The Neuroscience Of Back Pain

Chronic back pain is so incredibly challenging, affecting sleep, being nice, memory, movement, and so, so much more.

Very common (and sensible) approaches are going to see the GP, physio, osteopath or chiropractor, but sometimes they just cannot find the source of your pain.

That might well because, the pain is originating in your brain. No - not in your mind. In your brain.

Pain has a purpose; to protect damaged tissues while they heal. But sometimes the pain signals fire to protect something that doesn't need to be protected. The great, great, great news here is that if your nervous system has 'learnt' to overprotect, it can also learn safety. This is what you can expect to learn from this talk.

After you've listened, find my meditation: Relief from Back Pain right here on Insight Timer, I really hope it gives you the relief that you deserve.

Transcript

Hi and welcome to the neuroscience of back pain. Maybe you have been living with back pain for weeks, Months or years. Maybe it's constant. Maybe it's on and off. Maybe you've had scans and you were told that they were normal, Whatever that means. Maybe you've seen physios and you've done the exercises. You've tried strengthening and stretching, Massage, Medication, Acupuncture, And some of those things have helped. But your back still hurts. Well, Today I'd like to introduce you to something that might help change the way you see your back pain. But before we begin, I want to make something totally and completely clear. I'll be saying that pain is produced by the brain but that does not in any way shape or form mean that your painting is imaginary? It doesn't mean it's all in your head. Your pain is real. Pain is always real. I've been there and it's so hard. So the question isn't whether your pain is real. It's why your brain has decided that you need that message of pain. So, Let's have a bit of a think about what pain is actually for. It's actually not there to just make us miserable, Believe it or not. It's actually a survival tool. You know, If you think about. . . Accidentally touching a hot pan. You don't think, Oh, Hmm, That feels actually quite warm. Your hand moves away from the hot pan before you've even had time to think it through. That's pain doing its job. It's protected you. Most of the time, Pain is closely linked to an injury to damaged tissues. You sprain your ankle, You pull a muscle, You touch a hot pan. And the pain. Is protecting those injured tissues while they heal. And as the tissues heal, The pain usually gradually settles. That's acute pain. But persistent pain, Also known as chronic pain, Can be different. So now imagine you've had a particularly stressful few weeks. You've had a looming deadline at work. You've been spending long hours at your desk. You're struggling to sleep because you're worried about this deadline. And one day your back starts to ache. Maybe something happened that irritated the bat, But maybe it didn't. And the weeks go by. Your looming deadline comes and goes. Life settles down a little bit, But you are still experiencing back pain. And months later, It's still there. And you find yourself saying, Oh, I'll see how my back is when people ask you if you want to go for a coffee or a walk. You avoid picking things up. You sit differently in the car and at your desk. And you're worried every time it flies up. Does that sound familiar? So this is where the neuroscience come in because your brain's number one job is to keep you alive. It's constantly asking one question. Am I safe? Am I safe? And to get the answers to that question, It's collecting information from your muscles, Your joints, Your eyes. It brings in previous experiences. It brings in information about your current stress levels, How you're sleeping, Emotions, Everything. And so ultimately what might be happening with chronic pain. Is that it's the brain's way of saying, Well right now I think you need protecting. Sometimes that protection lines up with what's happening in the tissues, Like with acute pain, Like I talked about earlier on, But sometimes that protection becomes much bigger. And just to add another layer to this explanation. Pain in and of itself is stressful. I don't have to tell you that. And when you're in pain, Actually what is happening is that your body's stress responses are activated. This, Perhaps quite inconveniently at this moment, Tightens your muscles. It often makes your breathing shallower. It pushes sleep away, Which is really inconvenient because sleep is where a lot of healing happens. And you're kind of on high alert with the stress response, So you become even more alert to every sensation in your back. And that might start you wondering, Well, Is this movement going to make it worse? Do I need to move more? Do I need to move less? Well, What's that twinge? And every time this cycle repeats, Pain affecting stress, Affecting pain, Affecting stress, Your entire nervous system is becoming a little more alert to what's going on. And this is not at all because anything is broken. It's because it's trying to help. It's learned that something about what's going on with your back at the moment isn't safe. And so it's activating that protection mechanism through pain. So the really encouraging thing about this is that over time, Your nervous system has learned to protect you with pain. And so it can learn something different. It can learn that you are safe. And I think this is where yoga is an absolute super tool. Not because it's magically realigning the bones of your spine or not because stretching the muscles will fix everything, But because yoga works with your nervous system. And yoga can present to your nervous system that you are safe through the mindfulness, Through the movement and through the breath. Learning to notice tension and soften it slowly teaches your body it doesn't need to stay in this hyper alert, Hyper vigilant protective state. So yoga practice by yoga practice, You're changing the information that your brain receives and then how it perceives it. Your guiding, Your brain, Your nervous system to become less protective. This doesn't happen overnight. But it can happen. I have a meditation which guides you through this right here on Insight Timer. Maybe try it out a few times a week over the next few weeks and just see and see if it helps. I really hope that that has given you a new perspective on back pain. If I can be any help anytime, Please do get in touch. Otherwise, Take great care of yourself and I'll see you next time.