Is Pain in The Mind or The Body?

Throughout our lives, we will all experience pain, whether it be from falling over, being involved in an accident or cutting a finger chopping veg. Pain is a part of life but, that doesn’t mean that pain is normal. 

We have become so accustomed to pain that so many people just deal with and put up with being uncomfortable, sometimes even in agony because they don’t believe anything can be done about it.

To begin the healing and recovery process it is important to understand how pain works. Whether it is the physical or mental aspect that needs some work. More often than not, it’s both! 

People are so divided when they suffer from pain, with a large number of people believing it to be completely physical and a lot of people thinking it is all in the mind. So let’s look into what pain is…

Pain is more than just a physical construct. The mental side has an important role to play here. When we injure ourselves, it is not the injury that causes the discomfort. 

A signal is sent from the pain site through your nervous system all the way to the brain. This is like a warning signal, telling the brain that something isn’t quite right. At this point, the brain will send a signal back to the point of injury to begin healing or to create a reflex or action. 

 For example, when your hand touches something hot, you instantly move it away. That’s the passageway between the neurology in the body making subconscious actions. 

 If you think about the times where people notice they are bleeding or bruised and say “I don’t even remember how I did that”. These are points where you haven’t noticed that you have hurt yourself and therefore the brain doesn’t receive any messages meaning you may not feel pain. 

Or even when a child falls over and doesn’t react, that is, until they notice they are bleeding. The brain only receives the signal from the wound or injury but then once we look and see that it looks “bad”, we send the brain into panic mode. This is where the mind can play a pivotal part in pain management.

So, Is It All In The Mind?

The way you think and the way your brain and mind works when coping with pain has an impact on the level of pain you experience. That’s not to say you can think your soreness away. 

We believe that it is a collaboration of the mind and body that work together to create your experience of pain. Observe your thoughts and behaviour related to your pain to learn about your pain scale.

Over the next few weeks we will be covering all aspects of pain; how to manage, how to measure it and how to get back to yourself again! 

There’s no need to wait around though, if you are in pain, book using the button below and see how we can help!