Your Brain on Chronic Pain
Relief may begin with the way you think
You’re trying so hard.
Every single moment of every single day.
But everything hurts… All. Of. The. Time.
You try your best to stay positive…you try not to let it get in your head. But it’s always there, and it takes a toll that’s incredibly hard to face each day.
I get it, because I live it.
Life with chronic pain is exhausting.
Mentally and physically exhausting.
The things you love to do become hard because they hurt. So you do less of them. And by doing less of them, your mindset shifts and you start to zero in on your pain a little more. So you do even less. And then it gets to a point where you’re in survival mode…simply dragging one foot in front of the other…and your quality of life declines.
The toll it takes on your physical and mental health can feel overwhelming, and what’s worse, it’s often completely invisible to others…
Someone on the outside looking in would likely have no idea you’re crippled by pain; that is unless you go around shouting “I’m miserable! I’m suffering! My body is screaming at me!”
But you don’t do that. Because you have a life to live, and you don’t want to sound needy or whiney. You don’t want to be a burden, or sound like you’re feeling sorry for yourself. And quite frankly, if you’re anything like me, you’ve become tired of hearing yourself talk about it.
So instead, it just becomes a part of you. It becomes something you expect to feel, and you become an expert at living it. After all, what choice do you have? You still have to wake up and play your roles…continue through your normal daily tasks.
So you do.
And the people around you, even those closest to you, think you’re doing better than you are. This can make you feel completely misunderstood, and it can be a very lonely and isolating journey. What’s even worse, others may tell you “It’s just in your head.”…
Oh how I despise that phrase.
Friend, it’s not in your head. It’s in every fiber of your being. It’s real, and it hurts…I know that. I feel that. I understand what you’re going through, and I’m here to assure you that you are not imagining it.
But here’s the thing…
If you’ve been living with this for a while, your brain may be amplifying your pain.
Studies show that the pain pathways made by the several neurotransmitters responsible for optimal functioning of the mind physically change during the experience of chronic pain.
How does this happen?
One Word: Neuroplasticity
Your brain is plastic. Put simply, this means that the neural pathways within your brain that are responsible for the sensations you feel and the actions you take can change and adapt based upon experience.
The ways in which these changes occur is through the strengthening or weakening of specific neural connections, and the more often you experience something, do something or think a certain way, the stronger that neural connection becomes.
Think about how you develop new habits; at first, the new action is difficult to put into practice — it may even feel impossible. This is a weak neural connection within your brain; one that is used less often. But the more regularly you do it, the stronger that neural connection becomes, and the task becomes easier — almost like second nature.
So how does this relate to your pain?
The initial process and sensation of pain occurs to protect — you touch a hot stove, and nerve endings activate a pain response by sending danger messages from the brain to the nervous system that scream “take your hand off that freaking hot plate!” This type of acute pain typically subsides after the injury heals.
But then there’s the pain you feel day in and day out for months, even years at a time…
With this ailment constantly on the forefront of your mind, these danger messages are being sent repetitively and consistently, greatly strengthening that neural connection, and essentially hardwiring you to expect pain.
What’s more, this constant message being sent to your nervous system starts to affect the degree to which your pain is felt.
How does this happen?
Chronic Pain and Central Sensitization
The central nervous system (CNS) is the complex that controls most functions of the body and mind, and chronic pain is considered a disorder of the CNS.
It’s no wonder you can feel so completely controlled by your pain, right?
Through the process of neuroplasticity, the CNS undergoes changes that alter your pain response and lead to the hypersensitivity of many systems. These long lasting changes within the CNS lead to the onset of what’s called Central Sensitization — a term used for when your nervous system becomes stuck in a constant state of heightened reactivity.
This intensifies your pain. Not only that, it also heightens your emotional reactions, feeding a vicious cycle — pain…emotional distress…heightened sensitivity…more pain.
So what kind of toll does this take on your mental health?
Chronic Pain and the Hold it Has on Your Mind
Now I know what you’re thinking right now…
A lot of these things you may have already heard before, and you’re exhausted even reading this article.
You’ve already heard it all -
“Just think positively.”
“Dwelling on it will make you feel worse.”…
And more than likely these words come from people who have never been graced with the presence of crippling daily pain. It can make you feel bitter.
And you know what? You don’t have to be positive about this. And chances are you do dwell on it…how can you not? It’s quite literally a part of you.
But I’m summarizing all of these scientific details with the intention of showing just how strong of a hold your mind can have on your body.
But not only that — how undeniably possible it is to release that hold and begin your journey toward a pain-free life.
