Humans relate.  We relate to the world and each other often through speech.  Chronic pain recovery is a result of changing our relation to pain.  Often our speech is a main way we learn to relate to pain differently.  How we talk to our pain can have a big impact on its intensity and duration. 

Pain also talks. Through much of this work I have learned that neuroplastic pain is the brain’s way of speaking.  

During training with Freedom from Chronic Pain, Matt McClanahan summed up how the relational stance of resistance to neuroplastic pain makes the pain worse.  He used this simple equation:

Pain      x            Resistance        =            Suffering

I like this framing because it goes beyond common knowledge that fear is the fuel of pain.   And instead, it links us to the not-so obvious: the various ways that we resist pain and unintentionally fuel our fear.

Some people struggle with a sense of ‘tiredness’ that is sometimes medically labeled as ‘chronic fatigue.’  Howard Schubiner – a well know chronic condition specialist – describes chronic fatigue as a ‘mind-body syndrome’ meaning that chronic fatigue is often an habituated brain-body response to stress; that is, the fatigue is a brain generated danger signal.

In his book ‘Unlearn Your Pain’ Howard Schubiner describes the ‘paradoxical method’ of treating neuroplastic pain, which basically amounts to leaning into the pain and fearlessly daring the brain to turn up the pain volume.  Some people may wonder ‘Why would I want to lean into the pain and try to amplify it?’  It may sound counter-intuitive, but when we consider how neuroplastic pain is produced when the brain interprets normal and safe sensations as danger signals, it makes sense.  When we really lean into a pain sensation and tell the brain to ‘bring it on’ – instead of avoiding the pain through a fear response we can instead move toward it.  Intentionally ‘moving toward’ a perceived fearful stimulus teaches the brain that there is literally nothing to fear in the sensation itself.  A move toward cuts the pain-fear-pain cycle that fuels the brain’s ongoing production of pain.

Setbacks occur during chronic pain recovery – sometimes often.  And while many people will ‘keep calm and carry on,’ for the perfectionists of us out there, chronic pain setbacks can seem much bigger than they need to.  When an unexpected flare-up occurs, the perfectionist in us can go into overdrive. He may feel offended and self-critical, and may automatically go into a problem-solving mode, conjuring up an inner dialogue with common themes.  For instance, you may have experienced a similar inner dialogue as the following brief depiction:

People who experience neuroplastic pain conditions often rate high on trait conscientiousness.  I too share in this personality trait, and while practicing PRT in recent weeks to maintain my own pain recovery I have noticed a physiological pattern that occurs for me: I get anxiety when faced with a decision between spending time at my own self care and spending time with others.  My default mode is to ‘think of others first,’ and when faced with the decision between prioritizing ‘me’ or ‘others’ my brain produces a felt sense of ‘conflict’ in my body.  I get anxious.  My chest and stomach tighten.  Automatic thoughts emerge about ‘letting others down.’  A pre-emptive sense of disappointment can even emerge in the form of a double bind: the conflict of feeling disappointed for not doing ‘my thing’ compared with not doing something for or with others.