“The strain of pain lies mainly in the brain."
Dr S. Mackey
In May 2022, a study reported that 26% of all UK adults are living with chronic pain. Over a quarter of the UK adult population is living with pain they have been told will likely be permanent. However, an increasing number of studies are also reporting that a high proportion of these cases of chronic pain have no physical cause or injury.
Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), a revolutionary new psychotherapy for chronic pain, is successfully curing chronic pain in ever more patients who were labelled "Medically Untreatable”. As a consequence, it is now becoming widely accepted that chronic pain originates from the mind, not the body, and can be successfully treated with psychological therapies by removing the expectation of pain.
Understanding the pain signal: All pain signals exist only in the brain.
When we injure ourself, the injured limb or body part sends a signal to the brain to report structural damage. If we were unlucky enough to break our leg, the signal from the leg would say that a bone is no longer aligned as it should be, and the muscles cannot contract as they should do without further damage occurring. This is not a pain signal per se, but the brain then triggers a pain signal to ensure that we immediately stop trying to walk or run on our damaged leg. This pain signal continues in the weeks after the injury whilst the leg tries to heal. Pain is therefore an important brain signal to protect us from further harm.
But sometimes, the pain signal continues even when we are healed and no longer at risk of harming ourselves. This long-term pain is diagnosed as chronic pain.
Why would a pain signal persist when we are completely healed?: Because it’s Neuroplastic.
A popular phrase when discussing the nervous system is “Neurons that fire together, wire together”. Any nerve signals that occur at the same time typically “wire together”, so that one automatically triggers the other. This is a neurological shortcut that allows our brains to learn actions and responses quickly and is an example of our brains being “Neuroplastic” (capable of being adaptable).
So when we try to move our broken leg, the leg signals to the brain that there is “structural damage”, and the brain produces a strong “pain” signal that stops us from being tempted to move it again. The signals of “leg muscles are moving” and “pain” eventually trigger each other so often that they wire together, helping us to learn that we will feel pain if we try to move our broken leg:
This rewiring can sometimes occur so effectively however, that the initial leg signal of “structural damage has occurred” is no longer required to trigger a pain response. If this is the case, the brain will continue to signal pain every time the leg muscles move, regardless of whether the structural damage still persists, or has in fact healed entirely:
This long-term experience of pain eventually causes us to expect it:
If my chronic pain is Neuroplastic, how do I retrain my brain to stop the unnecessary pain signal?
Pain Reprocessing Therapy helps patients to reconnect with their body and feel which sensations are truly there, instead of which sensations they have come to expect. Body Scanning techniques are taught to allow patients to accurately identify positive, neutral, and negative sensations in their body, whilst practicing a non-judgemental mindset. This mindset helps patients to no longer fear pain, which in turn stops them from expecting it. In time, patients are able to focus on the comfortable and neutral sensations they are now able to detect in the formerly painful area of their body, disrupting the pain signal from the brain and helping it to rewire once again:
At Nurtured Minds, Pain Reprocessing Therapy techniques are taught and reinforced with hypnotic suggestions. If you suspect that your pain could be neuroplastic, contact the practice today to start the rewiring process and your journey to being pain-free.
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