Reddit reviews The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders

Most of us are here because we have trusted our intuitions and value "connecting the dots" above receiving credentials.

In case you haven't noticed the credentials that TRP holds are squat. I'm sure all of us would love to have our posts headlining nightly NBC, but instead we are "banished" here on reddit.

Odds are that a degree in Psychology will leave worse you off then where you began. Modern psychology in deeply entrenched in the BP brainwashing engine. You are better off studying the Humanities or the Classics if you want to learn about the human condition.

Psychology has fallen. Comparing today's pop psychology nonsense to Freud and Jung is like comparing the Founding Fathers to today's so-called "statesmen".

Not exactly related to the post, but I highly recommend you read this. A great book on an important issue and it's where I learned much about the unconscious.

https://www.amazon.com/Divided-Mind-Epidemic-Mindbody-Disorders/dp/0061174300

I'm a Mind-Body Life Coach and I highly recommend Dr. Sarno's "The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders".

I passed on the recommended jaw surgery myself, and keep my jaw functioning better with bodywork. I don't even need to wear an orthotic anymore. You'd be surprised just how much of a problem tight muscles can be. Everything we do is forward: keyboards, steering wheels, etc. Stretching backwards on my balance ball is one of my favorite things to do because it just feels so good.

If you can afford to go to a massage therapist that specializes in ortho-bionomy, you should definitely do that. I would like to be able to see mine more often.

https://ortho-bionomy.org/

The Divided Mind by Dr. John Sarno is worth reading. It's largely focused on chronic pain, but he has mentioned that his theory applies to allergies, digestive issues, etc as well.

There is plenty of research looking at the connection between inflammation, stress, and depression. The field of Psychoneuroimmunology overall, and it's research is worth reading up on.

Research on the microbiome/gut health, and it's connection with inflammation, depression/psychological health, immune function, etc. also seems to be part of the puzzle.

Research on social status and health is also interesting.

At this point, the research isn't solid, but there are some dots to be connected in some manner.

I've had a ton of panic attacks and am diagnosed with GAD (General Anxiety Disorder). Glad KL came out and talked about it, as it will encourage others to seek help. You're not crazy, its OK to seek help.

As an aside, I read a book that helped me a lot to conquer my mind, which was the cause of basically every ailment I suffered for almost 10 years. You don't beat this in a week or a month, it takes time, but you start somewhere. Seek the books by Dr. John Sarno.

https://www.amazon.com/Divided-Mind-Epidemic-Mindbody-Disorders/dp/0061174300/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1520380451&sr=8-3&keywords=sarno

It may be worthwhile looking into the work of Dr. John Sarno.

Had back, neck, sciatica pain for 15 years.

Done deal!

https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Back-Pain-Mind-Body-Connection/dp/0446392308/

https://www.amazon.com/Divided-Mind-Epidemic-Mindbody-Disorders/dp/0061174300/


Haven’t had a single issue since (10 yrs)

Anger isn't easily let go. Many people suffering from child abuse have permanently altered limbic systems. The anger thus, is always there. You can take care of it however. Rather like a special needs child. (And not simply let it take over you.)

I recommend a book called The Divided Mind by a child abuse survivor and M.D.

The limbic system tends to take over when the frontal lobe undergoes trauma. This is why patients with dementia or Alzheimers often become more and more grouchy as the illness progresses. (I'm a caregiver and I can testify to this.)

I hadn't connected this until recently to my own trauma however.

Up until about 7 years old the childs brain is extremely fragile and sensitive to trauma.

Emotional regulation is developing the most at this time. If a child is traumatized, they are permanently changed as beings.

I'm just telling you this because I think your statement is misleading. I would correct it and say "you have to learn how to manage the symptoms of your trauma..of which anger is one."

You cannot recover from permanent emotional damage. The hypervigilance and irritability are a part of me and likely most people here.

