Is My Pain Real?
Can I heal from chronic pain? What is neuroplastic pain?
How the Brain Can Interpret Pain Signals and What You Can Do About It
If you’re here wondering if your pain is real – I first want to assure you that it is. You may have heard phrases like “it’s all in your head”, and while that can feel dismissive, it is technically true of all pain. All pain is brain-generated, the difference can be whether or not the brain is sending signals related to structural damage or if it is misinterpreting other danger signals.
Pain can be chronic or acute, mild or severe, sharp or dull, widespread or localized, and experienced alongside a wide range of sensations like numbness, weakness, or tingling. When these sensations aren’t strictly caused by structural damage, we can refer to them as neuroplastic pain. This can be confusing or frustrating to process, but it is actually great news as it can often be reversed through psychological interventions such as Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT).
Throughout my own journey with neuroplastic pain I have benefitted most from addressing psychological unsafety and fear with self-compassion and hope. Neuroplastic pain is fed by stress, anxiety, and fear, and unfortunately this often becomes a vicious cycle where fear of pain increases pain, which increases fear, and so on. This is referred to as the ‘Pain-Fear Cycle’.
What Does Neuroplastic Pain Look Like?
While it is important to consult medical professionals to rule out other potential causes and assess for structural damage, here are some features of neuroplastic pain that can be helpful for self-assessment purposes.
Neuroplastic pain can…
· Change locations
· Change sensations
· Develop with no structural damage
· Persist after structural damage has healed
· Appear symmetrically (on both sides of the body)
· Worsen with stress
What Can You Do About Neuroplastic Pain?
One way psychotherapy can help address pain is by helping you respond to it with curiosity rather than fear. If you’re experiencing pain, your body is communicating that something feels dangerous. Curiosity signals safety to the brain. Learning to embrace pain as a form of communication and practicing being curious about what your brain is responding to is a great step towards turning the intensity down on pain. It also helps reinforce that pain is not always dangerous, which helps calm the nervous system.
Oftentimes, the perceived danger the brain is responding to has something to do with worry, self-criticism, or perfectionism. Feeling emotionally unsafe, emotionally repressed, or unable to connect to emotions can lead to the brain communicating danger in other ways, such as neuroplastic pain or other somatic symptoms.
Some other symptoms that can accompany neuroplastic pain include:
· Fatigue or low energy
· Dizziness or light-headedness
· Shortness of breath
· Digestive symptoms
These symptoms alongside neuroplastic pain could indicate a sensitized nervous system, which is a sign of your brain trying to protect you. Luckily, your brain can unlearn this pattern. By taking the step to educate yourself on your pain and ways you can address it, you are beginning the journey of unlearning the Pain-Fear Cycle.
Final Thoughts
One of the most important things I learned from PRT is that hope is the antidote to fear. While healing from neuroplastic pain may be a gradual process, involving more hope, self-compassion, and felt safety benefits your life in ripples that go far beyond lessening pain. If you’re ready to explore this further, therapy can help you rebuild a sense of safety in your body and ease the patterns that maintain pain.
Written by: Sabrina Reid-Smith, a psychotherapist at Access Therapy. Her experience with pain and the confusion of missed diagnoses and misdiagnoses has given her a fine tuned lens for this work. She understands the struggle deeply.
If you’re interested in connecting with Sabrina, you can reach out to her and read more about Pain Reprocessing Therapy here.