FAQ - Are You Saying the Pain Is In My Head?

An Apology

Whoa, whoa there!!! Let's start with an apology. I am so sorry you thought your pain is in your head because someone even suggested something to you that left you with that impression. 

Even though it is not necessarily my apology to make if you have ever been told that your pain is in your head.

Many people see well-meaning medical practitioners who deliver their diagnosis, clinical impression following an assessment or treatment.

Unfortunately, they are left with the impression that their pain is in their head.

It's in their imagination, it's not real, it doesn't fit with any regular recognisable medical condition, and nothing can be done about it.

The information given by that practitioner is because what they have seen and what they understand does not fall within the scope of what they feel they can help you with.

They may have tried and failed, or they may have told you there's no point in trying anything else.

“How Dare They?”

Even though you may feel angry about the suggestion that someone doesn't believe that you are in pain and that you think they see that as something just in your head.

That would justifiably make anyone feel upset, or even angry, when in such a state of desperation, they feel they are not being listened to, heard, and understood. 

It's natural to feel helpless after being in pain for so long and seeing so many people. 

Then to finally get to someone with the suitable authority to give you the answers you desperately need, and for them to dare to insinuate that your pain is inside your head.

It is understandable to feel angry and even offended that they could even suggest that.

Your pain is real, you feel it every day, and you want someone to help you with it. 

Who’s to blame?

No one. 

There is no place for blame. This is no one's fault. 

It's not the fault of the clinician who told you what they told you. They didn't have the intent to upset or harm you further, despite you feeling worse from your interpretation of that appointment. 

It's certainly not your fault as you were simply expressing what pain you are experiencing and describing the impact that it’s having on your life. You want help and they want to help you. 

However, the misunderstanding of the true meaning of the cause of your chronic pain, leads you and your medical practitioner down a hopeless path.

Even if they started with good intentions to help you with a certain technique, pills, or procedure. 

Once these all fail and you are back in their office with the same or worse symptoms, they have nothing left to offer you. 

So Many Appointments

You are likely to have seen many people in your search for a resolution for your chronic pain.

Each failed intervention or attempt at recovery either leaves you frustrated at its failure or more fearful of the negative outlook that is given by the more people you see or the longer you fail to respond.

And once a name or label is given, that's almost the point at which you resign yourself to shut yourself down because of that label.

You limit your life because of it, or continue to fight against the pain you feel and carry on as best as you can despite it.

Often people come to the end of the line in terms of conventional medical interventions and end up in some form of formal or informal pain management situation.

They are provided with information and strategies that may temporarily help, but there's generally an acceptance of all involved that the person will have to live with their persistent pain.

It's a depressing resignation that happens all too often when recovery is possible if only the true meaning of your pain is discovered, understood, and acted upon.

Chronic pain, who’s to blame?

No one

Explanations

Some may have offered you the nuts and bolts explanation of what has happened in your brain for it to give you chronic or persistent pain.

This is often quite complicated for even medical practitioners to believe, let alone the person who’s in pain.

Because of the pain they're in and without the full concentration of faculties available that are limited when someone is in pain, many explanations fall short.

Pain Neuroscience Education (PNE) is a widely used method of giving patients an understanding of what has happened technically that has led to their development of chronic pain.

It's actually delivered by practitioners who understand the broader picture and are attempting to pass on that understanding to their patients.

One issue with this technical talk is that it doesn't offer the patient an individual opportunity to see the true meaning of their pain, so it never gives the ‘why’ it happened to them.

If it's given in a group setting, it is even more difficult for a person to understand how this technical talk relates to them.

Even though the principles or chronic pain development may be understood.

Delivering this information is all well and good, but most of the time it misses the point because the meaning of pain isn't clear and presented in a way that the patient can relate it to their personal situation.

Giving people technical information about how electricity works is useless if all they are interested in is looking for the light switch and learning how to press it. 

Meaning

Your persistent pain is not in your head (unless it's a headache!!!).

It’s as real as any other physiological change that you feel in your body, but it isn't down to the damage that could normally come with actual physical overload or damage.

At some point in time, that pain has become intertwined in your brain with emotions and other things that are now recognised as cues to trigger that pain.

These are associations that developed without you even realising they were developing.

They develop in the brain and are felt throughout the body.

The body is the brain and the brain is the body.

Once you accept this as a concept, then you no longer need to feel offended when you look back to the moment that you were told that the pain is in your head.

Holding onto that idea and curiously researching how you can reverse those emotional connections to pain can now actually point you in the correct place to look as you choose to recover.

Well, if you’re open to the idea that it’s not due to ‘damage’, you can start looking for the real reason. 

What’s next?
Take a Step Towards Recovery.

• Join our FREE private Facebook group, The Pain Habit Community, to learn how others have successfully returned to a pain-free life and get support on your journey.

• Subscribe to The Pain Habit YouTube channel. 

• Buy The Pain Habit book. Buy It Here.