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Emotional & Physical Pain Are Almost The Same - To Your Brain

Neuroimaging reveals that the brain activates the same regions when experiencing emotional pain as it does with physical pain.

Understanding Somatic Symptoms

Physical symptoms of emotional distress are called somatic symptoms. Most people relate to somatic symptoms in examples like butterflies in the stomach or a racing heart when nervous.

However, for some, dysregulation/ineffective emotional processing causes physical changes and sensitization in neurons responsible for sensing pain.

Through conditioning, complex physical symptoms develop in response to certain emotional triggers. Over time, this becomes habitual and “how your brain works", posing a challenge to break.

Examples include routine migraine headaches or pain elsewhere on certain days of the week/important dates in the year or predicting that certain activities will result in pain.

Pain reprocessing therapy intervenes to disrupt this cycle.

Survival Brain - Fight, Flight, Freeze

People tend to downplay life experiences, overlooking the vulnerability of the brain to stress, especially in childhood. Stress can cause emotional dysregulation and fundamentally alter the brain, transforming it into a Survival Brain.

A Survival Brain is Hyper-Vigilant all the time.

People in survival mode increase their risk for developing mind-body symptoms, as both the brain and body must constantly work overtime to achieve feelings of safety, resulting in physical and mental exhaustion.

Complex Trauma

While most are familiar with PTSD (obvious traumatic events such as an accident), C-PTSD (Complex and Developmental Trauma) is often overlooked because the experiences either occurred early in life, aren't recalled, or feel insignificant.

Most people with neuroplastic pain have experienced some degree of early life adversity, such as loss, neglect, ostracisation or grief, and upon reflection, realise that at some point in their lives a crucial relationship didn't feel entirely safe.

Insecurity in fundamental relationships leads to the development of certain personality traits and adaptations in behaviour to find safety. Here's a list of personality traits associated with chronic pain disorders:

Perfectionism, People Pleasing, Legalist, Stoic, Anxiety, Depression and Fear, Low Self-Esteem, Hostility, Aggression, Dependency.

These traits are often in cahoots with repressed emotions and can provoke physical symptoms. They stem from the disappointment of unmet needs and are restrictive in nature. They alter behaviour and how you relate to others. You may believe these traits help you cope and manage your relationships short-term, but long-term they backfire, creating distress and conflict.

These traits become integrated into who you think you are and keep you stuck unless their usefulness is challenged.

Click here to find out more https://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/TMS_Personality_Traits

I was 21 when I started experiencing chronic pain and it completely derailed my life.

Three decades later, multiple diagnoses of generalised anxiety disorder, tension and migraine headaches, back, neck, face and jaw pain, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, IBS, and post-viral illness, and one sole purpose - Survival.

The fun had been sucked out of life, and I felt scared, broken, and hopeless.

One pivotal day, I discovered that my poor health might be a nervous system disorder caused by chronic stress.

For the first time in years, I felt hopeful that nothing was irreversibly wrong with me.

The work began, and 8 weeks later, many chronic symptoms had reduced or disappeared simply because my thoughts had changed about what the symptoms meant.

Such rapid improvements shed light on the power my thoughts and beliefs had over my experience and perception of pain.

Despite the virtual nature and the loneliness of using an app for chronic pain recovery, I witnessed remarkable progress. Many chronic symptoms faded away.

While improvements in migraine headaches took more time, within a year, the frequency plummeted from two migraines a month to just four a year.

They were no longer chronic and diminished further with each passing year.

Inspired by this transformative experience, I envisioned creating a more personal solution, one that was both affordable and deeply impactful.

The Chronic Pain and Chronic Migraine Recovery Program was the result.