Why you need to 100% believe in TMS to heal from TMS

One of the initial doubts I had about TMS was the emphasis on belief. I couldn’t accept this as central to the treatment because, in my mind, if the diagnosis was correct and the treatment worked, what does belief have to do with it? I even wondered if TMS was just another new-age healing cult because there are certainly plenty of those out there. After about a year of on-and-off studying TMS, and in particular while reading Steve Ozanich’s book The Great Pain Deception, I finally had a breakthrough in my understanding.

Belief has a major impact on how we feel. It’s the power behind the placebo effect: if we believe in the treatment or drug we’re receiving, pain seems to disappear almost immediately. This phenomenon has been well-documented scientifically, and almost everyone can recount a personal experience with it—whether it’s from visiting a confident chiropractor or listening to an inspiring speech from a charismatic guru. However, placebos do not last, and the pain inevitably comes back, along with doubt, because the root cause (emotions) has not been resolved.

A big reason TMS pain persists and becomes chronic is due to the harmful opposite of the placebo effect: the “nocebo” effect. If placebo (false) diagnoses and treatments can make us feel good, a nocebo (also false) diagnosis can make us feel bad. Nocebos can originate from several sources, such as:

• Misdiagnoses from doctors, e.g., spine issues such as herniated disks and sciatica
• Chiropractors and alternative treatment practitioners who scare us into paying for long-term treatment packages by claiming we have problems with our back, muscles, spine, neck, etc.
• Obsessively researching symptoms online and convincing ourselves we have rare, serious diseases

When we believe in these false diagnoses, the belief that “we are broken” permeates every aspect of our daily lives. This acts as a continuous "nocebo" effect which follows our every thought and dictates our actions, so of course we feel BAD, all the time! We then become hypochondriacs, constantly obsessing over our health and chronic illness.

With this realization, I finally understood why belief in TMS is essential for healing. We are not believing in a magical cure or following a cult leader named Sarno. A big part of healing comes from undoing the false beliefs (nocebos) that keep us stuck in a cycle of fear and worry. This is why simply reading a book or acquiring knowledge about TMS can be healing: we are replacing false and harmful beliefs (nocebos) with the correct diagnosis and true understanding of what’s really going on. Then, we can finally relax and begin to heal, after accepting that our bodies are fine.

I think it’s also important to note that there’s a difference between truly believing in TMS and merely thinking “I believe in TMS” in the hope of a quick cure. That’s not real belief, and you know it because real belief can be sensed from somewhere much deeper than the intellectual mind. If you’re not there yet, a simple exercise is to list any doubts you have about TMS and work on eliminating them one by one. You’ll know when your belief is 100%, because by then, you’ll likely already be healed!

 

The best understanding one can do is by understanding that your body cannot "heal" if you are in active fight or flight which anyone that has dealt with TMS has been stuck in.

Your body needs to be in the rest and digest response, and you can only do that by being calm with your thoughts, beliefs and emotions. Once i understood this is when i began my healing journey, whilst i still have someway to go the difference between 8 months ago to now is phenomenal and i know its just a matter of time.

 

I have had many symptoms just by HEARING someone talk about them!! I am That sensitive.
The day of the 'incident' that started my voyage in the back pain industry, some of the older guys told me to 'watch out or your going to hurt your back'... I walked away from them and BLAM, My butt spasmed!
Now, when people start going on and on about their condition, or warning me, I use that 'Charlie Brown Cartoon adult voice' in my head to block it out

"Wah wah wah whah wah wah wah wahah a wah"

The current little annoyance I am battling started the day my Doctor gave me a scary diagnosis on my OTHER hand!
I actually told him as much last week when I spoke to him "Dude....you scared the crap out of me!"

also, yesterday when I was just doing the 'personal battle' stuff of TMS, It occurred to me that a very strong image was printed in my brain when I was young and still watched TV. In ads for OTC pain killers and creams and stuff they always showed an OLD person flinching in Pain (and then magically feeling better after using their product)
One of the rage makers I am coming very aware of is being OLD. Alone. USELESS. A Burden on society. My worst fears.

But all of the Nocebo's from the advertising world need to be rooted out and laughed at, and a lot of times we don't realize how much traction they got in our unconscious. The Ego doesn't like it, but it is true.

 

Great post! You are so right about this. So many people want something outside themselves to heal them and they want it fast. With TMS you do the work (a lot of work!) to heal. But it’s the real diagnosis and the real cure.

It took me months of daily reading of Sarno and other books and visiting this wiki to believe I have TMS.
I also took the Dan Buglio test and the PPDA self assessment to discover if I had TMS. (I passed with flying colors). Another good thing I did was make a list of inconsistencies in my TMS to refute any thoughts I had of medical fears. If you think hard enough, there’s a lot of them.

 

@Fal
So positive and filled with hope! I love this! I feel the same way.

 

This is SO hard for our age group! I think it’s key to start realizing there are countless ways to be useful beyond what you’ve done to earn a living up until now. You can never be useless! As long as you share your heart with others, you will never be alone.

 

Speaking of nocebo, there is an epidemic of Tourette's Syndrome going on right now, caused by viral TikTok videos. Teenage girls are the most affected due to being the most impressionable:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9733629/ (TikTok Tourette’s: Are We Witnessing a Rise in Functional Tic-Like Behavior Driven by Adolescent Social Media Use? - PMC)

 

gosh, me too. it's pretty frustrating. and i know what you mean about advertising. there are so many pharmaceutical commercials on these days and everyone of them (except the covid vaccines strangely enough) have these long list of awful side effects. and i'm thinking 'wow i sure don't want to have to take that medication!'

 

A psychologist who worked at the pain clinic I was sent to, told me about this. He gave an example of shingles in the normal population. There might be 20 cases for every 10,000 people, but a shingles specialist will move into a small town with a population of 20,000 and then miraculously have a couple hundred cases. Just like “dancing illness“ many things catch on simply because they become real for a small exposed group. Back pain was extraordinarily fashionable in the 90s. Then came RSI. Now I see people posting acronyms that I don’t even know what they are. But the point is we are all very impressionable, though our ego doesn’t think so. Unfortunately, the truth about TMS has to get past the bouncer at the door, and that bouncer is our slavery to reason and logic, and thinking we are clear thinkers.

 

My rule of thumb is that the more words are in the diagnosis, the more likely it is TMS.

 

Scary!

 

Yup I can relate, I had many new symptoms flare up or intensify as I was googling them and reading about rare chronic diseases.

It's crazy what the mind can do and unfortunate that we live in a world where there's so much fear-based advertising and messaging...kids are especially vulnerable, TMS should really be taught in schools