What is Neuroplastic Pain?

Pain is the body’s danger signal.  If we injure ourselves, the body normally sends signals to the brain telling it about the injury and the brain then creates pain.  That pain signal is important because it’s meant to stop us from doing something that would do further damage! (Think: hand on hot stove! OUCH!) We wouldn’t survive very long without pain warning us when we are doing something dangerous!! 

​However, recent studies have shown that many people who suffer from chronic pain - defined as pain that has lasted for more than 3 months - may actually suffering from something called “neuroplastic pain”.  What is neuroplastic pain, you ask? Well, neuroplastic pain is not actually the result of a structural injury, it’s the brain misinterpreting safe signals from the body as if they are harmful.  The brain is making a mistake.

Why does this false alarm happen?  So many reasons!! Here are a few:

Some may have suffered from an injury that healed but the pain persisted long afterwards. 

Some may have developed symptoms during a particularly stressful time in their lives.  Either way, the brain gets caught in a feedback loop that can be hard to uncover.  But it’s due to learned neural pathways - and what can be learned can also be unlearned.  And that is great news!

 Although neuroplastic pain can be treated psychologically, the pain is absolutely not imaginary. Recent brain imaging studies have clearly shown that not only is the pain very real, but neuroplastic pain activates the same parts of the brain that are involved in the processing of emotion, memory and learning - not the same areas that are activated when you have an acute injury.

Chronic or Persistent Pain

Healing is possible.

The brain is amazing. It holds our knowledge, skills, personality, creativity, emotions, language, and memory. It constantly sends signals to our bodies, triggering our breathing, muscle movements, and even our heartbeats. Our brains also send pain signals to let us know when something is wrong. But pain – and sources of pain – aren’t always straightforward. We’ve been conditioned to look for physical and biological sources of pain, like injury or illness. But pain can stem from stress and emotions, creating neural pathways that manifest as physical symptoms. The mind/body connection is powerful! The brain sends signals, and the body responds. Think about how we blush when we’re embarrassed, how our heart rates elevate and breathing quickens when we’re scared, and how we feel nauseous when we receive bad news.

Pain that is chronic or medically unexplained can have dramatic effects on a person’s wellbeing, outlook, and lifestyle. For some, the pain can become relentless and unresponsive to any attempt to decrease the symptoms. It may even be disabling. If you’ve exhausted the traditional avenues for healing and improvement with little or no success, or if you’ve received a vague diagnosis, like “medically unexplained pain” or “chronic pain” or “functional disorder” or “centralized pain” –  you might feel a bit hopeless. And if you’ve ever been told that nothing is wrong with you – that it’s all in your head, or that you’ll learn to live with it, I’m sorry you had this experience.

Your pain is real. Your brain is sending signals to get your attention, but those signals don’t tell us what’s wrong. Together, we’ll work to uncover the roots of your pain and change your body’s response to it, with an objective of decreased frequency, intensity, and duration of symptoms. Instead of allowing the pain to drain your energy, we want to reverse that flow and reclaim your power. We’ll move beyond simply tolerating pain, into an awareness that allows you to be proactive instead of reactive. Pain may be where you are today, but it doesn’t have to be where you are forever. There is hope.

If you have questions, or if you believe you could benefit from these services, let’s talk.