Is Your Pain Tissue Damage or Neuroplastic?

What the heck is the difference? And why does it matter?

Ack! How are we to know the difference and what if we are wrong? This is a serious question to ask.

Right off the bat I want to explain that this article is talking about chronic, persistent pain. Pain that has lasted more than 6 months and you've ruled out any red flags such as cancer, burst fractures, kidney stones, infections, cauda equina syndrome, etc. Also, your pain is real. Just because we are talking about how the brain has created more pain, it isn't just in your head.

The pain that remains is what we are talking about and it is important to ask the question to start the conversation about what neuroplastic pain is. If you've read a previous article about how chronic pain starts, you'll have read that our awareness of pain sensations is a system that is designed to protect us. You'll also have read that the same system can become very over protective and actually change the neural pathways in our bodies and brains to become hyper vigilant to look for danger. Even when that 'danger' isn't actually a serious threat.

So how do we decipher if the pain we are experiencing is actual tissue damage or more neuroplastic? Right away, the fact that the pain sensations are still there after 6 months shows that there is a percentage that is neuroplastic. Tissues do have a healing time of 6-12 weeks, in fact most lower back pain will resolve itself in 2-6 weeks.

If there is a percentage of the pain coming from a neuroplastic change, then working on that part will help. Whether it is contributing 30%, 60%, or 95% (and that is a question you have to live in), it will pay off to treat your pain experience with a neuroplastic education.

What are the other factors that we look at when deciding how much of the pain experience is neuroplastic?