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Zillagreybeard 4 years, 2 months ago.
3 Factually Incorrect Beliefs, surrounding pain
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3 Factually Incorrect Beliefs, surrounding pain
Pain experiences are unique, and 2 people will likely not experience the same thing even when the diagnosis may be the same.
In this post we’re going to take a look at 3 Pain “misconceptions” that are commonly seen as truth by people.. which are, however, factually untrue.
1) Pain is structural, and more pain = more structural damage. Is that true?
In reality, there’s a disconnection between the intensity of the chronic pain and the serverity of the tissue damage like joint degeneration, and the serverity of the experience has likely more to do with the Nociceptive signals that are sent to the Central Nervous System. (Lars Arendt Nielsen et al., 2017)
2) The source of pain is *always* peripheral.
While cutting your finger, breaking a bone or spraining an ankle certainly hurt and recovering alleviates pain.. that’s not the case when pain is experienced chronically, even in absence of any structural damage (which even if there, generally heals up within a couple months).
Pain physiology teaches us the science of pain, and how the sensory experience is modulated through “Nociception”. Psychology factors such as our emotional state, pain beliefs, and memories can trigger nociceptive signals which as a result trigger greater pain experiences, even if there’s no structural anomaly.
3) We need to know what the source of pain is.
Regardless of the diagnosis (which may very well be wrong!), addressing our issue makes us feel better. This is why we look for structural anomalies and try to find problems.. where problems likely aren’t even there. (Brinjiki et al., 2015, Nakashima et al., 2015, Guermazi et al., 2012, De Grande et al., 2016)
Ultimately coming to terms with the idea that our bodies can and should feel pain, and understanding that experiencing it is “not the end of the world”, sets up the base for finally changing our beliefs and identity related to our understanding of pain experiences, which can help us overcome the problems we may be facing, facilitating the journey of recovery!