I Beat Chronic Pain With a Simple Trick When Doctors Said It Was Permanent

• READ MORE: I  got my life back after years of chronic pain...not due to a pill

Just at the age of 19, Nicole Sachs learned that she would likely require a wheelchair by the time she turned 40, making it impossible for her to travel or bear children.

Sachs had been dealing with severe lower back pain for many years and was informed by her physician that this issue stemmed from spondylolisthesis, a spinal condition characterized by a vertebra slipping out of alignment.

The doctors maintained that her discomfort was linked to her long-term spine issue, suggesting that spinal fusion surgery might be her most viable choice, though they did not assure it would completely eliminate her pain forever.

However, before she proceeded with her plans, she stumbled upon the concept of mind-body practices, and suddenly everything made sense: her discomfort didn’t originate from a bodily ailment but rather from suppressed traumas and emotions.

Today, 30 years later, she isn’t just free from pain; she has become a world-traveling mom of three children, surpassing the limits that were previously set for her.

In her book, Mind Your Body Sachs, a social worker, shares her journey in connecting conventional Western medical practices with an innovative new approach. understanding of chronic pain Her mind required healing, not her spine.

Her journey challenges everything she thought she knew about pain.

Sachs recounts that everything began with a transformative insight: physicians do not always possess every solution. She is now imparting the scientific reasoning behind the discovery that rescued her, convinced it might assist countless individuals suffering endlessly.

Pain might feel like it’s all in your mind, but not quite how you imagine.

For millennia, early medical practitioners thought that the mind and body were deeply interconnected—believing that sorrow could undermine cardiac health, anxiety could upset digestion, and psychological distress could appear as bodily discomfort.

The rise of Western medicine in the 17th century caused a seismic shift in the way people perceive pain and illness, seeing the body and mind as separate and to be treated as such.

This has culminated in millions of doctors telling their patients that all of their tests came back normal and their pain is all in their heads, which comes off as a dismissal.

That's precisely how Sachs felt.

By embracing the link between the mind and body, she managed to lessen her discomfort and embarked on a journey to comprehend the brain's part in persistent pain.

She earned qualifications in psychology and clinical social work, refining her method by combining psychotherapy with the principles of mind-body science.

Sachs stated: 'When you comprehend how a fight-or-flight-activated nervous system conveys distress signals to steer us away from the perceived "threats" responsible for our pain, the development of many long-term ailments becomes clearer... Through years of experience, I've found that rewiring one's thought process is essential to address this.'

Through expressing her inner child and unresolved trauma, she started to see her suffering diminish.

In the field of mind-body medicine, terms like 'chronic condition' and 'chronic pain' encompass a broad spectrum of persistent health concerns, including autoimmune episodes, discomfort, gastrointestinal disorders, dermatological issues, as well as emotional stress such as anxiety.

Sachs dealt with severe back pain for years and was in and out of doctors’ offices, trying prescription painkillers and medications.

Your brain is hardwired to save you from danger, but when trapped in endless ‘fight-or-flight’ mode, it can turn emotional pain into chronic illness.

Stress floods your body with cortisol and adrenaline, preparing you to flee a predator or attempt to fight them off.

How JournalSpeak Works

Set a Timer

• You journal for about 20 minutes. No filters, no worrying about spelling or grammar — just raw, honest expression.

Pick a Topic

• Choose something that's triggering you emotionally. It could be something recent or an old memory, like:

• Fear about the future

• Frustration towards a relative

• Embarrassment about an earlier choice

• Grief or loss

• Physical discomforts that are troubling you

Write Unfiltered

• Share everything—your chaotic, furious, small-minded, frightened, illogical aspects that you usually keep silent. Sachs refers to this as expressing your "inner child" or the hidden emotions you've been taught to hide away.

Burn or Delete It

• You don't ever need to read back over your writing. Actually, Sachs suggests getting rid of it since the aim isn't reflection but rather release.

Proceed with a Meditation or Self-Compassion Exercise

• Following your journaling session, take a short break to soothe your nervous system—try practicing deep breaths, a brief mediation, or listening to calming tunes. This helps communicate with your brain that it’s okay to process and release emotions.

In mind-body medicine, pain doesn’t occur haphazardly; instead, it serves as the body’s method for diverting attention away from suppressed feelings such as anger or sorrow by transforming these emotional issues into tangible bodily sensations.

Sachs suggests that the solution is to cease battling one's emotions.

Personally, she grappled with profound solitude, anger, and unfairness during her childhood.

As an adult, this triggered physical pain and she learned through mind-body science that her back pain was a response to that.

By confronting repressed emotions, patients can ‘switch off’ the body’s primal alarm system, stopping pain in its tracks.

As part of her practice, she created JournalSpeak — a raw, unfiltered journaling practice to release buried emotions.

JournalSpeak advises individuals to pick a subject that evokes strong emotions within them and then write continuously for 20 minutes, not fretting over spelling or grammar.

Once finished, the individual may choose to incinerate, dispose of, or erase their writing, as the aim is to cleanse rather than reflect.

Following the writing, Sachs guides individuals to engage in meditation or practice grounding breathwork.

She penned: 'Once those rude, unimaginable realities are uncovered and properly acknowledged, the nervous system ceases to respond by entering defense mode and triggering pain signals.'

Researchers have grappled with the notion that long-lasting pain might be linked to emotional distress, potentially serving as a reaction to it.

A 2012 report published in the journal Methods for Regional Anesthesia and Pain Relief Techniques determined that long-term pain and psychological distress are biologically connected.

Studies revealed that 35 percent of individuals suffering from chronic pain also fulfill the requirements for a PTSD diagnosis.

Both conditions trigger hyperarousal in the amygdala and flood the body with stress hormones like cortisol.

In 2022, researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, posited in the journal Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews that repressed anger rewires the brain, activating the amygdala and flipping the ‘pain switch’ on to cause conditions like fibromyalgia and unexplained back pain.

They discovered that suppressed fury can interfere with crucial areas of the brain, transforming emotional strain into bodily discomfort. Untreated trauma and wrath maintain this pain response indefinitely and continually diminish the prefrontal cortex’s functionality—this region manages emotions, choices, and pain messages.

Sachs argues that the brain has the ability to understand challenging emotions aren’t actually dangerous, which helps in minimizing unwarranted pain signals, thus reducing suffering. Techniques such as JournalSpeak and mindfulness aid in rebalancing the nervous system, showing that stress doesn’t necessitate a distressing survival reaction.

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