If you’ve done any serious digging into the field of chronic pain, you’ve probably run across Dr. John Sarno. Dr. Sarno, who died at the age of 93 in 2013, was a Surgeon and Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine who linked chronic back pain to repressed emotions. He helped heal many cases of chronic pain that could not be cured with surgery or painkillers, by getting his patients to become aware of repressed emotions and working through them.
A lot like Ignaz Semmelweis
Although Dr. Sarno inspired a whole new way of thinking about chronic pain, he also spawned an army of detractors, doctors and patients who criticized him for faulty logic and claimed that he “blamed the victim.” One could be reminded of another doctor 175 years ago, Ignaz Semmelweis, who claimed that if surgeons washed their hands, they could greatly reduce the number of mothers who died in the obstetrics ward. The medical community demonized him for faulty logic and blaming doctors, even though his methods showed spectacular results. Semmelweis had some theories about why washing hands was so effective, stating that decaying animal organic matter was the cause of infection in the new mothers. Bacteria had not yet been discovered and Semmelweis could not say why decaying animal matter caused infections.
How did the methods work?
Sarno, like Semmelweis, was not able to prove the exact reasons why what he was doing worked. Both doctors came up with plausible explanations that were at least partially correct, but unproven. The medical community attacked both doctors, Semmelweis and Sarno for similar reasons. The first reason was that they could not prove the connection between the cause and effect. The second reason, and probably the more important, was that doctors felt that they personally were being attacked as if their way of doing things was wrong. Unfortunately, neither doctor was a public relations expert, and their proven methods took a long time to be accepted by the medical community.
Sarno’s Migraines
As a young man, Dr. Sarno frequently suffered from migraine headaches. During the course of treating patients for back pain and other chronic conditions, he developed his theory that something more than simply physical problems caused the pain. Doctors could not link many pains to a particular tissue injury or the injury was on the wrong side of the body for the pain. Sarno also discovered that many people with spinal deformities like slipped discs had no pain whatsoever. What people with chronic pain had in common were deep, repressed emotions, often about things that had happened a long time ago, and about which they were no longer aware. Dr. Sarno wondered if this might be the case for migraine too, since he suffered so much from them.
In his book, “The Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain” he wrote “for a number of years I had experienced regular migraine headaches, complete with typical visual “lights” prior to the onset of headache. Someone suggested that repressed anger might be the basis for them. The next time I had the “lights”—harbinger of a headache—I sat down and tried to think of what anger I might be repressing. I failed to find an answer, but for the first time in my life I didn’t get a headache. It was powerful evidence that migraine headache was caused by emotional phenomena.”
Try it for yourself
This simple method worked for the great Dr. John Sarno. Why not try it for yourself? The next time you feel the signs of an approaching migraine, even before the lights or any other aura, try to think if you are might be angry about something. It won’t be obvious, maybe the way your mother favored your younger sister, or how you were overlooked for a promotion. Like for John Sarno, you may not have to find it, just look for it.
If anyone tries this and has success, I would love to hear from you. How crazy would it be if the solution were that easy?
Learn more about treatment for migraine.