Belief and the Challenge of Validating a Healing Process that Could Help Millions of Chronic Pain Sufferers
I never would’ve pictured myself as someone who would suffer from chronic pain.
During the early weeks of my year-and-a-half ordeal with chronic pain, there were many moments of what I now call stunned grappling. I had trouble accepting my predicament. Not able to go for a run on a Sunday morning? Not able to dance around the kitchen with my wife and kids? Not hysterically laughing at my own jokes?
My life quickly devolved to the simple task of making it through each day. Finding ways to handle the pains and fears of my unknown and undiagnosed condition. How the hell could this happen to me?
At the time, I told very few people what I was going through. The daily migraine, the fear inducing chest pain, the IBS, the leg cramping. I didn’t want to be seen as different, even though my life had become vastly different.
Overcoming Stigmas
Chronic pain, especially pain that doesn’t have a direct structural or chemical cause and changes daily, has the unknown at its core. Which means it has fear at its core. This fear can overtake your life, suck your energy, and silence a person. It silenced me for a time.
I talk about the pain now. Now that it has mostly subsided and I’m back to cracking myself up. And most people I tell are happy for me and genuinely interested in my healing journey. Though they may not voice it, I get the sense that some just can’t relate — and I relate.
After I posted an article on Facebook about how I healed my chronic pain through mind-body practices, someone surprisingly said that when they were a teenager they went through the same experience with back pain. In fact, she had been treated by the pioneer of mind-body pain, Dr. John Sarno. I was so excited, I had to hear more. He has become a personal hero to me since I had healed from a condition he discovered, Tension myositis syndrome, aka mind-body pain. She admitted that she rarely talks about her healing experience because she learned very quickly that many didn’t believe what had happened to her. They didn’t buy that pain as debilitating as hers could be healed in such an unconventional way.
There are some stigmas when we confront mind-body pain. The first is around weakness. A society that celebrates physical strength and health can leave those in pain in the shadows. People aren’t making Tik-Toks about chronic pain. Books on chronic pain aren’t topping the New York Times best seller list, though some should.
Unfortunately, mental health is still a stigma. Even as Covid times have brought about a sense of shared trauma and young people are quick to label mental disorders with ease, we as a society celebrate those who power through. Employers especially encourage an ethic of overwork, and who doesn’t love a family member or friend who’s always there to help?
We’re steeped in the romantic narrative of American grit and sticktoitiveness, yet ignore the price one pays in sticking to it. Mental toughness is aligned with character at the expense of mental health. People with certain personality traits, such as perfectionism and altruism are especially prone to the dark side of this equation. Power through long enough without addressing the emotional toll this ethic takes, and alarms start going off to the sound of pain.
Another barrier is the medical establishment’s reliance on measurement. If medical practitioners can’t quantify a diagnosis and its treatment, if there is no confirmation from the lab or imaging, then it puts an end to the story.
Giving Hope
Doctors aren’t keen to adopting psychological vocabulary into their practice. The silo of the doctor’s office leaves little room to explore the idea that the source of pain may be more psychogenic than biologic. There is no system in place that funnels patients with chronic pain into more holistic practices that would more successfully address their symptoms. No shared nomenclature that communicates how a patient might not be served by the traditional medical system. Many chronic pain patients, especially those who have been suffering for years, may have been led to believe that they’ve exhausted all their options because that’s what the medical establishment has told them. But it simply is not true.
Pain is complex and its causes stem from multiple sources: biological, phycological, social — now termed biophychosocial. Any number of pressures can build up to produce mind-body pain. Even what we call it is referenced in various ways: Mind-body pain. Neuroplastic pain. TMS (Tension myositis syndrome). These terms are interchangeable and that’s a problem. As a copywriter by trade, I’m especially concerned with the lack of clarity around the language used to describe it. This is a problem that goes beyond semantics. Clarifying the naming and standardizing the treatment process will go a long way to helping people understand how effective it can be for even the most severe chronic pain cases.
At places like the Pain Psychology Center, Dr. Alan Gordon and his colleagues are doing just that, providing mind-body therapy with an empathetic, biophychosocial approach. More practices like this are popping up around the world, giving hope where there once was none and leading the way in how we talk about mind-body pain. As this treatment puts the individual at the center of the healing process, a doctor may not even be needed. Literature on mind-body pain and healing tools like the Curable app, can empower people to rewire their brains so that they essentially unlearn their pain.
You Must Believe
It may all sound complex and confusing but luckily the treatment process is pretty simple. To be able to heal from mind-body pain you only need to start with one thing. Belief.
When Dr. Sarno saw patients in his practice at NY Medical Center, he had a quick process to screen out patients. He would ask if they believed that things going on in their life could possibly be causing their pain. If they didn’t think that was possible, he wouldn’t take them on. He didn’t want to waste their time or his trying to convince them otherwise. And it was too bad for them because Dr. Sarno’s success rate was 80 percent.
So, you don’t have to be into any spiritual practice or commit to seeing a therapist to be healed (though this can help too). You just need to believe in the mind-body concept and find resources to get you started. When we make connections between how we deal with stress and the amount of pain we feel, we’re setting down new healing neural pathways. We’re outwitting our unconscious brain that’s trying to distract us from whatever emotion is trying to emerge, be is sadness, grief, or rage.
This approach is not innovative. It involves no advancements in cutting edge biotech solutions. Addressing chronic pain using the mind-body approach is about taking personal control over how you handle your emotions and by extension, how you handle your life. Rather than revolutionary, this shift is evolutionary.
You might say mind-body treatments are a form of faith healing — and more and more people are starting to believe.
NBC News recently did a story on musician Aimee Mann’s struggle with vestibular migraines that she healed through mind-body practices that incorporate journaling, drawing, and painting. She says of the mind body connection, “it’s trying to pay attention and figure out what this is trying to say, because it’s definitely trying to say something.”
Whatever overarching term is finally decided upon, if you are in chronic pain there is a good chance that it is trying to tell you something and mind-body treatments will help you pick up the signal.
References:
The Pain Psychology Center
The Way Out: A Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven Approach to Healing Chronic Pain by Alan Gordon with Alon Ziv
Curable app
Unlearn Your Pain by Howard Schubiner with Michael Betzold
The Sarno Treatment Plan
NBC News: Rock star Aimee Mann turns to visual art to combat migraines
