So a couple days  ago I wrote about how our bodies deal with pain. I focused mainly on acute pain and how our body’s reaction to acute pain keeps us safe and prepared for emergencies. I spoke of how our bodies learn from each pain experience. Also, I wrote about how, when we repeatedly think about our pain experience over and over again, our brains naturally do this. Our brains want to not only remember the experience, but to be motivated and able to avoid a similar threat in the future. I was happy to learn that I’m not actually the most negative person by letting the pain be ever present in my life. No, it’s normal and is our bodies way of protecting us. This certainly helps me feel a bit more normal. We are quick to judge ourselves as negative or stuck or many other things, it was nice to learn that this was not the case.

Now, chronic pain is a different thing. The protective pain response that occurs with acute pain often becomes overprotective in the case of chronic pain. Our bodies can become over sensitive to threats and end up sending messages to the brain that a threat is present, whether or not the threat is minor. Also, our brains tend to interpret situations as threatening and sensations as painful, far out of proportion to any real danger. The more we experience pain, the more the aspects of our pain responses – sensation, suffering and stress, blur together allowing any one of them to trigger a full-blown protective pain response. Many people with chronic pain are on guard, waiting for the next time pain strikes, or for the pain to get worse. Our nervous systems are also doing the same thing! This is refered to as pain sensitization. So, our nerve endings can become so sensitive that pressure, tension or inflammation makes them react, even to relatively minor physical sensations. Our brain is on alert for these reactions, and teaches the nervous system to fast track the threat signals to and between certain areas of the brain. The whole communication system is fine-tuned and sped up. This can result in pain that may be far beyond any real threat to the body. (I found the above information & quoted some almost word-for-word from the book by Kelly McGonigal, “Yoga For Pain Relief.”) 

On a more personal level, this doesn’t mean that, when I’m in pain, I am wrong about my experience or making it up. (Nor am I saying that anyone else with chronic pain is doing so.) The pain I feel is real, a full-fledged pain reaction. I know and have known for some time that I am ready and waiting, every moment, for the next jab of pain to strike. It is interesting really, to learn that my nervous system and my brain are also on alert, ready to respond, as soon as it senses a problem!! I know if my day will be a bad pain day if, upon waking the pain is already there or if I’m woken up by the pain. I know, too, that if I feel what I call a “twinge” of pain, I’m ready for a full blown attack! Having Trigeminal Neuralgia, known as the worst pain known to human-kind, makes it super difficult to not worry about when the pain will strike. When you have pain that can bring you to your knees and bring tears to your eyes almost instantly, well, frankly, it’s hard not to be on edge. Hmmmm, I wonder if I’m going to have knee-buckling pain while shopping for groceries today… So, yes I digress. I really do find it super interesting to know that my conscious worrying goes hand in hand with the heightened pain sensitization going on in my body. 

Well, I’m not done writing about this yet. Hope it’s not boring anyone. I’m trying to learn all I can about chronic pain,  Trigeminal Neuralgia and anything about dealing with it, etc. etc. etc.

To help with research and treatment please go to http://www.tnnme.com (Trigeminal Neuralgia and Me) to sign a petition to have the World Health Organization (WHO) add Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) to their “Health Topic List”!

Hopefully one day I’ll get it right, or at least have fun, while about it I write!!