Psychosomatic Back Pain
Psychosomatic back pain is the most common causation of chronic, unresolved dorsopathy symptoms. Although rarely diagnosed by main stream medicine, psychologically induced back pain is often responsible for the downward spiral of suffering and functional deprivation experienced by millions of affected patients.
Psychological back pain is almost always the result of repressed emotional issues which are held imprisoned deeply within the subconscious mind. These issues are deemed to be very troublesome and dangerous by the emotional mind and must be prevented from escaping into consciousness at all costs. Ironically, the very nature of these problematic issues makes them seek conscious recognition. The subconscious mind creates psychosomatic pain in an effort to occupy the conscious mind, preventing recognition of the repressed issues. Physical pain is the very best possible distraction from these repressed issues, since nothing occupies the full attention of the conscious mind like pure bodily suffering.
The subconscious mind utilizes the processes of the autonomic system to do its dirty work. Purposeful vascular constriction creates areas of oxygen deprivation in affected regions. This process, known as ischemia, affects all living tissue, including muscular and neurological fibers. Low level ischemia can create pain, tingling, numbness, and weakness in any body part. High levels of oxygen deprivation can also bring on waves of uncontrolled muscular back spasm and unbearably intense symptoms. These are the common complaints of most back pain patients, regardless of the nature of their specific diagnosis.
Dr John Sarno, of the NYU Medical Center, Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, has been a vocal exponent of the idea of psychogenic causation and perpetuation of physical pain for many years. Dr. Sarno created his own name for the condition, Tension Myositis Syndrome, long before the full extent of the symptomology was known. Myositis indicates a condition which creates muscular pain, but even Dr. Sarno now knows that this incredibly painful condition affects every type of organic tissue, not just the muscles. In fact, most patients with mild to moderate chronic back pain are experiencing low level ischemic effects on the neurological tissue, making the condition even more difficult to accurately diagnose.
The modern medical industry is so inconsistent in its beliefs concerning mind/body interactions. Doctors will acknowledge the obvious influence of the mind during the fight or flight response. They clearly endorse the minds role during physical changes involved in the sexual process. They certainly realize that the mind can set off a wide range of physical reactions due to conscious stress and anxiety. However doctors mostly deny the mind’s ability to cause pain in the body. This vehement denial comes despite the long proven laws of placebo and nocebo in the healthcare system. The idea that the mind can control the body sometimes, but not other times, is a wholly ridiculous and antiquated theory. In reality, this ideology ties in to the purely economic aspirations of present day physical medicine. It is no surprise that the accepted doctrine of symptomatic treatment is designed to keep a patient under care for the long term. This would be quite impossible to do if the medical system acknowledged the purely psychogenic nature of most of the chronic pain diagnoses.
The idea of psychosomatic causation extends far beyond the back pain industry. In fact, the list of psychologically induced and perpetuated conditions grows everyday. These conditions all have certain identical factors in common, including a difficult to pinpoint exact causation, a treatment-resistant nature and a diverse symptomology. The most common of these epidemic conditions now includes TMD/TMJ, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Tension Headaches, Plantar Fasciitis, Sexual Dysfunction, Fibromyalgia, Prostatitis, and a wide range of gastrointestinal symptoms.
Luckily for affected patients, there is a cure for these life altering conditions. The cure is simple, effective and inexpensive. This is why the cure has never found its way into the average doctor’s office…The cure for any psychosomatic back pain condition is simple recognition of the emotional causation of the symptoms. These problematic emotions need to be identified and accepted during a process known as Knowledge Therapy. Dr. Sarno coined this term many years ago when developing a cure for his TMS condition and the name has been used to describe any psycho-emotional treatment approach directed at an anatomical pain syndrome. The techniques offer excellent results for completely resolving long standing conditions which have not responded to traditional or complementary medical approaches. The sources of this therapy are inexpensive and can even be found for free at your local library. Now, I think you can see the reason why most doctors do not and will not accept the idea of psychosomatic back pain. The very cure hits them in their economic bottom line by taking the power out of the hands of the medical provider and placing it within the reach of every suffering patient.
-Sensei Adam Rostocki