Now reading …
The book was suggested by Ezra Klein in his podcast. In fact, he interviewed Dr Zoffness. I didn’t listen to the podcast, but I was motivated to read the book.
She writes about CBT — cognitive behavioural therapy — as a means of overcoming chronic pain. Emotions play a critical role in the experience of pain.
I have found considerable relief from my chronic back pain in meditation. Transcendental Meditation overcomes stress, and doing so relieves a pain trigger.
Another, possibly better, book about back pain relief.
Sarno’s book explains what is the cause of chronic pain. There is no rational reason for it. It is something the mind makes up to divert attention from more deep-seated problems that one may not even be consciously aware of. Thousands, perhaps millions, of people have been misdiagnosed and prescribed treatment that works only temporarily. Many of those people became addicted to opioids because their doctors prescribed the wrong treatment.
I’m still reading. My back pain has been reduced to really no pain. My lower back is slightly malformed, and so I can expect a twinge when I get up in the morning or stress my back excessively. This is mild and disappears quickly.
I am also relying on Transcendental Meditation to resolve my tension, stress, and anxiety. This, too, leads my mind to no longer need to produce unnecessary chronic pain.
The Kingdom of Sand is a recent book by Andrew Holleran that I’m currently reading. He wrote Dancer from the Dance in 1978. It was about the gay scene on Fire Island before the full extent of the AIDS epidemic was really known. After the fact, it was a depressing story. A recent season of American Horror Story filled in what was happening in New York City about the same time.
This time the narrator is in his 70s and lives in or near Gainesville, Florida. His parents are dead, and he’s single and alone. I can relate, to a point. I had a husband before he died 13 years ago. We were together 46 years and got married in Canada when it became legal there. I am fortunate in having been able to find people I can be close to since, and thus creating my own family — as gay people often do.
This book is intentionally depressing. I’m only partway through it, and I can’t predict how it will end up — but I suspect that the ending won’t be a happy one.