Now that I view things through the lens of the 'mindbody' connection, I can see the futility of our current health care approach. For example, have you noticed the new ad for a drug to manage Fibromyalgia? Like 'Restless Leg Syndrome' (RLS) we have a condition that is of 'unknown' origin and cause where all of the research focuses on how to alleviate the symptoms. And as with most drugs, there is the heavy price of 'side effects'. One of the side effects for the RLS drug is 'having thoughts of gambling'. Jon Stewart on 'The Daily Show' joked that maybe it would be better to have a drug that cures gambling with the side effect of restless legs!
The medical establishment (and our general culture) is so biased away from any consideration of mind-body connection. And when people do talk about the possibility of a mind-body connection, they tend to 'simplify' it to mean 'mind over matter' or the idea that you can 'think' or 'rationalize' your way out of an illness. It is not quite that simple.
Sarno's treatment for these conditions is education. According to him, knowledge of how the mindbody interacts to create these symptoms is the cure. But as I have said before, it is not quite that simple. It is not enough to 'know' intellectually. You have to really accept his premise. For me, this took about 6 weeks or so for it to become so engrained that I no longer 'defaulted' to the 'old' way of thinking. And one of the things I continue to guard against is the temptation to obsess about my physical conditions. When I start to pay attention to my voice quality, I ask myself 'What would I be doing right now if I wasn't concerned about my voice?' And then I go do that!
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