Disrupt the Pain-Fear Cycle

Fear increase = pain increase. But what if you are so worried about what your pain means?  How can you not fear it? It’s natural, by the way.

Cue a snowball of negative thoughts projecting right into the future. Soon you have a catastrophic disaster of epic proportions facing you that you feel so overwhelmed you can’t cope.

And that’s when the pain ramps up even more. So then you become more fearful of it getting worse. And then you get even more pain.

What if you could disrupt this pain-fear cycle?

We know already that pain doesn’t always mean damage. In the case of neuroplastic/chronic pain, it is almost always your brain overreacting and sending messages to wherever your pain is to stop you from ‘damaging’ yourself further.

So instead of panicking next time you feel pain try to reassure yourself that you are safe.

When I catastrophised about my pain it would often be about how terrible the far flung future would be. So one way I stopped this was to make up a story that by then there would be a solution and I would have spent all this time worrying about it but it would be okay.

Another technique people use as soon as they begin going down this rabbit hole of doom, is just catching themselves and saying ‘stop’ then think about something else.

Positive Feedback = Less Pain

It’s amazing the amount of times my pain has decreased after getting positive feedback from a specialist. When the consultant gave me the results of my MRI scan, my pain levels reduced when I realised there was no physical damage.

Similarly, after speaking to my pain coach I always felt more positive and less fearful and so my pain reduced. How incredible is it that that the brain can influence the pain our body produces just by how much fear (or not) we have about the pain?

Reassure your brain

It is so hard to not feel fear when you feel pain. But remembering that the formula works the other way – that fear decrease=pain decrease – can really help with recovery.

 So recognise the fear when you feel it, reassure your overactive brain, and gradually your pain levels will reduce. It definitely takes time and this is not a quick-fix solution.

But you are in control of your fear, which should give you a feeling of empowerment that you can actually do something about your pain.

Read Try Somatic Tracking to try a specific technique to help