Moatasem’s Thank You

Thank you Dr. Sarno.

Unlike many of the contributors to this project, I have had lower back pain for less than ten days. Your book, Healing Back Pain, has transformed those ten days into a blessing, because it helped explain to me not just my back pain but so many other problems I have been having all my life. It has also revealed to me a very strange side of my mind.

I have heard about your book before I had any back pain. So I never read it. I was told about it by my spiritual guide and teacher, in a casual discussion. He said anybody who has back pain should read that book, explained a little about your argument, and told me one should be cured by the time one finishes reading the book.

Then, two months later, I was suddenly suffering a terrible pain in my lower back. I was sure: A Disk. Because of so many hours driving my car. I don’t want to go to a doctor.

Then, I remembered the book and found it on Kindle. And downloaded it in ten minutes. Now I know my story may not be typical because of two things: First it was my teacher who told me about it, so I was already convinced with the argument before I have started. Second, I have already read Feeling Good by Dr. David Burns, also recommended to me by my teacher, and was aware of how cognitive therapy works and convinced of it.

Then I started reading. Half way through the detailed description, I stopped. I told myself, I don’t need convincing, or understanding, I got the point and I am totally game, and skipped to the chapter about treatment. As I started reading that chapter, my pain was already going away. But it is what happened after and is still happening that is amazing, and in a sense creepy.

First, I started talking to my brain and exploring my feelings. Luckily I am very close to a lot of negative feelings and resentments. As I did, the pain in my back started going away. Next day, I decided to start driving again. The pain would come, I would think about by negative emotions, and talk to myself, and it goes.

Then, the following day I was driving. Back pain. Talked to myself. Pain went away. But then, I started having a headache, and stiffness in the shoulder muscles, the usual symptoms I get when driving. At that moment it dawned on me that this is also TMS. I immediately started talking to my brain again, and both went away.

During the last three days, this has happened so often. The pain and stiffness rotates very rapidly and with immediate response to my train of thoughts. Last night, I was feeling pain in my back, talked to myself, pain went away, but then, I was kneeling and my knee cracked and I felt a soaring pain. For a second I was taken aback. Something has snapped in my knee. Then, I realized what was going on. The crack has nothing to do with the pain. I focused on some negative feelings, and talked to my brain, and I got up walking pain free. Same, with heartburn. I don’t usually have heartburns. But since I started the exercise, the brain seems to be trying to find an outlet for the deception.

This is not the end of my story. I don’t know how it is going to end. But certainly it is a startling start for a self-discovery journey, and hopefully for a pain free life. Thanks to you, Dr. Sarno.

Moatasem al-G, Cairo, Egypt, 2/5/2017