Been a while

@CalmIsTheCure
You are spinning the wheels of your mind.
This is all anxiety.
It's not necessary to understand all the psychology.
It's not necessary to dissect every element. It is almost like at times, the mind is trying to convince itself that this can't be TMS by making you think you are proving all this stuff to it. I know, I was there.
This is all anxiety.
You have to let the why's go.
You have to let "how does this work" go.
It's a form of faith that you are on the right path, and that you simply can't or won't know everything. Your brain isn't even accepting that it already knows (and it does!)
Sarno doesn't specifically talk only about repressed emotions, but also about subconscious emotions. Two different things. The SEP takes you though the work to begin discovering what might be going on underneath the layers of things you have some awareness about, or things you experienced.

Give yourself some grace and patience if this is hard. I spent a year spinning my wheels. It is such a learned behavior, and then on top of it the stress of trying thinking you have to "figure this out". The people who heal faster tend to be those who don't fall into the habit of worrying so much about the "figuring it out" part for whatever reason. They can just trust the process immediately and work through it. Others of us struggle with that. But having grace and patience for myself and how my mind was dealing with the process helped me move forward.

 

That’s a really big question! One thing is your subconscious brain is much much bigger than your conscious brain. It learns way slower. And we don’t totally understand it— How it works and what it does. Nothing is that simple when it comes to TMS. Your subconscious brain does not want to turn it off even if it learns that it is TMS. It’s kind of like a battle. And the battle is a different length for everybody. And what you use to win the battle is different for everybody. Then there’s also anxiety and fear that has to be tackled. It’s just a lot of things.

 

Sometimes it does shut off for people. Some folks have what's called a "book cure." That's pretty rare though.

Most of us have to work our buns off and it's the same reason that a dog might still hide in a corner when someone comes in the front door even after it's been in a loving home for a long time. Dogs don't have "worries" like we do. They don't ruminate. Their nervous systems just react to stimuli that was once deemed dangerous even if it was years ago. We are mammals and no different than other mammals in this respect.

Our bodies keep the score because it is critical for our survival as a species to react quickly and without thought sometimes. One time I was walking the woods and without knowing why I just leapt away from the path and onto a log. It was like my body just took over. My heart pounding, I looked down and saw a huge cottonmouth curled up on the path in threat stance, his white mouth wide open to warn me. If I had used my higher brain, it would have taken FOREVER and I would have stepped right on that snake.

My theory is that their theories produce the same result, which is that you are sending a message of safety to your brain when you tell it "this is TMS, not my body in danger (AKA not a cottonmouth)." Which means your frontal lobe, responsible for reasoning and higher thought, can take over from your panicked primitive brain which is saying "DANGER DANGER DANGER", which can then start sending blood and oxygen to your muscles and nerves, instead of vital organs like your heart.

Sarno and Gordon both believe that understanding your emotions are key to recovery. Sarno just believed those emotions HAD to be buried and uncovered, whereas Gordon believes that it's not as important to uncover all of your emotions, but to send messages of safety to your brain by becoming indifferent to those pain signals, and instead focusing on neutral or nice sensations.

I tend toward Gordon because his theories are a little more current in our understanding of conditioning. Plus, I'm biased against Freud somewhat, which needlessly hinders my recovery. Ring bell. Dog slobbers even without presence of food. Likewise, We see a room where we've been in pain before and our brain says "get ready!"

But really, the long and short of it is what @Cactusflower said already. You're in a spiral. That's ok, but know you can swim out. You aren't trapped. You can and will feel better. All these feeling are temporary. You are safe. You can feel better because you are in control here. You got this.

P.S. Breathwork works because it is telling your body that it's safe, which allows your brain to come in with reason and logic. It's not an instant fix, but it's great tool to cultivate.