I'm not sure how much any particular neuropsychologist could help you because of all of the factors involved, so I wanted to suggest much less expensive but lesser known options which you may want to pursue whether or not you visit the neuropsychologist first. I know that even a single session of certain kinds of testing can cost thousands of dollars even with insurance. As soillogical suggested a "history of anxiety/depression makes one far more susceptible to developing chronic pain" and this is what my final paragraph of this long post is about. And like Daannii mentioned, CBT can certainly help you as well, it's one of the most efficient treatments for anxiety and depression, as well as many other conditions involving conditioned/learned responses or whatnot.

I have scoliosis as well, it's not very bad, but I get lower back pain- especially in the winter and for the last 10 years or so I've had chronic hamstring pain which feels sort of like acid on the muscle. I was in a bad accident 13 years ago where I was hit by a large AC van and ended up with brain swelling and I was in a coma for a week, I had bad vertigo and a horrible sense of balance. My friend is a personal trainer and he recently suggested that I go see a Neuro Kinesiologist, NKT is a "body work method that can be used both as an assessment tool and as a rehabilitative technique. It gets to the root of chronic and acute muscular tightness and pain, relieving it through working with the motor control center (MCC) of the brain itself in the cerebellum." My NKP practitioner told me that most people with scoliosis have some degree of dysfunction in their diaphragm which can lead to multiples problems, one of which I'll describe below.

I've only been two one appointment so far, but it's not something where they want to see you a bunch of times or anything like that, I found a NKT practitioner at the link below and went in to see her, she works at a Physical Therapy/Orthopedic Center and is a DPT, PT, and OCS:
http://neurokinetictherapy.com/certified-practitioners
The first appointment was $70 and lasted about an hour and a half, they did several exercises to test muscle groups, the main one was some variation of the therapist attempting to lift my legs while I was laying on a table- my goal was to resist by contracting my leg muscles and pushing downward. She did this with me breathing normal first, and then the same thing while I was holding my breath after an exhale, and then holding my breath with full lungs- it was easy for her to lift my legs in all cases except when I had full lungs. This meant that I was using my diaphragm to provide stability to my body whereas I should have been using my core muscles in my abs and back. She then began to examine my diaphragm for tension, I believe it was but probably something else too.

There's probably tons of other issues that NKT can examine/diagnose, but the way she explained my issue was essentially your body is constantly balancing itself and making minor adjustments multiple times a second, but your brain doesn't tell every muscle exactly what to do every millisecond- instead your body learns patterns of movement, or whatnot, and your brain sends balance signals down to the lower body, if for some reason the appropriate muscles don't act as they should (usually one or more of the core muscles) and provide the needed balance and stability then muscles which aren't properly equipped will have to pick up the slack. In my case my abdominus rectus and multifidus in the lower back weren't activating properly so my hip flexors and part of my upper legs is being overworked much of the time. She explained a diaphragm release stretch and gave me three exercises to do after the stretch twice a day, I've been doing the exercises for over a week now and they are very challenging. What seems to have happened is after the car accident my muscles were forced to deal with much worse balance, and vertigo and double-vision at the time, than ever before so they dealt with the issue but not in the best way possible and 99.999% of physical therapists aren't trained in NKT (which was made in the mid-1980s) so they weren't looking for particular issues, they were just training me to walk again on the macro level.

Keep in mind that all of the above is based on my understanding after a single session of NKT, so it may not be exactly right, but the main thing is an NKT practitioner can diagnose issues which even surgeons and other specialists aren't looking for and in many cases aren't even familiar with. Even if you never go back to the NKT specialist again just doing the exercises will help your issue, I'm going back in about two weeks to check my progress and make sure I'm doing the exercises correctly but this isn't required so you're not going to be out much money my checking into this.

This is unrelated to the above post, but I think both of these recommendations can help you, as to which one would help you more I can't say but I am confident that one of them will help you quite a bit. This is a really good book by the Dr. that treated Howard Stern for chronic back pain which he had always thought was from sitting for many hours a day in a chair over several decades while doing radio shows and writing/etc [The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders](http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0061174300?psc=1&redirect=true&ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage)
He found that the unconscious mind can oftentimes make pain worse if not cause the pain altogether as a way to attempt to distract the conscious mind from serious emotional pain which may be completely repressed or the person may seem glimpses of it on occasion.