Today’s Brain Booster is: Retrain your brain to release chronic pain.
Since starting my podcast I’ve received a lot of questions about how to manage chronic pain, including back, neck and shoulder pain, migraines, fibromyalgia and RSI (repetitive strain injury).
This is not surprising because chronic pain is one of the biggest public health challenges globally. Worldwide, 1 in 5 adults live with chronic pain. In Australia, 5.5 million adults have chronic pain, and in the US, it’s 50 million people.
That’s a lot of people in a lot of pain.
But do not fear, a solution is here! That’s what today’s podcast episode is about. Don’t believe anyone who tells you that nothing can be done for your chronic pain. When a health professional says ‘there’s nothing we can do’, what they mean is, there’s nothing THEY can do. But there’s plenty YOU can do.
If you’ve had constant or intermittent pain for over three months, it’s highly likely you have what’s known as neuroplastic pain. This is pain generated by the brain in the absence of physical damage to any of your muscles, tissues or organs. What’s going on?
In some cases, pain can become a habit. For example, you injured your back while moving furniture. You had physiotherapy for a month, and the injury has now healed. However, your brain got used to generating pain whenever you moved a certain way, and the circuit now keeps firing, even though your muscles have recovered. It’s like something in your brain is stuck on repeat. Another term for this is learned pain. The good news is that what is learned can be unlearned.
In other cases, chronic pain is a manifestation of severe stress or anxiety — even if there was NO triggering injury. Pain can also result from suppressed emotions like anger, rage, resentment, or grief. If we don’t allow ourselves to feel our feelings, they will be expressed in our body — in many cases as chronic or relapsing pain.
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Today’s Health Headline is: The purpose of pain is protection.
The purpose of pain is to alert us to danger — be that physical, psychological, or emotional danger.
Have you ever developed a headache when you’ve been snowed under at work? Or neck pain when you’ve felt pressured to meet a deadline? That’s neuroplastic pain arising from the threat of failure. No one suddenly hit you on the head with a hammer, or jarred your neck to cause a physical injury. Yes, you might also be dehydrated, and your posture might have contributed to the neck pain. But in the absence of a specific injury — more often than not — it’s the fear-inducing situation that precipitated the pain.
Therefore, if the cause of pain is fear, the cure for pain is safety. What do you need to do, or say to yourself, to make yourself feel safe?
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What’s Missing From Modern Medicine is recognising that chronic pain can be cured.
An important step on the path to healing is to be curious, not critical, of your pain.
When pain strikes or flares up, are you able to simply observe it? If it’s really excruciating, take whatever medications you usually use, and wait for a time when it isn’t unbearable. But if you can tolerate it, even for just a few seconds, can you simply put your attention on the pain, and survey it? Can you just be with it, and feel it, without judgement, resentment or anxiety?
When you’re able to come to a neutral, watchful state, ask yourself the following 5 questions:
- Where exactly in my body is the pain?
- Is it in a well-defined spot, or does it cover a larger more diffuse area?
- Does it stay in one place, or does it move around?
- Is the pain dull, sharp, throbbing, burning, tingling or pulsating? What’s the quality of the sensation?
- Are there any accompanying symptoms such as dizziness, light headedness, fatigue, heaviness or nausea?
By making peace with your pain, you calm your brain’s fear circuits, and start the process of healing.
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Click here to watch the episode on my YouTube channel, or listen to Healing with Dr Helena on your preferred podcast platform. I’ll publish a new episode every Monday, and you’ll receive an email notification that morning. Please subscribe to my podcast or YouTube channel so that you don’t miss an episode, and send your whether questions to: podcast@drhelenapopovic.com
If you’re happy for me to play your voice on my podcast, you can provide an audio file. Otherwise, you can type your question for me to read out.
I very much look forward to answering your questions, and exploring how we can all build a smarter brain, stronger body and deeply fulfilling life.
Please share this Health-e-Byte with anyone who has chronic pain.
