3 Things to Know about Chronic Pain

Do you often experience pain that just won't seem to go away? Does it feel like the pain is stuck in one spot and that it's been there for a long time? Or does your pain move around your body- back, neck, feet? Has medical treatments been ineffective? If so, you may be experiencing chronic pain also known as neuroplastic pain.

Neuroplastic pain occurs when changes in your nervous system cause us to feel discomfort or even intense pain even though there may be no physical source of injury or damage due to physical or psychological stressors. This leads to a heightened sensitivity in certain areas of the body, resulting in persistent and long-term pain. Lets take a look at neuroplastic pain.

#1 Your Neuroplastic Pain can change

 Lets first start with the understanding of neuroplasticity . The term neuroplasticity describes the ability of your brain to change and grow. NEURO, meaning parts of the nervous system and PLASTIC meaning developed or changed. Its the brains ability to rewire itself after injury, trauma or stress; creating new pathways. When it comes to chronic pain or neuroplastic pain; parts of the brain fire together over and over gain due to the pain signal and then they they wire together. Therefore, neuroplastic pain is when the brain changes in such a way that it reinforces the chronic pain. The good news, because it is neuroplastic, it can change and learn a way out of pain.

#2 Neuroplastic Pain is a Misinterpretation

Neuroplastic pain is caused by a misinterpretation of the pain signal in the brain.

Alan Gordon says in his book The Way Out – “neuroplastic pain is caused by the brain misinterpreting safe signals from the brain as if they were dangerous. So we feel pain when there is no damage to the body.”

Lets be curious for a moment and take a look at the pain cycle. The pain cycle normally starts when the brain receives signals from all the senses throughout the body and the outside world and then the brain processes all the signals it receives. After that, if the body experiences an injury the brain generates an OUTPUT signal, the feeling of pain.

Neuroplastic pain is where there is a misfiring. The pain signal output gets stuck on when the tissue is no longer in danger, the brain is misinterpreting safe signals from the body as danger. So, you feel pain even when there is no structural damage.

#3 The pain is in your brain, not in your head

When I explain this process to most clients the first response I usually hear is “but I am not making up my pain”. Let me be really clear. That is correct! The pain is very real and it effects a variety of physical, emotional and spiritual issues. Even thought the pain can be addressed with mindfulness techniques, does not mean that the pain is made up or imaginary. The good news, pain can be unlearned.

Conclusion

No one should have to live with chronic pain but unfortunately many people do suffer from this condition on a daily basis. The good news is that there are many options available for managing this type of discomfort and science is showing us that our brains are neuroplastic and can change. Some ways to address chronic pain might be yoga therapy, mindfulness or the Pain Reprocessing Therapy technique. There is hope for your neuroplastic pain!