A link between TMS and hyperawareness OCD?

In short, yes. there have been multiple forum discussions in the past which consider OCD, from mild to extreme, to be a form of TMS, or what Dr. Sarno termed "a TMS equivalent" along with anxiety and depression. Although when it comes to anxiety, we've also had many chicken vs. egg discussions, but I won't digress.

TL;DR: - I did not link through to any of those articles, because for what we try to accomplish here, I feel like you're overthinking it. Which, let's be fair, is kind of an OCD thing, right?

On this forum we reject any arguments that consider genetics or biology to be a factor in chronic pain, with ONE exception, which applies to ALL humans, which is that the TMS brain mechanism exists in all humans.

The TMS mechanism evolved eons ago as a survival mechanism which worked well for most of those eons, because the world was still very primitive for most of that time. The problem is that the TMS mechanism does not work at all well in today's modern world. And don't forget, even if we define "modern" as going back to the advent of what we now call "ancient civilizations" which, one might argue, brought about the initial stresses of having to conform to increasingly complex rules, and to learn increasingly complex technologies, and to deal with the fact that humans congregating together in large numbers invariably ruin the environment they are in.... even if we go back, say, 6 or even 8 thousand years ago, this is still a microscopic blip on the timeline of the development of homo sapiens. Bottom line: biologically, or physiologically and neuroscientifically, we are still dealing with an ancient brain mechanism that still thinks we live in a physically dangerous wilderness. This essential disconnect underpins the conditions that we describe as TMS. Today's TMS is simply our ancient survival mechanism gone haywire.

Therefore - trying to apply "biology" as a distinction between individuals regarding chronic pain is not relevant.

Genetics is also irrelevant when it comes to the brain's use of chronic pain or other chronic symptoms as a fear-based survival mechanism. (I refer you to Nicole Sach's personal story about her genetic condition- just do a web search on "nicole sachs spondylolisthesis"). What we DO see for sure is that the personality characteristics of perfectionism, goodism, self-judgement, and anxiety can all be "inherited" from our families. Generational trauma is recent terminology, but the first time I saw it explained in professional terms, it made total sense to me from our TMS point of view. Social justice has an enormous component of generational trauma which demands recognition and mitigation, but oops - that's another digression.

Okay, so I get this, and intellectually I agree with your premise. I also see that intellectually you completely understand the mechanism and how it works. The missing element is any sign of understanding that the way out is to give in to emotional vulnerability. And here is where it gets tough.

I've been doing this for 13 years, and the most emotionally resistant folks I've met are the ones with significant OCD. Intellectual understanding just ain't gonna do it. But emotional vulnerability is a completely alien concept to someone who is suffering from a past experience of severe trauma, especially if that trauma was laid down in childhood. Tragically, the severely traumatized brain is highly skilled at deflecting emotional vulnerability, which is why psychotherapy ends up being an exercise in frustration for both the patient and the therapist.

I believe it can be done, but the magic bullet to initialize the essential emotional breakthrough is as yet unknown. It seems that recent research into therapeutically supervised microdose psychedelics is is an attempt to find this breakthrough. And when I say "breakthrough" I refer only to the initial breaking down of the old walls. I firmly believe that intensive emotionally-based therapy MUST follow.

Mind you, like the vast majority of individuals participating on this forum, I have no professional certification for stating my beliefs. Just a dozen years of observations and participation and constant non-professional study on the topic.