When we think of chronic pain we need to not fall in the age old trap of always associating pain with tissue damage only, especially so in the case of chronic pain.
1️⃣ Don’t get me wrong when you stub your toe, or bang your knee, or cork your thigh, or hit your head, there is real tissue damage that should heal over weeks. What also happens at the same time is that the body will have a reflexive inhibition pattern to the trauma depending on the type of trauma experienced. This will weaken certain muscles, and the body will have to compensate. Also, any other sensory stimuli perceived at the time such as noises, smells, autonomic activity, biochemical activity or emotional context will be ‘stacked’ together with that painful stimuli.
2️⃣ At this point the injury is just a ‘peripheral’ problem, but what happens when we have another injury soon after and continue have mild or major injuries without allowing time for healing? The system keeps having to adapt and overcome, creating a more ‘compensated’ state. Over time, this pattern may develop into a more ‘centralised’ problem and lead to ‘wind ups’ meaning that any stimuli could ‘easily wind the pain’ up.
3️⃣ It becomes easily triggered and can stay triggered from any thing that the body perceives as stress or takes the body over threshold including lack of sleep, exercise (too little, too much or wrong type), nutritional deficiencies, toxicity, inflammation, emotional stress, smells, balance/vestibular issues, visual issues etc.
4️⃣ We all know a few of these people and you may be one of them, where the slightest little thing can set the pain off, sometimes with no explanation. Sadly these types of people are often told by their doctors that it’s all in their head and just take ‘x’ pill to numb the pain. Their pain is real but is often very multifactorial and needs to be addressed as so.
5️⃣ As I say to all of our chronic pain clients, “this is a brain condition and we need to create an environment of safety for your nervous system so Pain or more accurately "THREAT" disolves and pain is no longer relevant to be expressed”. When we look at Pain this way the results are much faster and eye opening...
To learn more about a Functional Neurological approach can treat pain faster and more effectively, contact Nick via email: nick@functionalneurohealth.com