Thread by @painphysio

We have beliefs about pain.

Most people have experienced pain (a rare few can’t) and have been told things about it.

The one thing the person knows is that it hurts and has a particular quality—the actual experience.

#thepaincoach #pain

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Then there’s the story. What we tell ourselves: What has happened? What it means? What’s the cause? The future? All are highly convincing yet often wrong.

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The misunderstanding of pain could be the most important reason why persistent pain has become a leading global health burden & why treatment outcomes are so poor.

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Myths:

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* pain & injury are related — they’re not. There’s huge variation and no reason why they would be related. Instead, we need flexibility based on context. Eg, if you are injured but need to get away, pain wouldn’t be useful if it stopped your escape.

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Pain is better thought of as a perception, a lived experience that best explains the person’s lived world considering circumstances, past experience, beliefs, emotion, environment, expectations & attention.

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* there is physical pain & psychological pain — this is a false divide. We have just one experience of what it is like. The separation of body & mind causes much wrong thinking.

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* pain is in the brain — no, pain is where you experience it.

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* there are pain patterns you can see on brain scans — no, you can’t see pain. You can see colours that describe activity in the brain. This is not pain. The pattern you see is objective, pain is subjective.

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* there are pain signals or messages— no, pain is a perception, not a signal. Pain is a lived experience. You can’t feel a signal.

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* there are pain centres in the brain — no, there is a complex interplay of brain areas that are not specific to pain.

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We don’t fully understand how the brain plays a role in our lived experience of pain, but there are some excellent ideas (eg/ predictive processing). We need a brain for pain but we also need a body & a lived world.

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Understanding pain unlocks the door to overcoming pain.

We need society to understand pain and move on from the myths.

#thepaincoach #pain

richmondstace.com

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