The body and brain are amazing. Their interactions allow us to breathe, walk, stand, talk, interact, and sleep, all without conscious thought. They just happen. But the brain and body are also “plastic”, meaning they learn and adapt, responding to whatever life throws at us. The more the nervous system “practices” activating a certain symptom, the easier it becomes to activate it again and again. Sometimes these protective or learned adaptations can cause responses that, like any other habit, becomes hard to break.
Chronic pain doesn’t just happen. As discussed in past posts it is a process that develops over time. Initially meant to help, it can continue long after the inciting event is gone.
We now know its origins can even begin in childhood where adaptive behaviors start and eventually evolve into chronically activated protective neural signals.
- In childhood we learn to detect dangers and determine whether they are physical or emotional ones. Each experience throws us into protective mode more quickly until the entire system gets sensitized to react quicker and quicker with each event. Eventually the alarm system just never turns off.
- We can go into a state of hyper vigilance where we try to anticipate issues or prevent them altogether by doing whatever it takes to keep things calm. This leads to chronic tension and anxiety in the nervous system, as we try to please everybody at all times. Blood flow shifts from the frontal lobes, (where we consciously think), into the limbic system which activates the amygdala and autonomic nervous system, (where we react emotionally). Keeping us in a never ending fight or flight state.
- Every health issue impacts the nervous system- injuries, surgeries, and trauma. They can lead us to pain catastrophizing. This is never meant to imply someone is weak or the pain isn’t real. It’s a poor way to describe a common response to a persistent, intractable pain that never stops. Eventually we begin anticipating pain at every turn, sure nothing can help. Sometimes this becomes the soul focus- loss of control and an expectation all outcomes will be negative- that leads to increased activity in the amygdala worsening the intensity.
- As we grow into adulthood any issue, physical or emotional can set off our protective and now heightened nervous system, causing headaches, muscle pain, high blood pressure, gastrointestinal distress, and more.
- Add to that major life changes:
- Relationships
- Children
- Death of loved ones
- Divorce
- Financial issues
- Employment
The nervous system becomes more and more sensitized with each event and attack until it hits a tipping point and symptoms begin. With persistent attacks from injury, emotional and physical trauma, surgery… chronic pain ensues.
- With each experience the brain becomes more protective, trying to anticipate dangers before they occur and triggering a response even when none exists. It creates new neural pathways that become our new normal. The cycle is endless and seemingly impossible to stop.
- Chronic pain adds fuel to these changes. The more it’s fed, activities that would normally relieve it by flooding the nervous system with feel good hormones, get restricted and fear and vigilance grows instead.
Knowing all this is important. It allows us to see the pain for what it is: a physical and emotional problem that can be impacted by our decisions and choices. We can take control by engaging our prefrontal cortex and denying the fear and emotional centers of the brain free rein. We let those centers decide what was safe for far too long. Armed with resources and understanding underlying truths we can retrain them with new habits that encourage joy, gratitude, physical activity, social outings, job satisfaction, family bonding… through:
Exercise
Hobbies
Deep breathing
Distractions
Activating our own endogenous opioids and endocannibinoids
Cognitive behavioral therapy
To name a few.
We can now see where these activations occur in the brain. The amygdala sends signals to turn on the autonomic nervous system, causing fight or flight responses throughout the brain and physiological changes in the body. The anterior cingulate cortex lights up due to emotional factors and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that analyzes if the danger is real, shuts down. Studies have shown demonstrable improvement in quieting these areas when the above techniques are used. Each step builds on the next. There are so many ways we can lessen pain. Pick one and get started. The results will change your life.
-https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/chronic-pain-and-childhood-trauma-2018033012768
–https://www.curablehealth.com/infographic/path-out-of-chronic-pain
–https://www.stlouischildrens.org/conditions-treatments/chronic-pain