Is Your Chronic Pain a Mindbody Symptom - and therefore resolvable? Part 1

The incredible thing about discovering your symptoms are from a mindbody/neuroplastic source (even those you might have had for years) is that by gradually applying the right knowledge & strategies, those symptoms are given the chance to either fully resolve or at least significantly settle. 

Yet trying to work out if your chronic or recurring symptoms are from a mindbody (neuroplastic) source - and then accepting that conclusion - can be quite tricky. This is because it feels like your symptoms are coming from the body part that hurts - & it's not how we've been brought up to think!

However, neuroscience has now shown us that our brains are capable of generating any physical sensation in any part of the body - a fact that can be challenging to get your head around!  ;-)

So I thought it would help to offer some guidance that's developed from neuroscience, research & decades of experience from experts in this field - the PPDAssociation.org (1) and SIRPA.org(2).

First you have to know that all pain you feel is very real, including when it’s from a mindbody/neuroplastic source.

Secondly, a structural cause needs to be ruled out. That is:

i)   You've not had a physical incident with significant force to create a tear, break or bruise in the body part, or ...

ii)  You have had a physical incident with significant force to create a tear, break or bruise in the relevant body part BUT you've given it enough time and care for it to heal. Our bodies are generally amazing at healing - they've been evolving to do so for millenia. So this usually means appropriate rest & rehab for 6-12 weeks, and...

iii) You've been cleared of fracture, infection, tumour, cauda equina symptoms or an autoimmune condition by your doctors.

Then, the next step is to “rule in” a mindbody/neuroplastic condition, and there are a number of patterns and signs that help indicate a likely mindbody source. Most people with neuroplastic symptoms have several of these features, but just having one may still indicate a neuroplastic source (3)...

So, do any of the following match your symptoms: -

The circumstances around which symptoms first started:

i)  Perhaps the most important to acknowledge is symptoms starting around a time of significant challenge, upheaval, change, loss or other life difficulty & stress.

For example, when I was juggling teenage family, a new business, two elderly relatives with significant daily struggles and a corporate battle that landed in my lap, I developed chronic foot pain, aka bilateral plantar fasciitis. 

ii)  Symptoms starting without an injury, maybe during or soon after doing a movement or activity that’s been done many, many times before without problems.

For example, I woke up one morning with a recurrence of severe back pain, so much so I had to crawl to the bathroom. There are no significant mechanical causes to create tissue injury whilst resting as normal in bed overnight. There was, however, an ongoing significant emotional upset from the day before that I believe was key to the pain starting. (That's a story for another day!)

iii)  Symptoms persisting well beyond the normal healing time for an injury (6-12 weeks), or symptoms restarting in a prior injury site that had already fully healed.

iv) Symptoms starting on the anniversary of an influential & difficult life event (the subconscious remembers).

v)  A new symptom appearing, often in another body area, around the time another persistent symptom settled down.

vi)  A symptom developing that was very similar to one that you've previously witnessed, often with much upset, in another person - or persons.

For example, my good friend in junior school developed severe back pain for no apparent medical reason - and within weeks I too had developed severe back pain for which the doctors could find no physical reason. Looking back, I can see a huge emotional challenge I was facing at the time. That back pain was my subconscious trying to protect me from having to go through the challenge - and my friend's back pain was probably her subconscious hard at work on her behalf too.

There are many other typical patterns and considerations, beyond how symptoms started, that can also help determine if they're likely to be from a mindbody source - and I look into those in detail in Parts 2 & 3 of this series of blog articles...

Please do go and have a read after finishing below!

*****

So, if you’ve realised that your symptoms do have a similar pattern to one or more of the above, then great!  Because if your chronic symptoms are indeed from a neuroplastic source, then you have a good chance of finally gaining significant relief or even full recovery.

Many thousands with often years of chronic symptoms have already recovered with this approach and are now enjoying wonderful, fully active and fulfilling lives, both at work and at home, free from their symptoms.

If you'd like to find out more, please watch my free & helpful introductory webinar on the mindbody approach.

If you watch through to the end you'll also be invited to book a free Discovery Call with me to share your story and discuss whether my comprehensive & supportive 10-Step online Freedom From Pain programme, which is both live and interactive, would be the right choice for you.

I’d be honoured to guide and support you towards your recovery.

References:

(1) October 2024: The PPDAssociation.org has a new name, The Association for the Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms - ATNS - with a new branding, "Symptomatic".

(2) SIRPA.org: SIRPATM - the Stress Illness Recovery Practitioners' Association, UK

(3) "A Diagnostic Guide for Psychophysiologic Disorders" by D Clarke MD, D Schechter MD & H Schubiner MD, 2022

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