When our nervous systems are in a calm state - we will most likely still feel some pain from an injury.
But you would perceive it as a mild sensation, without fearing it and gradually return to normal life fairly quickly.
But when we our fight or flight system has been triggered, we can become more fearful of the pain, stop moving and become de-conditioned quickly.
If we get a scan early on after our injury, we can easily attach our pain to structural changes on our scans. Obviously this is very important for acute, traumatic injuries, but for persistent pain the lines becomes blurred.
It can sometimes be very hard to ‘un-see’ a scan and erase this pattern of negative belief about our bodies being damaged, vulnerable and weak.
Sensitive Alarms
To understand chronic pain more simply, think of a house with a security alarm set up.
After the house was burgled a few months ago, the owners decided to set the alarm’s sensitivity to high so they could detect an intruder.
Instead of an intruder though, every time the wind blew strongly it would - setting off the alarm system.
The owners woke up to the alarm and prepared for a ‘fight-flight’ situation.
But each time the alarm went off, they didn’t find anything wrong.
After an injury, the body is biologically wired to act like a sensitive alarm system - magnifying small normal niggles.
This is a normal and healthy protective response.
For some people though, while the original injury can heal (normally taking no longer than 3-6 months), this protective response (highly sensitive alarm system) can remain in place indefinitely.
This can lead to overwhelming sense of anxiety and fear, that can turn into a downward spiral of inactivity, de-conditioning and eventually more pain.
Pain spiral
Fearing structural damage can lead to a fear of movement, as every movement hurts.
Lack of movement leads to reduced blood flow.
This can lead to an imbalance in neuro-transmitters (no pain relieving endorphins) which can make you feel pretty lousy.
De-conditioning sets in quickly and it can lead to a loss of confidence.
A spiral is created and can sometimes spin out of control.