Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS) is a phrase that Dr John Sarno coined in the 70’s to describe when the nervous system gets stuck in a fight or flight response and fires off pain or other symptoms in response to perceived threats (emotional or physical). This can now be termed Pyschophysiological pain disorder (PPD) or mindbody Syndrome (MBS). Recent studies have shown that chronic back pain, neck pain, fibromyalgia symptoms, repetitive strain injury, headaches, and other forms of chronic pain and symptoms are often not the result of structural causes, but of psychophysiologic processes that can be reversed. This is known as neuroplastic pain.

Pain is a danger signal. Normally when we injure ourselves, the body sends signals to the brain informing us of tissue damage, and we feel pain. But sometimes, the brain can make a mistake! Neuroplastic pain results from the brain misinterpreting safe messages from the body as if they were dangerous. In other words, neuroplastic pain is a false alarm.

Though the pain can be addressed psychologically, this does not imply that the pain is imaginary. In fact, brain imaging studies have demonstrated that the pain is quite real.Recent research has shown that pain is often the result of learned neural pathways in the brain. And just as pain can be learned, it can also be unlearned. 

Reference

https://www.painreprocessingtherapy.com