What Is Neuroplastic Pain?

Neuroplastic pain goes by many names: TMS (Tension Myoneural Syndrome), PPD (Psychophysiologic Disorder), the Mindbody Syndrome, neurocircuit pain, Perceived Danger Pain (PDP), and so on. But they are all referring to the same phenomena inside our minds and bodies. Neuroplastic pain is moving beyond the idea that pain is always caused by structural or pathological reasons.

All pain is an alarm signal, but neuroplastic pain is when that alarm signal is mistaken. The nervous system thinks that something is wrong when we’re actually okay. It’s like when you hear a car alarm go off in a parking lot. Car alarms are designed to prevent thieves, but most of the time, they go off because the owner accidentally set the alarm off. There’s no danger, but the alarm can still sound quite jarring and annoying.

Luckily, these neurocircuits that are causing this mistaken alarm can be rewired and the pain will eventually disappear.

Neuroplastic Pain Healing

All neuroplastic pain healing techniques are essentially finding ways to make you no longer afraid of your pain or symptoms while you are still experiencing them. It’s like a form of graded exposure therapy for people who experience phobias. But instead of exposing you to, say, heights or enclosed spaces or snakes, we’re gently exposing you to the unpleasant physical sensations and emotions in your own body.

When we experience our bodily discomfort through a lens of safety, we start to break out of the fear loops that have been causing more emotional agitation and therefore pain. If you are afraid that your arm is permanently damaged, you feel fear. The fear agitates your nervous system, which creates more pain (even though your arm has healed completely). But when you realize that your body is fine, you can start to learn to break this loop by starting to tell yourself a story of strength and safety (rather than a story of fear and damage).

Everybody’s healing journey is different and takes as long as it takes for your nervous system to realize that it’s safe and strong. Because it can take some time, it’s recommended you slowly learn to adopt some self-compassion and patience.

Pain-Fear Cycle

Neuroplastic pain or symptoms perpetuate when we become habitually afraid of them. It’s a loop that is constantly being fed by these negative emotions surrounding the pain. Instead of the pain itself, it’s the response to the pain that’s causing all of this.

All the pain you’re feeling, though, is real. This isn’t just “all in your head”. It’s actually real and is 100% happening to you.

But the cause, and perpetuation, of this neuroplastic pain is because of fear towards that pain (or frustration or annoyance or any other negative response).

The way to stop this loop is by working with our response to the pain and/or symptoms.

Acute Vs Neuroplastic Chronic Pain

Acute pain is when our pain system is, more or less, working properly. If I, for instance, broke my forearm after falling out of a tree, I would feel a lot of pain, and, though extremely unpleasant, it serves a purpose: to strongly encourage me to not use that arm anymore until the bone has properly healed. The pain centres in the brain are receiving correct information and are responding accordingly.

However, after about 4-6 months, if I am gentle with my arm, I can expect the bone to fully heal. What the mindbody will do, though, over that healing period is create a mirror image of the initial pain, but will place it in a separate part of the brain that is closely linked with emotion and memory. This is the shift from acute pain to neuroplastic chronic pain. The pain no longer has any true connection to the reality of what’s going on in the body. It now is concerned with protecting you from hurting yourself again. So instead of interpreting neutral physical sensations as neutral (e.g. lifting something with my arm), the mindbody can, if in a fearful state, interpret those sensations as potentially dangerous and will create pain.

Want to chat to see if your symptoms might respond to neuroplastic healing techniques?

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