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I've been waiting awhile for someone to ask this question.

Physical pain is just one manifestation of TMS. At its heart, TMS is anything that can preoccupy you with fear.

The purpose of the pain is to scare you. It’s for this reason that runners often get leg pain and screenwriters often get wrist pain (and not the other way around.) It’s for this reason that pain often manifests in a place where you know you’re structurally vulnerable. And it’s for this reason that some TMSers can eliminate their symptoms simply by reading one of Dr. Sarno’s books (as it can neutralize the fear associated with the pain).

Pain is not special. Pain is not unique. All pain is is a particularly powerful way of scaring the shit out of you.

Pain is just one of the fear outlets that is under the umbrella of TMS. Hypochondria is another. It serves the same purpose. You are constantly worried about something bad happening to you.

I've had patients where the pain goes away and they develop obsessive-compulsive tendencies. OCD is TMS, it serves as a vessel for fear.

I've had patients where the pain dissipates and they develop certain phobias; fear of open spaces, fear of closed spaces, fear of having a panic attack. These phobias are TMS. They serve as a vessel for fear and preoccupation.

Eating disorders are TMS. I've worked with patients with anorexia and bulimia, there's an obsessive preoccupation with how many calories they consume each day and they'll look in the mirror several times an hour to assess their body.

It's too narrow to define TMS as applying specifically to pain. TMS is anything that the mind uses to preoccupy or scare you: persistent fear of financial collapse, fear of earthquakes, fear of your skin breaking out, fear of losing your hair, fear of gluten, fear of Twitter, fear of nuclear annihilation, fear of contracting Ebola (at this point at least...)

You're not trying to get rid of the pain, or overcome hypochondria, or beat an eating disorder, or eliminate OCD, or bounce from one of these preoccupations to another. Your ultimate goal is to alter your relationship with fear and preoccupation as a whole, to connect with yourself, and to connect with the emotions that are underneath these defense mechanisms.

Alan

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