There is no denying that the way you think about things can greatly impact your pain experience. It’s time to give the mind body connection attention where it’s due, and really focus on the mental aspect of chronic pain.
So hear me out…
Pain is psychophysiological.
It is a complex of sensations that involve both mind and body, and they feed off of one another. We know pain begins as a physical sensation, but as previously discussed, changes in the circuitry of your mind can eventually leave your nervous system in a hyperactive state that in turn affects your mental health.
And once you are stuck in that negative affective state, those emotions and behaviors will contribute further to the continuance of chronic pain…it’s a vicious, persistent cycle.
Now every person is different and everyone’s pain response is unique; pain thresholds vary, and personal experience along with other predisposed factors greatly influence the degree of pain felt.
But regardless of those variances, if you’re living in pain day in and day out for months or years at a time, that experience will undoubtedly have an impact on your mental health.
In fact, research has shown that those with chronic pain are 4 times more likely to develop anxiety and/or depression than those who are pain free.
This seems like a given, right?
The worse you feel, the worse you think, and the worse you think, the worse you feel…This is starting to sound a little depressing, isn’t it?
‘So my brain is wired to exacerbate my pain and I’m doomed to live this way for the rest of my life?’
Not so.
In fact, you may have more control than you even realize.
Just as we discussed how the brain can adapt to expect pain, it’s possible that it can be trained away from that.
Thank youuu, neuroplasticity.
If you can halt these over-reactive danger messages and rewire your circuitry, it may put you back in the driver’s seat and allow you a better quality of life.
Let’s talk about how.
Mind-Body Treatments for Chronic Pain
Your mental health plays a very big role in your experience of pain, and aside from physical or medical interventions, practicing techniques directly related to the health of your mind may be one of the biggest influences you can make on your level of chronic pain.
Meditation and Mindfulness
Working on techniques to be present and quiet the mind may greatly influence how you perceive pain, and over time, can activate and strengthen new neural pathways that take you a little bit further from that chronic pain.
Just as we have gone through the ways in which the mechanics of the brain can change to expect pain — thus intensifying it — studies have shown that neuroplasticity can also “train the mind” to separate the sensory experience from the emotional response of pain. This reduces the body’s reactions and overall sensitivity to the experience of pain.
Breathwork
Breathwork is a therapeutic approach that stimulates the vagus nerve — a nerve in your parasympathetic system that reaches from your belly to the base of your brain — and moves the body away from fight or flight mode and into rest and digest mode. This lets your body know that it’s time to relax and restore.
By moving through breathwork, you become more aware of your senses, relax your body and its systems, and release the tension and stress that can amplify pain. This level of relaxation can also aid in altering your perception of that pain.
There are many forms of breathwork that range from simple to complex, all of which can be practiced on your own.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
CBT is a form of psychotherapy. (A little more detail here)
The goal of CBT for pain management is to change the maladaptive thoughts and behaviours that contribute to intensifying your experience of chronic pain.
As we talked about earlier, the way you think greatly influences the way you feel. By implementing the practice of CBT, you can change your thoughts around pain and the way it affects you.
Many therapists teach this practice, but even if you do not have the means or time to set aside for therapy, there are many manuals and techniques to practice on yourself. This can be as simple as keeping a thought journal; writing out the negative thoughts you experience, labeling the pattern of thinking they resonate with, and then re-writing a more supportive and positive thought to replace it.
These techniques can seem tedious at first, but with practice, this type of thinking will become more automatic, and your experience of pain will begin to shift.
So there you have it…
No, these aren’t magical cure-all modalities that will instantaneously and completely eradicate your pain.
But they can put you in more control, and over time, may significantly enhance your overall quality of life. After all, that’s all you want, right?
To feel just a little bit better.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again — it’s not in your head. It’s real.
And I know it’s hard to imagine anything else other than the crippling pain you’re feeling right now. I know there are days when you’re trapped in a tunnel of darkness; no light in sight. But let me tell you something — and please, read this over more than once and really let it sink in…you are not your pain, and you don’t have to live this way forever.
I know that it can be all consuming, but your pain does not have to define you or control your life.
If you can open your mind to the possibility of healing, you can feel better. I’m currently on this journey myself, and although I still have my hard days where I feel like it’s never going to end, I’m finding my way off of the pain pathway my brain has etched into my life.
And I’m telling you, it’s liberating.
If I can do this, you can do this.
You’ve believed in your pain all this time. Now is the time to believe in a life without it.
After all, what do you have to lose?
