Healing Back Pain (Reissue Edition): The Mind-Body Connection

I have thought long and hard about writing this review as I know how it feels to spend hours trawling through the internet searching for a cure for crippling pain, and knowing how much information is out there, I have hesitated to add to it. But my sincere wish is that this post will give someone else the courage and confidence to take a chance with this book.My story: I, like many people, have suffered with back problems all my life - I'm now 43 - and had accepted that frequent bouts of pain, my back 'going' and regular trips to a much trusted and respected osteopath were just part of life. And that was fine. Until I had a really bad and prolonged bout of pain that started in Autumn 2013. I'd had 'disc issues' in the past but my pain had ALWAYS been on the left side. One morning I woke up with real soreness in my right lower back. Slightly perplexed but not unduly alarmed I went to see my osteo as usual and expected everything to be fixed in a week or two. However, It didn't get better - in fact it got progressively worse. I started to worry that it would turn into the sort of pain that I had experienced a couple of years earlier. I was told then by my osteopath that I had injured a disc. The pain at the time was excruciating, but after treatments and several weeks of rest it did get better. Well this time my pain got worse and seemed to be evolving. It had started in the back but three months later was moving to my leg and becoming far more intense. Standing and walking became very difficult, making my long commute to work on the tube a nightmare. Losing faith in my osteopath I saw other physiotherapists and tried acupuncture - all to no effect, other than to be told repeatedly that my back 'was a mess' and I could expect pain on and off all my life.Finally in desperation I went to my GP who ordered an MRI. This showed various bulges and degeneration but most worryingly, an extruded disc (where the inner material has leaked out) and this was pressing on a nerve. My GP explained all this with patience and told me that if conventional treatment didn't work, I would have to consider injections or, down the road, surgery.The pain got even worse.Then, one day I stumbled across an article about the comedian Howard Stern and his battle against pain. He seemed to have found a miracle cure in the shape of a treatment by Dr John Sarno. By this time, I was endlessly searching the internet and becoming an expert on all things disc related. Thinking more information could only be good I bought the book.I read it within 48 hours - it was the Easter holiday and I was spending most of my time horizontal anyway. After the initial excitement that I might be one of the blessed ones who start to feel the pain evaporate as they read, I had to confess that although I liked the idea, and wanted it to be true, my pain was still there. Also I had an MRI, a GP and a host of other back pain specialists telling me it was a physical problem.To cut a long story short, I suffered on for another few months, until one day I just suddenly decided that I would suspend my disbelief and - as wholeheartedly as I could manage - do some of the exercises recommended by Sarno. I even wrote the date down in my diary 'first day of TMS'. I didn't by this stage hold out much hope, but I was willing finally to give it a go.So I started writing in a journal and doing the daily reminders. I also saw a therapist to talk about emotional stuff but completely abandoned all back treatments and exercises. Within a week I was 75% better. A few weeks later I was pretty much back to normal - although I was still taking paracetamol regularly - but now at least it made a difference to the pain. A few months later and the pain was basically non-existent and any residual pain would vanish if I simply ignored it.So it did work for me. It wasn't immediate and it took a lot of soul searching to really commit to the idea. But once I did, it worked.Now I read a lot of reviews that say this approach may work for 'unexplained' pain (i.e. you don't have a real, physical problem.) But I had the worst form of slipped disc and I got better pretty damn fast once I got my head around the concept that a slipped disc might not be causing the kind of pain I was in.I have a great deal of respect for those who have tried this book and not found it to be useful, but I do believe that the premise of the book is correct and that, once you have been cleared of any disease or immune disorder etc.. the cause of ongoing and chronic pain is emotional, not physical. So my advice, in a nutshell, would be: Go to a professional and get an opinion, an MRI if necessary, if there is any lingering concern that the pain is caused by disease. Then, once you have the all clear for anything truly serious, buy this book and read it. Not once but many times. Let it sink in. Then practise the exercises and daily reminders religiously. Don't give up after a few days if things aren't improving. Work at it.I cannot guarantee I will never have back pain again, but I'm pretty sure I now know what lies behind it. Like many thousands of other people I am incredibly grateful to John Sarno for this .I wish you luck.

I had a few conversations lately about this book, and thought I'd come back to read my first review from ten years ago, which I've pasted below. I'm glad to say it still stands.I have had a couple of times when this pain has resurfaced, and I've read the book again and it's cleared up again, both times. One of those times was after moving house last year, when the pain came back fairly strongly. I listened to the audiobook whilst hobbling around the house doing bit and bobs and it was sorted within a couple of days, and I haven't thought about it since, other then when in conversation with people about their own back pain.The book is repetitive, and reads/sounds like it's been written by a somewhat hokey 1950s back pain evangelist, but I've come to like that. The main thing is: it works.Buy the book, read it, take it seriously and lightly, hand yourself over to the process, and hopefully you'll enjoy freedom from back issues.Below is my review from 10 years ago. (I don't have any treatments like acupuncture, mentioned below, any more.). . .A friend of mine recently sent me this book after having totally dealt with his severe back pain (supposedly due to a herniated disc, seen on the MRI scan as a huge thing flopping about from his spine) in a matter of days, with no subsequent relapses despite a lifestyle involving pretty full-on physical activities.I had one of the most intensely painful and all-consuming relapses of my 20 year long chronic back pain on Saturday - I couldn't stand or walk - and read this book over two days. It's now Tuesday and after a significant recovery yesterday after finishing the book I'm now at about 95% back to normal and have just spent the morning clearing my flat out of clutter and generally sorting stuff out round the house ahead of getting back to work. (It should be noted that I also had a short acupuncture session to help things along yesterday and feel that this probably accounted for about 20% of my recovery. I've also taken up yoga for the last 6 months which I think helps with recovery (but was also the cause of this episode).I've never recovered from this level of pain before in less than 10 days - usually 20 - and I generally have a couple of weeks of tightness and 'danger' afterwards.The book works. It's simple, makes sense, Dr Sarno is straight-talking and his results with thousands of former patients speak for themselves. Healing this level of physical discomfort and disability through simply reading and changing my thought seems completely mental, but it works.I notice that 90% of people on here say the same thing, and I'm happy to say I'm one of them.Sounds too good to be true, but after the literally thousands of pounds I've spent over the years trying to get this sorted out, I feel like I might just have spent the best £7 of my life.Will be back to comment on ongoing results with time.

Halfway through the book and it's already taught me so much about pain and mind-body connection so much however the book arrived very small making it somewhat difficult to read especially the pages on the left