The Mind-Body Connection in Chronic Pain

colinliggett
Apr 27, 2022
6 min read

Updated: Sep 10

“Unconscious emotions are a potent factor in virtually all physical, non-traumatic ills,” wrote Dr. John Sarno in The Divided Mind.

Dr. Sarno’s groundbreaking books, including Healing Back Pain (a New York Times bestseller), showed that unresolved emotional stress can manifest as physical pain. His theories were controversial in medicine in the early 90s, but life-changing for thousands of people. Today, a growing body of research supports the idea that past trauma and stress directly affect our health and pain.

Key Points:

1. The unconscious mind can cause chronic pain as a distraction from unresolved trauma/stress and repressed emotions.

2. The pain can resolve if you can correlate the pain with the unconscious's attempt to distract from trauma/stress.

3. We are not consciously aware of these mechanisms and therefore have no choice in the process.

4. Faulty movement patterns caused by injuries or surgeries can persist long after tissue damage has resolved.

5. Faulty movement patterns are a resource the unconscious can tap into to cause pain.

6. SMR can resolve these faulty movement patterns and hence break the cycle of pain.

What is Dr Sarno's theory regarding emotions and pain?

Dr. Sarno (1923-2017) believed that hidden emotions—such as anger, sadness, or grief—can feel too threatening to come into our awareness. Instead, the unconscious brain shifts our attention by creating physical pain. This pain is real, but its origin is trauma and stress.

So why do we potentially suffer from chronic pain because of stress or trauma?

When triggered by a place, person or event, the unconscious mind experiences feelings of sadness, emotional pain, and rage relating to prior trauma. Believing that these emotions are too dangerous for the person to experience or the anger too socially unacceptable to express at a conscious level, the unconscious represses these emotions by distracting the conscious mind with pain. It decides that physical pain is less threatening than expressing repressed emotions. We are not consciously aware of this decision and therefore have no influence over its effects.

What causes unconscious emotional pain and rage?

The part of the unconscious holding onto trauma has no concept of time. Pain is felt as strongly 30 years later in the unconscious as when the initial trauma occurred. The "reservoir of rage" has been gradually added to through the passing of time and all that life throws at us. Below are eight potential contributors to this reservoir of rage:

1. Physical, sexual, or emotional abuse causes large amounts of pain and sadness to the child, especially if anger was never permitted to be expressed.

2. Not receiving enough emotional support, warmth, and love will result in anger, sorrow and pain.

3. Excessive discipline or unreasonable expectations by parents or caregivers.

4. "If you expect a great deal of yourself, if you drive yourself to be perfect, to achieve, to succeed, if you are your own severest critic, if you are very conscientious, these are likely to make you angry inside. Sensitivity to criticism and deep-down feelings of inferiority are common and also contribute to inner anger."

5. "If you have a strong need to please people, to want them to like you, or if you tend to be very helpful to everyone and anyone, if you are the caretaker type and are always worrying about your family, friends, and relatives, these drives will also make you furious inside, because that's the way the mind works. The child in our unconscious doesn't care about anyone but itself and gets angry at the pressure to be perfect and good."

6. We are all getting older and closer to death. Consciously, we rationalize the demise of our health and the nearing of our death; unconsciously, we are enraged by it.

7. The inner mind resents any life pressure. Thus, pressures from your job, spouse, children, parents, and others can further exacerbate the inner child and contribute to the reservoir of pain.

8. "Close personal relationships, no matter how good they are, are often the source of unconscious anger, because it's very hard to be consciously angry at a parent, a spouse, or a child." However, self-denial enrages the inner child.

It is important to note, "Everybody is under pressure from themselves or from life circumstances - and everybody has some degree of rage in the unconscious."

So, how does one stop these symptoms from occurring?

Dr. Sarno believes that knowledge is power; once you realize that the unconscious creates pain as a protective mechanism from painful/dangerous unconscious emotions, the distraction mechanism no longer serves its purpose. By acknowledging the relationship of chronic pain to past trauma/stress every time pain spikes, the pain brings a conscious awareness of the emotions instead of a distraction away from it. The pain no longer serves the original purpose.

How Does Dr. Sarno's theory fit into SMR?

For years, I've noticed a connection between the mind-body connections in clinical practice, so I am a strong advocate of Dr. Sarno's theory, as well as similar theories such as Internal Family Systems (IFS).

SensoriMotor Repatterning (SMR) identifies faulty compensation patterns resulting from previous injuries or surgeries and teaches the functional part of the brain how to resolve them.

I have always assumed that the brain creates these compensation patterns in response to an injury, so as not to damage the injured tissue further. E.g., causing a limp so you can get from A to B without further tissue damage. Once healed, the movement patterns should revert to the more functional, original patterns; however, sometimes they don't.

I used to assume this to be an oversight of the nervous system. However, if Dr. Sarno were still around, he might conclude that the unconscious deliberately chooses not to correct these movement patterns. The subsequent chronic pain serves as an excellent distraction from the turmoil of the unconscious mind.

Can SensoriMotor Repatterning (SMR) help?

Yes, if the unconscious mind is causing pain through holding onto or switching between faulty and functional patterns, then these patterns can be found and removed. SMR bridges the gap between the evolutionarily older part of our mammalian brain (the limbic system, which focuses on survival) and the newer part (the Neocortex, which supports cognitive function). The older part of the brain holds onto dysfunctional patterns as a safety mechanism, and the more contemporary part wants to be as functional as possible.

Nobody at a conscious level would choose to live with chronic pain over protecting trauma/stress from the past. The unconscious (limbic) brain chooses pain; consciously, we don't get to choose. As the SMR therapist, it is my job to identify dysfunctional movement patterns from past injuries to the newer part of the brain and facilitate correcting the dysfunction. Gentle manipulation at specific points on the body's soft tissue is all that is needed. The Neocortex "repatterns" faulty neural patterns when it becomes aware of them and has been provided with sufficient information to correct them.

As I have spent much time studying Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), its theory is integrated into SMR. TCM does not view the mind and body as two separate entities, but rather as a complex, integrated system. TCM considers stress to be stored in the body's systems and organs and seeks to remove it. SMR therapy utilizes somato–autonomic reflexes at acupoints to alter motor control in response to stressors.

You should know that I do not "fix" stress or trauma. I remove the faulty movement patterns the limbic brain holds onto as a distraction mechanism (that's causing pain). I also consider working with a Registered Clinical Counsellor or psychologist a critical aspect of dealing with trauma if a client has not already done so. I have a comprehensive list of therapists I can recommend.

Is there any evidence/research to back up Dr. Sarno's theories?

At the time of writing his first book, there was not. Dr. Sarno was ahead of his time. Now there is an ever-growing body of research that strongly supports Sarno's hypothesis that childhood trauma has a significant effect on pain and overall health. A summarization of the evidence can be found here...

If you would like to know more about SensoriMotor Repatterning and if you could benefit from some sessions, check out this link...

VanSMR.ca

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Resources/References:

Free online video about mind-body syndrome

https://unlearnyourpain.com/mind-body-videos/

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Free online video "The role the brain plays in pain"

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsJVYZbo6uWrKc57MDUL1vGciEGnPYrV9

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The Divided Mind" Dr. Sarno

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/the-divided-mind-the-epidemic/9780061174308-item.html?ikwsec=Books&ikwidx=1