Awesome evening attending the book launch of the new edition of 'Explain Pain: Supercharged' with Pain Educator, Author & Legendary Physiotherapist David Butler.
A few nuggets that I took away:
- Chronic Pain (lasting more than 3 months) is complex - and needs to be considered from a Bio Psycho Social (BPS) perspective
- Pain is a protector. There is no need for a 'war on pain' & this defensive attitude can create more problems
- There is no such thing as a 'pain receptor'. Your brain only ever receives 'potential damage messages' from the tissues, not 'pain' as such. Depending on the context, the brain then creates the pain experience to get your attention and motivation to change behavior.
- Your thoughts about your pain and injury have real and direct correlations with the immune and nervous system.
- Catastrophization about your experience can literally turn up the sensitivity dial to the sensations coming from your tissues.
- Innocuous twinges can become amplified, like an overly sensitive car alarm that goes off every time a strong wind blows.
- "RECOVERY is right on the cards "
- The pills aren't working for chronic pain sensitization (33,091 Americans died from opioid overdoses, according to the Centres for Disease Control—almost three times the number who perished in 2002), neither is the surgery. Might work better with pain education combined with gradual return to activity
- Education + reconceptualising out-dated and unhelpful beliefs is the most powerful tool we have !
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