Pain: How can you modulate how you feel?

Have you ever wondered why the same injury can feel excruciating one day and barely noticeable the next?

Most people think pain is a direct signal from an injured body part to your brain.

Scientists would argue that it is actually a conversation between multiple systems. Each with the ability to amplify or dampen the message.

So what is this conversation, and how can you be involved?

When tissue is damaged, from a cut, burn or inflamation, specialized nerve endings called nociceptors detect the threat.

These are not “pain receptors” in the way you might imagine. They’re danger detectors, responding to mechanical pressure, extreme temperatures, or chemical signals released by damaged cells.

The nociceptor doesn’t send pain up to your brain. Instead it sends signals that something bad is happening. This signal travels along nerve fibers toward your spinal cord.

Here’s where it gets interesting.

Before that signal can reach your brain, it must pass through a checkpoint in your spinal cord. Neuroscientists call this a gate.

This gate can open wide, allowing the signal through at full intensity, or it can narrow, reducing the signal’s strength.

What controls this gate?

Other sensory inputs. So if you rub the affected area, the sensation of rubbing will compete with the injury. Your gate will partially close. Your brain receives a diluted message.

But even after passing through the spinal gate, the signal hasn’t become pain yet.

It arrives at multiple regions in your brain simultaneously. I will spare you the details except to say that when enough parts of your brain believe it is so, you feel pain.

The suffering starts.

Here is the magic. Your brain is not a passive recipient. It sends signals back to your spine to regulate the experience. Stress, anxiety or even attention will make you experience more pain.

Feeling calm, safe or even distracted will make you feel less. Context matters.

So can you use all this to make your life better.

If you are feeling pain, create competing inputs. Heat, cold, pressure, movement. All distract your brain. Create mechanisms that help you feel safe.

Sit in a safe place, with people you feel safe with. These are not placebo’s. They help your brain regulate the experience.

I dont want to misguide. Pain is real. But how you experience it can be modulated. More than you might think.

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