By Raeanne Ramsay
Chronic pain can be overwhelming, affecting both your body and your mind. Physical symptoms like muscle aches, joint pain, chronic fatigue, and headaches often go hand in hand with emotional challenges such as anxiety, depression, and irritability. This pain can disrupt your daily life, making it hard to work, maintain relationships, and enjoy the things you love. Over time, the emotional strain can be just as tough as the physical pain, creating a cycle that makes everything feel worse.
Living with chronic pain can feel lonely and isolating. If you've ever felt dismissed or misunderstood, it’s important to know that there is hope. By understanding how chronic pain works, you can start to reclaim control of your life.
The Brain’s Need for Safety and Protection
Pain is your brain’s way of responding to what it perceives as a threat. For example, when you sprain your ankle, your brain sends pain signals to that area, encouraging you to rest and avoid putting weight on it to prevent further injury.
However, the brain doesn’t always get it right. Sometimes, it misinterprets what is or isn’t a threat. If your brain has learned to associate certain movements, emotions, or situations with danger, it may trigger pain or other uncomfortable symptoms in an attempt to keep you “safe.” For instance, if you have learned through past experiences (even as early as childhood) that failure should be avoided at all costs, you might experience pain, headaches, or anxiety when faced with situations where there’s a risk of failing.
Our brains are wired for survival, constantly on the lookout for threats. This “predictive coding” helps us react quickly to danger. But if your brain keeps seeing threats where there are none, it can continue to send pain signals over time, impacting your quality of life.
Who’s at Risk?
Anyone can experience chronic pain, but certain factors can make it more likely, such as:
● Previous injuries
● Emotional, psychological, or physical trauma
● Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
● Perfectionist traits
● High levels of stress
Understanding these factors can help you better manage chronic pain and take steps toward healing.
How Can We Help?
Counselling can play a crucial role in managing and treating chronic pain. It provides support for the emotional challenges that come with chronic pain and helps identify the underlying triggers. Once identified, counselling can help retrain the parts of your brain that are keeping you in pain.
As an Intern Counselor at South Okanagan Counselling, I offer low-cost therapy to treat chronic pain. I’m trained in Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) and Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET), both of which can support you on your journey to recovery.
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