Thread by @TheStoryOfPain

I'm not a journalist. I am a filmmaker. For the past 20 years I have focused attention on the work of Dr John Sarno. In that time I have seen a shift in awareness concerning the import of our emotional response/reactions to the world in regards to our physical health.

I was looking into these issues as a filmmaker, but also as a patient of Dr Sarno, whose family has a long history with his work. I was not an "impartial observer". I was an observer who had a personal investment in understanding how our emotions affect our health.

My mother was a pioneer in the field of social work in regards to dealing with groups. As a woman in a male dominated field she faced significant obstacles but became the first female tenured professor in her school. When I was in Jr High she had breast cancer.

I remember her telling me that she got it because her boss was terrible. Before that my father, who was a psychology prof, almost died from an ulcer (understood to be related to stress) when I was in the second grade. After he recovered he got "whiplash" from a fender bender

After years of suffering he was given Dr Sarno's book that explained that most back and neck pain was related to the repression of emotions rather than a physical issue. He understood this immediately and quickly recovered. A decade later my twin brother was saved by Sarno too

He had RSI and was told he had to have surgery to carve away his collar bone to free his nerve. My father insisted he go see Sarno and he had a miraculous recovery. In short, throughout my life I was made aware of the connection between the repression of our emotions and health

I read the book and banished my own recurrent pain for a decade. When it came back and I was slammed to the floor and got a terrible looking MRI- I went to see him and slowly recovered. I also started to make a film. At the time, his books were popular but he was ostracized.

As I looked into it I found that the whole medical industry seemingly ignored emotional factors in terms of both cause and cure of illness. This resistance was almost fanatical. I also found that people got enraged if I suggested that Dr Sarno's ideas might help them

This resistance meant there was no way to fund a documentary about him, or for us to figure out how to make it. When I had a pain relapse 7 years later I realized that I had to be in the film because we needed someone to follow. I also found a slight shift in awareness.

I found "When the Body Says No" by @DrGaborMate which made the connection between emotional repression and auto immune disease and "They Can't Find Anything Wrong" by Dr David Clarke, which made the same discovery in regards to gut issues. Still, the system dismissed them

As we made our film we made it much more about the social and cultural issues that drive the problem, as well as the connection between Dr Sarno's back pain focus and Dr Clarke and Dr Mate. We also found the ACE study which made it clear that untreated trauma drives illness

Still, emotions are difficult to study with Randomized control trials, so scientific proof of the connection made it hard to argue this point forcefully. Essentially, Dr Sarno was trauma aware before that was a term. We finished our film 4 years ago. Since then Trauma Awareness

has become more widely accepted. @DrGaborMate is currently screening his film The Wisdom of Trauma thewisdomoftrauma.com and he will have several people who followed in dr Sarno's footsteps as panelists after the film. It's important to connect the different fields of study

Last week two major studies supporting Dr Sarno's work came out. One in JAMA led by @YoniAshar that has been in the 99th percentile of interest for a week jamanetwork.com/journals/jamap… - and another in PAIN by @mdonnino that adds validity to the connection journals.lww.com/painrpts/Fullt…

Yesterday an article came out in the @nytimes that states that depression and anxiety can not only exacerbate illness but also be a cause of it. For the last decade I have read the phrase "stress can exacerbate XXX but does not cause it." #gamechanger nytimes.com/2021/10/04/wel…

As @DrGaborMate points out, we are in the midst of a trauma awareness revolution. We are witnessing this in the last week. Our film about Dr Sarno (that is also very personal) makes the case for this awareness. It can be found at alltheragedoc.com Here's a trailer

Lastly, none of this means that Pain, or other illness, is "all in your head". It may sound like that, but instead it is meant to bring awareness to the fact that our perspective shapes our awareness and our body's reaction to perceived threats.

When we are hyper aware of threats we unconsciously flood our body with stress hormones. Eventually those hormones lead the body to attach itself. Coming to understand this allows us to address the traumas that drive this behavior making it possible to respond. #traumaawareness

sometimes those "threats" are emotions that we have learned are too terrifying to experience. Dr Sarno believed that this was due to childhood trauma of not having our basic needs met. Becoming aware of this and making space to feel those emotions is healing.

cc @sirpauk @jposhaughnessy @DrStracks @JohnStossel @HSchubiner @HowardStern @peteyorn @torwager @JamieWebb9Steps @pain_md_la @AlansWayOut @ISTDP @NikkiGlaser @billscheft @SarahKSilverman @HilaryJHendel @cjramin @dnowoweiski @DrDavidHanscom @drdanratner @VinnieTortorich

@sirpauk @jposhaughnessy @DrStracks @JohnStossel @HSchubiner @HowardStern @peteyorn @torwager @JamieWebb9Steps @pain_md_la @AlansWayOut @ISTDP @NikkiGlaser @billscheft @SarahKSilverman @HilaryJHendel @cjramin @dnowoweiski @DrDavidHanscom @drdanratner @VinnieTortorich If you want to know more about these concepts you can check out the upcoming PPDA conference - it is for both professionals and others who want to understand more. ppdassociation.org/conference - you can also check out The Wisdom of Trauma - a film that focuses on the work of Dr Mate

@This_Might_Hurt focuses on the work of Dr Howard Schubiner, one of the authors of the JAMA study, as well as a participant in All The Rage, the upcoming Conference, and the panel after The Wisdom of Trauma. thismighthurtfilm.com