Come again?

My sore back is hurting my brain?

Please explain.

How familiar are grumbles like this…

“I did my back years ago at work, and every time I get back on the tools I seem to tweak it.”

“Footy wrecked my knees, every winter I suffer. It’ll probably just get worse as I get older like my Dad…he’s had two knee replacements, only had more trouble.”

“I can’t do anything now with this shoulder, actually more like this whole arm. The Physio says it’s a bad frozen shoulder and I’ve lost more than half my movement range.”

What if someone told you that your pain from a physical injury is not a bad back, it’s not wrecked knees, or a frozen shoulder. What if you were told it’s your brain that’s hurting, not your body? You’d probably need a damn good explanation and some solid science to start thinking differently wouldn’t you.

Well, here goes…

We absolutely know it’s not about ‘what if’s?’ Decades of rigorous and respected research confirm the highly complex way that pain works. This science believes everything you have to say about your individual chronic pain experience, it understands pain can affect all aspects of your life, and this science knows it is not ‘all in your head’ (with the relentless stigma that statement can carry) - it’s all in your brain. It explains carefully what is actually going on in the body and what is happening in the brain - from the moment you do the physical damage, to ten years down the track, where your still saying ‘argh this [blanking] aching…’

Let’s rewind to the point of injury, say it’s your back…

You’ve heard a crunch, you’ve felt the twang, and now you are on the ground.

First, it is your brain and its masterful networks that have put you on the floor. You are on the ground because you are precious (there is only one of you), there have been some serious danger messages sent to your commander, and the best place to protect you is lying down.

The messages sent to your brain from your body are NOT pain messages, they are ‘something has happened here, and we might be in danger’ messages. Your brain takes this information and creates the experience of pain. Pain is an output, not an input. Your brain is telling you what you feel is pain to stop you doing anything to cause more harm to yourself and to protect you until it can work out what is wrong.

Now your brain is going to light up in more than 16 different areas to try and work out what is going on. It is going to activate the brain regions responsible for answering these questions:

Ok, [blank], what have I done?

Where are we?

What does my body tell me?

Where does my body feel something is different?

What does my body look like?

What can I sense – smell, taste, touch, see, hear?

What am I thinking about right now?

How am I moving?

Who is with me?

How am I feeling? what emotions? – scared? sad? silly?

What do I know about what is happening right now?

Have we done this or been here before?

What do I believe about what is going on?

Your brain gathers up all this information and pops the same little yellow pain post-it tags on this moment, in all the different brain areas, and highlights it: at this moment, this thing happened, and I experienced pain. From this point on, all these tagged brain cells are connected, when one is triggered the rest might follow from now on.

Then you go and get some immediate help…

All the same areas of your brain are lighting up, they are meant to, about 5% of their responsibility is how you interpret the danger signals and may then experience pain. Your brain pulls out the tagged files and keeps adding information to the files. More neurons in each of the areas are becoming associated with this pain tagged network.

The doctors says stuff, and you are thinking “So, he says ‘it’s a herniated disc, and you have limited options’…I don’t know what that is exactly, but it sounds real bad” – neurons in the ‘what do we know?’ area grab some confused friends and include them in the pain network.

The physio says “Gee, you must be in a lot of pain from what I can see from your scans” – he is nice and he’s meant to be a pain expert, so we add some more ‘informed’ brain cells to the pain network.

Your partner says “Oh, honey, let me do that, you look awful and you’ve been so snappy, must be the pain hey” – let’s just invite a few more neurons from the emotional and intimate brain areas to join the pain party.

If not pulled in line, the pain tagged network is growing, tiny brain post-its everywhere. You’re not at 5% anymore, maybe 10% of the neurons in the areas of your brain with responsibilities related to how you interpret danger and experience pain are sparking up. Bam! You’re thinking “why do I feel worse now when I did my back weeks ago?”…

Is it starting to make some sense why?

During this phase your body is taking care of the injury to the tissues, it knows how to heal, and it gets down to the business of fixing you from the moment you are damaged. We know these healing mechanisms really well, the right health professional will guide you to make the most of what your body knows how to do. Within a relatively short period your body will have done as much as it can to put things in the tissues right. What we are not working on in this phase is the brain, and we should be, from the get-go.

Fast forward to a year, even 5 or 10 years after you ‘did your back’…

Brains like connections, brains strive to make them with everything you think, feel and do. Every moment, every day. Brains really work hard to make these connections stronger and faster if it feels somehow it protects you, if it is helpful or makes things easier for the person.

Over time with chronic pain, your brain has learnt pain, it has become wired for it. Those tiny brain pain post-it’s are out of control, they are stuck everywhere, it’s a hot wild mess. All the brain regions responsible for how you interpret the danger signals, and may then experience pain, are connected through these tags. Now as much as 25% of the neurons in each area – quite the blow out. Spark just one of those tagged neurons off and you can explode the whole expanded network. No wonder, for so many people, years later their pain experience is worse (often much worse), not better.

It’s why weird triggers, like watching your neighbour clean his gutters (something you wouldn’t dare even try anymore), makes your back twinge and you feel overwhelmed, tired, like the couch is the only place to be. Remember, you weren’t the one up there flicking out leaves, but your mirror neurons – the brain cells that light up when you watch someone else do something – were lighting up like mad, and the wild pain network was alarmed. What you experienced then was a brain ‘flare up’, the output was your experience of pain…and you did nothing but watch.

Oh, you’re thinking, [insert whatever blanking you like here], is it stuck like this?

NO, definitely not, it is NOT stuck like this.

Just as you learnt pain, your ever-changing brain CAN CHANGE and unlearn pain, and you can start changing it for the better today.

The super savvy scientists, that have devoted huge chunks of their lives to pain science, also happen to be some of the most altruistic (and amusing) caring professionals on the planet. They have developed, and continue to fine tune, highly specific brain-based programs designed to reclaim your brain, neuron by precious neuron, from pain.

These programs have been painstakingly proven to work independently, however, when delivered together, and combined with:

· thorough functional neuroimaging

· comprehensive assessments

· highly individualised treatment goals and plans

· non-invasive brain stimulation designed to ‘speed up’ brain change

· a cohort of other evidence-based treatments

· intense clinical support from a comprehensively trained Team of Clinicians

You set yourself up for the greatest possible success in retraining your brain to unlearn pain. Getting the best targeted help to pull apart the unwanted and unneeded pain network, ripping every one of those wild pain post-it’s off each little brain cell along the way. Learning so much about the inner workings of your pain experience in the process, it will change your brain and your life forever.