Symptom Imperative | Why it Happens | Part 1

Throughout Dr. Sarno's teachings, the idea of the "Symptom Imperative" is frequently mentioned. So what exactly is this phenomenom?

The symptom imperative is the idea that a symptom will "migrate" or "change" in nature. This will typically happen under two circumstances: when going through conventional medical intervention (i.e. medication, injection, or surgery), or when integrating a mind body approach to symptoms.

In this post, we will be discussing the former.

Say a person had been suffering with chronic back pain, and finds relief with the use of medication. After a couple weeks of living with pain free back pain, this person starts developing pain in his ankle while walking. This is the symptom imperative at work - when one symptom gets managed and taken care of, with another symptom (typically at a different location) taking it's place. 

The obvious question is, why does this happen?

Well according to Dr. Sarno and the mind body healing approach, because the underlying problem has not been taken care of, the pain that was experienced in the back moved to a different location. Until tackling the problem holistically, which includes understanding how emotional factors can create physical symptoms, the symptom imperative will continue indefinitely. And so this same patient will see a foot specialist, suggest heat and physical therapy, and maybe that will provide relief. Then some time later, this patient then experiences frequent headaches, and then has to go see a neurologist. Unfortunately, this type of pattern isn't mere theory - Dr. Sarno provides similar, real life examples that he has heard from his patients throughout his 3 books.

In part 2 of this overview, we will go into why the symptom imperative is experienced while one is going through a mind body medicinal approach as well.