No More Back Pain: My Life-Changing Experience

My name is Eric Weinberg and I'm a 40 year old dad and husband who had suffered for many years with severe back pain and spasms.

A few months ago my online searching led me to work with one of the TMS doctors on this website, Dr. Laurel Steinberg, to address my struggles with Tension Myoneural Syndrome (TMS). I had worked with Dr. Laurel on a family-related topic years prior to learning about Dr. Sarno and and her expertise on TMS (we are from the same home town), so I knew she would be patient and insightful—and once again, she has exceeded my every expectation.

This time around, I came to her with all sorts of theories about the root cause of my pain—tight hamstrings, uneven legs, even structural imbalances various practitioners had mentioned. Laurel explained that my theories themselves were symptoms of TMS, designed to distract me from the true emotional causes of my pain. She encouraged me to give my theories, clearly getting me nowhere good, a break and to fully buy into Dr. Sarno’s method, which was a liberating turning point for me.

She encouraged me to study Dr. Sarno’s work, to watch the movie, to learn the teachings of Dr. Phil Stutz and Dr. Albert Ellis, and also taught me how to skillfully apply the techniques to my specific anxieties and experiences. I quickly came to realize that TMS was acting as a mechanism to distract me from the natural worries and stressors of life. Her ability to connect the dots between my emotional patterns and physical symptoms has been truly transformative.

Through our sessions, I learned to refine Sarno’s teachings to fit my daily life and to pinpoint the specific triggers that would flare up my TMS and back pain. Her constant reassurance that my "back is fine” helped me shift my mindset, letting go of fear and embracing the idea that my pain was rooted in emotions, not physical abnormalities. Well, now my back is totally fine and has been for a really long time!

The beauty of this approach is that it combines compassion and clinician expertise that supported and empowered me while I incorporated my new mindset and skills int daily life. Being reminded that the human condition naturally involves worries was instrumental in helping me accept and manage these emotions without allowing them to manifest as pain.

I’ve experienced life-changing improvement—no more severe back spasms, just a very occasional minor twinge that I can now laugh at and manage effortlessly using the skills I've mastered. I cannot recommend the Sarno method and Dr. Laurel enough to anyone dealing with chronic pain or mind-body challenges. She has been a game-changer in my journey toward healing and self-awareness. I just wish I had learned all of this sooner...

I live a very physically active lifestyle and Sarno's methods have helped me continue to train and perform uninterrupted. A recent example was moments before a jiu jitsu competition. My back twinged, and felt like it was about to spasm up. I took Sarno's and Dr. Laurel's methods to walk me back from disaster. Of course in a high stress situation, where I am about to enter the mat to physically fight another person who is trying to submit me, that TMS pops up to distract me from my nervous thoughts. But on that day, in that moment, I knew it was TMS rearing it's head, that nothing was wrong with my back, that the twinge was to distract me or to make me quit the tournament to rid the body of the anxiety before I started. But I used Sarno's method, and even laughed it off as this being such an obvious time TMS would come knocking on my door. The twinge didn't worsen and soon dissipated and I was successful in placing third in the tournament.

Attached is a pic of when I took red ink to my TMS induced "back protocol."

 

What an amazing success story, thank you for sharing!

I'm a patient of Dr. Steinberg as well, you can read my story here. She is wonderful and literally changed my life in the most amazing ways!

PS, love the photo!