook, nutritional support, and massage therapy. TMS is really about how individuals deal with stress, understanding your stress triggers, and supporting your stress response. The massage therapy deals with myofascial adhesions that invariably occur with people who have chronic back or neck pain. Please feel free to call us if you want any further info.