What Is Pain Anyways?

There is a fascinating story involving an Australian hiking in the outback. While in the brush, he stepped on a twig. It snapped his ankle, and he continued walking. A few minutes later, he passed out. He woke up in the hospital in severe pain, realizing the doctors are trying to save not only his leg, but his life. What he thought was a twig, was actually a poisonous snake biting his ankle. After rehabilitating through his injury, he eventually went for a hike out in the brush. within a few minutes, he felt something bite his leg, again! He fell to the ground, crying in agony, only to realize he wasn’t bit. It was simply a twig.

This story beautifully illustrates how our body stores the memory of pain. He only knew the sensation of a twig hitting his ankle, he never perceived the pain of a poisonous snake, until he did. Then, after knowing what a poisonous snake bite feels like, anything that hits his ankle was perceived as life threatening.

This is the same thing that happens when someone experiences any other type of pain. What used to be an activity that was easy, enjoyable and effortless, is changed when an injury occurs. After an injury, just the thought of doing that same activity can elicit severe anxiety. Think of a time you injured your back, it was likely doing the same activity you have done a hundred times. But after that back injury, now bending over to tie your shoe produces fear within you.

Pain is a signal, just like hot and cold, to tell your body to make a response. The pain response is your body urging you to not go in a range that it does not like. This could be because the body isn’t strong enough or mobile enough for the range. It could also be because its an abnormal range, and your body should not move in that range.

So, you’re already experiencing chronic pain that limits your walking. What can you do now? Good news. There are a variety of interventions that can help promote healing, improve strength, reduce pain and help return you back to your life without these high pain signals! At Tend and Release, we begin with a focus on decreasing the overall heightened state of your nervous system. This is often times down through manual techniques. Once we have reduced the overall pain experience, we help your body learn to move through pain free movements without triggering the pain experience. Seems pretty simple, right?