Rick, I don't read it that way at all.
J.

Hope you don't mind if I jump in with some thoughts.

One of the RSI {repetitive strain injury} places I read on - some mention a book by Sarno.
About the mind & body connection.
{his books are in libraries}
Some of the posters there did have success with using Sarno's methods for their RSI injury.

[Most people begin with “Healing Back Pain” which gives the basics of Dr. Sarno’s theories, diagnosis and treatment strategies. The next book, “The Mindbody Prescription” gives greater detail about TMS equivalents: symptoms other than musculoskeletal pain that are caused by the same Mindbody condition. Dr. Sarno’s most recent book, “The Divided Mind” reveals the doctor’s latest thinking about psychosomatic disorders and how the brain and emotions are the source of the most of the misunderstood symptoms which people experience today.]
http://www.healingbackpain.com/books.html

I read some of one of the books for my RSI injury, but it didn't really apply for me.


I don't recall if any of those posters mentioned having a traumatic or dramatic childhood or life, maybe they just didn't mention that.

I do think there could be some mind /body connection for some people.
Not in a bad way or negative either.. not the it's all in your head way -- but our mind is a very strong influence on our bodies.

I'm not saying it is or isn't the cause for any condition , but maybe just something to look into and with an open mind.

Or maybe I'm just touchy. But anything that accounts for as much as 72% of GP visits should be labeled "major scourge" rather than "hysteria" etc. However, that being said, I must admit that they are getting much closer.

There are for me many factors that are in play here. I do not deny or dispute the incredible mind/body connection. I just wish they were connected right 'cause my mind says yes but my body says no! I WAS abused as a child, sexually and otherwise aside from violent abuse. I had a mother who was present but non existant. Ya wanna talk about what kind of baggage that brings to someone who meets the love of their life and what kind of hell that can cause in light of resentment and the female role model, we don't have enough couch!! When I was diagnosed with PD we had one of the worst years of our marriage so far. I lost my 2nd job, my wife was on antidepressants and laid in bed for days at a time, we were losing our house to foreclosure. I was over 400 on the "life events scale" if any of you have heard that is a supposed scale that psychologists have said scores significant life events. Over 300, significant risk of serious illness in the immediate future due to stressors. Then years later we were back at it again, getting divorced after years of trying to make it work. I got testicular cancer 1 month later. It was so significant it spread to my lung. I had 3 surgeries and chemotherapy. Do ya think they may be related? I don't know. I may have survived the abuse but years later I am still paying the price. I did file charges but after I was grown and now, at 41 y/o with that being years ago they didn't pursue it very aggressively although this went on for some 9-10 years. Many red flags, signs and many, many tears.

You are not alone. A few years back we did a survey amongst ourselves and of the twenty or so taking part, every darned one of us had been through hell as children. Everything from my drunken father to the Blitz to who knows what and then for many life just got more interesting. I won't go into the problems a ten year old boy has protecting his Mom from his drunken dad nor what its like to step between him and his younger brother. Or about his mother being enthrall to a pill pushing doctor until it got so bad that I went in and physically threatened the good doc (helped that I looked like Sonny Barger by then). Wasn't long after that that I let the old man kill himself. Got married to a wonderful woman who carried a similar load. Hers came out in her own health and there were times of months in a wheel chair. The two house fires didn't help any. And when the grandparents needed help she and I stepped up to the plate. Didn't know it was an eight year commitment, of course.

Lot more, but that's enough. There are several others with worse stories and some slightly better, but the point I am trying to make is that you really are among family. We have all been kicked around by life and, like the guy in Monty Python's the Holy Grail, just keep on ticking.

That realization was when I first began to understand that there was a lot more to PD than I had been told. Stress doesn't just make our symptoms worse. Stress causes PD and the process starts from Day One. Either that or we are the unluckiest bunch of so-and-so's on the planet.