A friend recommended this to me many years ago. Somewhere in this house there is an actual paper copy. Suddenly about a week ago it occurred to me that the choir concert is coming up in just a couple of weeks - and I can't stand for much as five minutes without that deep pain in my back on the right side just below my waist. Sunday mornings with the doxology followed by a hymn followed by the choir special were a case in point. I can't afford a chiropractor, and one worth the money wouldn't guarantee to "fix" me in two weeks. Sufficient pain-killers to do the job would leave me in a stupor. So I decided to read the book - EC told me that she had not had back trouble since reading it.
The premise is that back pain is generally caused by repressed motion, particularly anger and can be cured by recognizing that.
Dr. Sarno is very gentle with his colleagues. He discusses institutionalized blindness, and a long history of traditional medicine. He even alludes to the risks incumbent upon challenging conventional wisdom.
He does not point out that palliative care is forever. If an individual is cured of a long-standing complaint, he goes away - and takes his money with him. He does hint that pharmaceutical companies have a vested interest in extended drug treatments, but never suggests that members of the medical profession could share that view of treatment.
He also forbears to point out that many patients are unwilling to take any responsibility for their treatment beyond taking a pill. There is a
pervasive believe in the "magic bullet" - the drug that will fix everything. There is also the Munchausen contingent of the population which craves ever more expensive and exotic treatments for the sympathy which is lavished upon them. These patients do not want a simple, inexpensive, total cure.
As for me, I wish I had read it when she told me about it. Maybe I could have spent the last ten or fifteen years without the pain. I made a joke of it to Anne and told her that I was going to fix my back by the "think system" as in Music Man. It does sound like it. But it has been said, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." And the truth is that there is nothing really wrong with my back - if there were, I would have had worse problems years ago. Early episodes of back pain many years ago can all be associated with visits from my husband's parents. It doesn't take a lot of insight to realize that I have been repressing a lot of anger for the last ten years at least. The beauty of this is that you don't have to "cure" the anger - you just have to recognize the fact that it exists and that your brain has hidden it by giving you some pain to worry about. I don't know that I can think myself well by the concert - but I really do think it can be done. Last Thursday, I wandered all over campus without any problems at all, until I headed over to the police station to get a parking sticker, knowing all the while that my driver's license is expired - has been for two years. I hobbled in and they gave me a parking sticker without even asking to see my license. -- And I walked back to my office without a twinge in my back.
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