The Pain Equation
Pain is complex (huge understatement, right?).
Especially, perhaps, chronic pain that's been around for years or even decades.
When you've thrown everything at your pain with minimal results it can feel like you're staring down the most complicated math problem you can imagine (like this poor guy in the image).
The good news?
Advances in the neuroscience of pain over the last decade or two have helped us get a much better understanding about the core inputs that go into the pain experience. This has helped simplify what we know about what creates pain.
Pain is, in many ways, a simple equation that your nervous system puts together:
PAIN = SENSATION + EMOTIONS + BELIEFS + EXPECTATIONS
Let's break those down a bit.
Sensation: This is the easiest to wrap our heads around perhaps, as sensation is the felt, physiological experience of pain. When our bodies detect injury or something dangerous to our bodies, our nervous systems generate a feeling that we generally don't like. We call that "pain." Pretty straightforward in concept, but it's also important to remember that tissue damage or measurable danger doesn't always correlate directly with the experience of pain, and that what we perceive as “dangerous” simply isn’t always accurate.
Emotions: Emotional factors, such as fear, anxiety, and stress, can significantly impact the perception of danger & pain. Your emotional state can amplify or mitigate the experience of pain, and people with heightened emotional distress often report more intense pain.
Beliefs: Beliefs about the cause and consequences of pain can influence your perception of pain. Someone who believes that their pain is a result of a serious injury, for example, may experience more intense pain compared to someone who perceives their pain as less threatening.
Expectations: Anticipating pain or expecting a certain level of pain can shape the actual experience. If you expect that bending over to tie your shoes will hurt your back, it'll likely hurt your back. Positive expectations or a belief in improvement, on the other hand, can contribute to a reduction in pain.
So, back to that good news.
This "pain equation" idea tells us that pain is indeed a complex biological, psychological, and social phenomenon. Something to be addressed holistically, not just as if something in your body's broken and needs fixed.
And when you learn to address all the elements of this equation, you can take the fuel out of the inputs that go into your pain equation, dramatically reducing or even eliminating your pain.
Want to learn how to unravel your pain equation and outsmart your pain? Head here.