Neuroplasticity and Chronic Pain - a new angle on psychosomatic symptoms
When I recovered completely from multiple chronic pain symptoms in 2016, I was excited to share the wonderful news with my friends and family. But nothing prepared me for their reactions: when I told them that I got over pain by working with my emotions and attitude towards pain, I didn’t get the excited response that I had expected from everyone.
In some cases, my TMS success story was met with skepticism. At one point, someone close to me even told me that my body had simply been due for recovery, and that the emotional and psychological work that I had done had nothing to do with it. Wow! I can tell you, that really crushed me.
Thankfully, today it has been Scientifically proven that the brain’s neuroplasticity has a lot to do with chronic pain. In fact, this interesting process in the brain may be responsible for up to 90% of chronic pain conditions, ranging from back pain and sciatica to fibromyalgia and crps (plus dozens of other chronic conditions!). This is why today we classify these chronic pain conditions under the term ‘neuroplastic pain’.
What is Neuroplastic Pain and how does it change the story?
Nowadays, the term Neuroplastic Pain is being used as a sort of substitute for TMS (Tension Myositis Syndrome) pain, which was the term coined by Dr John Sarno to refer to psychosomatic symptoms. The adjective ‘neuroplastic’ derives from the noun neuroplasticity, which is essentially the brain’s ability to make new connections and learn new stuff (like learning how to drive a car without having to think twice about each move).
In the case of neuroplasticity and chronic pain, this refers to the brain’s ability to memorize pain pathways, which leads to the continuous generation of pain (usually in the same area or areas), or to an increased sensitivity to stimuli (so that things that shouldn’t hurt will actually hurt).
This explanation seems to be more plausible to the logical, Scientific mind, than Sarno’s TMS concept involving deeply repressed emotions. But in reality, neuroplastic pain and the TMS explanation for pain are NOT incompatible.
Underlying both ‘ideologies’ there are the same emotions. And the sooner we recognize and change these emotions, the faster chronic pain recovery will be.
Neuroplastic Pain Treatment - the focus on Safety
The treatment proposed for neuroplastic pain is centred around the concept of safety, i.e. making individuals feel more safe with the pain.
Given that they have ruled out serious medical conditions, individuals will learn that neuroplastic pain does not correlate to any serious illness or condition, but that it’s simply their brain having learnt to ‘overreact’ under certain circumstances. These circumstances could be activities in one’s everyday life, which can include sitting, walking, exercising or even simply taking a shower!
This overreaction happens because the brain still senses some kind of danger. And therefore, the key is to teach oneself that there is no real threat, and that whatever activity you’re engaging in is actually safe!
So why would we have been feeling unsafe in the first place?
There are several reasons why our brain may have ‘decided’ that we’re unsafe. In some instances, an acute injury may have been so painful and traumatic that the individual fears re-injury, or believes that he or she is incapable of total healing.
And so, even after healing has occurred, the brain still mistakenly thinks that that part of the body is vulnerable or damaged (i.e. that one is not safe!).
In other cases, stress and anxiety in one’s personal life could be the first signals of danger. When we are under significant stress, we are actually living in fear, and more likely to experience psychosomatic pain. This is due to all the physiological processes going on because of these negative emotional factors. Research has shown that chronic stress and anxiety lead to increased pain perception as well as to muscular tightness and increased inflammation, which in turn, can cause pain.
This is where the emotional work comes in. According to Dr John Sarno, repressed emotions (negative emotions that we deny or fail to acknowledge) have the capacity to generate pain in the body, because these emotions are stuck within and trying to emerge in some form or another (for a more detailed explanation of this process, please refer to my article on TMS and Repressed Emotions).
This is how Sarno’s TMS concept diverges slightly from that of neuroplastic pain. That said, negative emotions are still a sign that we are not feeling safe in one way or another.
And so, to treat neuroplastic pain holistically we need to feel safer both with our painful sensations and with other situations in our lives. This is what I’ll explain below.
1) Pain Reprocessing Therapy - feeling safer with painful sensations
Pain Reprocessing Therapy focuses on training individuals to feel more ok with pain and other symptoms. The main pain reprocessing tool is somatic tracking, which is essentially an exercise aimed at getting you to observe the pain in a more objective and accepting way. As you do this, you will lower the fear response and other negative emotions (like frustration, upsetness or anger) that are usually associated with your symptoms.
Once the fear response is deactivated, the brain eventually learns that there is nothing to fear and that the body is not really in danger. Since the fear itself is a driver of pain, the pain will eventually fade away as well.
Gradually, the individual has to learn that each activity that had been previously associated with danger and pain, is actually ok to pursue. The trick is to approach such activities and challenge one’s limits with an attitude of confidence as opposed to doubt and trepidation (which are really manifestations of fear).
Neuroplastic pain can occur during normal day to day activities and is often misinterpreted as physical damage or injury.
2) Emotional processing and release - feeling safer with one’s emotions
An aspect which pain reprocessing partially ignores is the emotional aspect as it relates to our personal life in general. As explained above, anxiety, depression and emotional overwhelm (such as fear, frustration, rage, dissatisfaction, etc), are signs that we are feeling threatened in some way. These emotions may be so intense that they manifest as pain or other symptoms in the body.
It may be a threat to the lifestyle we’d like to live. Such as a threat to our financial stability, a threat within a relationship, the fear of not being good enough, or the fear of something happening (or the rage and helplessness related to something that has already happened, coupled with the fear of a negative event repeating itself).
It isn’t always simple to navigate emotions. Sometimes, we may be in complete self-denial about something, and unable to pinpoint where our sense of anxiety or depression originates from. This is why some individuals need additional therapy, or some form of emotional work.
Techniques like journaling or other forms of emotional release sometimes need to be employed in addition to pain reprocessing therapy (even if you think you don’t need them, it certainly won’t hurt exploring your emotional landscape!)
In an ideal world, people would acknowledge all the feelings that are making them feel threatened or stuck in some way. Sadly, some of us have been brought up to try and push away such feelings, in an effort to ‘get over’ or downplay negative experiences and stay positive. This can lead to strong emotions remaining stuck, and manifesting as anxiety, and, if the threat level is high enough - such as when a negative experience threatens to repeat itself - pain or other psychosomatic symptoms.
Getting aware of such emotions and feeling them is already a first step. In this way, we can rationalize what is happening to us, and clearly evaluate our current risks. This can help us feel safer in our present life, especially if we realize that our fears are not really likely to come true, or that we are simply holding on to a past misfortune that is no longer relevant.
Physiological processes like crying or the release of anger can also bring about emotional release, and an increased feeling of calm.
What if everything will be ok after all?
I wanted to end this post with this question, which we don’t often ask ourselves when we’re consumed in worry and fear. Remember, neuroplastic pain is a result of us not feeling safe: not feeling safe with our pain, or not feeling safe with something in our lives.
But what if things will actually work out?
Take a moment to objectively analyse your present life. Are your fears justified, or are you simply worried about the future? Is there anything you can change, and if yes, what’s keeping you for changing your life for the better? (hint: it’s probably fear!)
Would you really be scared and worried if you knew for sure that your pain doesn’t mean there’s anything seriously wrong with your physical health? That it’s just your brain feeling scared, and that it’s all reversible?
Studies on neuroplastic pain provide hope and, most importantly, results. Hundreds of people out there are recovering from chronic pain right now, by employing these concepts. If you’ve had pain for over 6 months, you’re probably no different. Your situation is not ‘special’. You can do this too.
If you need additional support, check out my Coaching offers, or my DIY Recovery Program. There is help right at your fingertips - all you need to do is be open to it.