A sound system is made up of microphones, leads, amplifiers and speakers. Each part of the system has a volume control. If you turn the volume up to 10 on any part of the system, even without speaking into the microphone, the speakers will hum, and when you whisper into the microphone, the speakers will scream at you.
Chronic pain is the same. If you turn one of the parts of the pain system up to 10 (let alone the entire system), then you don’t necessarily need an obviously big injury to experience an enormous amount of pain.
We will take you through the factors that turn up and down the volume controls within your pain system. We’ll explain the science of how these factors work, and what is, and isn’t in your control.
Our second favorite way to think about pain is “The Pain Pie”. Understanding these two analogies empower you to create your very own personal “Pain Puzzle” so we can help you cut your pain down more and more as you identify and address each piece.
Chronic pain is not in your head.
It’s not just because the brain is a prediction generating machine and you’re misinterpreting a signal.
Explaining Pain as something that is just an electrical signal from your nerves that only becomes “Pain” when it gets to your brain, can be pretty offensive. Especially when the pain has taken everything you love, your job, your family, and your sense of self.
There are multiple better ways to think about pain that we will take you through. One of our favorite of which is pain is a sound system.
“Freedom is not found in having no pain. It is found in learning to create a life worth living despite it.”
— Justine Feitelson
