explain
pain
section
4
page
80
Thoughts and beliefs are nerve impulses too
Thought viruses are very common and very worrying
T
he brain is responsible formaking the final decision as
towhether something is dangerous for body tissue and
action is required. We wrote earlier that as humans, we
have a terrific advantage over non-humans because we can
plan for events and are better at learning quickly from
experiences, using logic to predict the future. Thismeans
that we can identify a situation as potentially dangerous
before there is any input at a tissue level. This is all very
well, but when the system is really sensitive (as it is in
chronic pain), inputs unrelated to tissue damage but judged
by our brain as dangerous, can be enough to cause pain.
Youwon’t know that it is your brain that has decided that
it is dangerous. You just know that it hurts!!
You are a copycat and you don’t know it
It is well known that some people with persistent pain need
only think of amovement or watch someone else perform a
movement for it to produce pain. In fact, for some patients,
just imaginingmovement can also cause swelling in the
painful part.
6,130-132
Many patients have told us that ‘it
hurts if I think about it’. This is completely understandable
and these people are definitely not going crazy. An amazing
thing about the brain is that it is always copying other
people – for example, smiling, yawning even crying. But
think about this – if you see someone in pain, lifting a
heavy box, hear someone swear or read about an injury in
the paper, if your protection system is sensitised even these
things can turn up the ignition nodes and perhaps turn on
a pain neurotag. In fact, this is very sensible if you
remember that your brainhas learned to be very good at
protecting you from anything thatmight be dangerous to
your tissues. There are copycat neurones in our brains,
known asmirror neuroneswhich fire when you think of
moving or if you imagine amovement.
Thoughts are nerve impulses
Our thought are very real. They are due to chemicals released
in the brain andnerve impulses. Thoughts like ‘this health
professional thinks I am putting it on’, ‘theMRI couldn’t find
it so itmust be really bad and deep’, and ‘Aunt Deidre had
back pain and she is now in awheelchair’ are threatening to
a brain concerned about your survival. These thoughts and
the fear of certain activities, or a fear of re-injury, can
increase pain.
Through scientific research, we are now aware of the
thought processes which are powerful enough tomaintain a
pain state.
eg.133,134
We call them ‘thought viruses’. Some of
themost powerful thought viruses known to cause and
enhance a low back pain experience (and probably pain
experiences anywhere in the body) are described in the
figure on page 81.
