Understanding Pain
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Experiencing pain is normal, Everyone experiences pain now and then!
Pain is supposed to be a short term protective mechanism, to make you stop doing things that may be harmful to your body.
However if your pain has persisted continuously or episodically for more than 3 months (has become chronic), it is no longer useful to our body.
So, what is chronic pain and what can you do about it if you suffer from it?
Pain is an alarm system:
All pain is created by your brain due it feeling unsafe and that the body may be in danger. Once the brain feels unsafe it sends out alarm signals (pain) to make people take action (fix underlying problem).
This is like a fire alarm going off. The alarm is not the problem, THE FIRE IS.
You wouldn't just switch the alarm off and leave the fire burning ( like taking pain medication) would you? We specialise in helping you “put out the fire” so your alarm (pain) can stope for good. Here is a great video explaining more about symptoms.
Pain is a Learnt Habit
Our brain and nervous system is what's known as a ‘plastic tissue’. This means that they are continually being molded into different shapes. Just like playing with a piece of plasticine, when load (the pressure from your hands and fingers) is applied the plasticine changes shape and stays that way until you load (poke or squeeze it) again. This means that plasticine can be molded into the shape of a cow, a cup, a car etc. The shape of the plasticine determines how it is used and how well it works for that task.
For example, a teapot is shaped specifically to brew tea in and a tea cup is specifically shaped to drink tea out of. You COULD brew in the cup and drink from the pot BUT it would likely cause burns, spills and a few choice words!
Our brain’s are the exact same as this. The load that changes the shape of the brain is life- past and current emotional experiences, present and previous physical trauma, what we eat, environmental pollution etc. The ‘shape’ of the brain then dictates how well the body works for what we ask it to do (work, run after the kids, exercise etc). If the ‘shape’ doesn’t fit the task we will experience pain as the brain doesn’t feel safe.
This means the brain needs to be changed into a new ‘shape’. Our unique 6 step system is specifically designed to help make plastic changes in our clients nervous system
Pain and the Brain
All pain is created by your brain due it feeling unsafe and that the body may be in danger.
When a body tissue is damaged, whether this is a sprained disc, torn muscle or damaged tendon, the body will produce inflammation which leads to pain generation. This process should last no more than 12 weeks until the inflammation is gone and the tissue is beginning to repair.
The interesting thing is that you don’t actually have to have any actual tissue damage to feel pain.
Sometimes pain persists long after tissue damage has actually healed.
When pain persists for more than 3 months either constantly or intermittently we call this chronic pain. Chronic pain is the second-most common reason people see a GP and have to take time off work. More than one-third of people with chronic pain become disabled by their pain to some degree.
Chronic pain can be mild or excruciating, episodic or continuous, merely inconvenient or totally incapacitating.
The common thing with all these types of pain is that the actual feeling of pain is always, 100% of the time, created in your brain due to reduced function in your nervous system.. This does not mean it’s not real – but understanding that the pain itself is created in your brain is really important for how you can get rid of it.
And because pain depends so much on what you think and feel about the pain, it’s very important you understand pain properly.
Your pain experience depends on why your brain has decided you need to be protected – why it’s creating the feeling of pain for you in the first place.
Because we know that pain is a habit and that habits can be broken and retrained, you need to use all the tools available to you to break the bad habits that have led to your pain and health concerns and rebuild a new pattern of healthy pain free living.
And because pain depends so much on what you think and feel about the pain, it’s very important you understand pain properly.
Your pain experience depends on why your brain has decided you need to be protected – why it’s creating the feeling of pain for you in the first place.
Because we know that pain is a habit and that habits can be broken and retrained, you need to use all the tools available to you to break the bad habits that have led to your pain and health concerns and rebuild a new pattern of healthy pain free living.
