explain
pain
section
5
page
100
Threats hide in hard to spot places
It’s one sophisticated protective system!
A
n important theme of this book is that pain is a
protective device. Your brain is so sophisticated that it can
take into account anything that might be threatening your
livelihood. Thismeans that the sources of threat are diverse
– they can be lurking in places where youwould not look
unless you understood the true complexity of pain.
We have listed some threats in the table that are really
common for peoplewith persistent pain. Youmight
recognise some of them. Youmight have some others you
could add. Remember – ANYTHING that increases the
brain’s perception of the need to protect you can increase
your pain.
This diversity of potential threats can lead you into a cycle
of pain and disability fromwhich it can be really difficult to
break free. Some of the information that comes fromwell-
meaning but uninformed health professionals, friends,
family, lawyers andmedia canmake important
contributions to threat. Of course, different threats are
relevant to different people at different times.
Remind yourself of these two things: (1) your brainwants
to protect you from anything that it concludes is dangerous,
and (2) in persistent pain, when the dangermessenger
nerve and the pain ignition nodes are sensitised, any of
these threats, evenminor, can helpmaintain the pain
because they can activate the ignition nodes and set up the
orchestra to play the pain tune. And keep playing it.
You are in the driver’s seat here – you need to identify all
the threats that might be affecting your pain. You need to
be informed and understand asmuch as possible about
your body and your pain. Critically, you need to be brave
because some threats aremore difficult to accept than
others.
