Chronic Pain and How it Relates to Tissue Damage and Communication

Let’s talk about chronic pain. It’s a touchy subject, however, the more we talk about chronic pain and how it relates to function, the more we can understand how to treat it. These points are not addressing acute pain. If you are experiencing acute pain that has come on out of nowhere, please talk to your primary care physician ASAP.

  • Chronic pain is most likely not due to tissue damage (i.e. muscle/tendon tear, herniated disc, arthritis)
    • Maybe at one time that tissue damage was the cause of your pain, but 3 months later, the pain is due to other factors
    • Most patients come to the clinic with some form of imaging completed and there tends to be these scary terms on there that inadvertently make you feel broken.
    • You are more than your imaging. Your story, past experiences, belief system, and current circumstances all impact the way you feel pain.
  • Let’s think about pain more as a communication device and thankfully it is a two way connection
    • Our nervous system controls the communication device in our body (it connects the brain to the rest of the body). And each sub-system in the nervous system has a different way to communicate with you.
    • When the nervous sytem senses a threat (either real or perceived), it sends a signal that is experienced as pain. This then communicates to you that:
      • Something needs to change
      • You are in fight or flight mode
      • You are experiencing certain emotions
    • Since it is a two way communication device, you can then respond to the message and change your current situation to attempt to reduce those pain signals.