Understanding Chronic Pain
January 6, 2021
understanding chronic pain
Understanding chronic pain is vital to the healing process. Chronic pain is any pain that lasts 3-6 months or longer after all physical healing has taken place. In the U.S. there are over 3 million new cases reported every year. There are many variations of this type of pain. Sometimes it’s leftover pain from a surgical procedure or an accidental injury. It’s also common with autoimmune diseases such as arthritis, fibromyalgia, MS and others. Making the distinction between the causes will determine what methods need to be used to treat it.
Common chronic pain treatment methods include medications, surgery, electrical stimulation and acupuncture. Results may vary from person to person. The use of hypnosis to treat chronic pain has been scientifically proven to be very effective. As with the other methods, that effectiveness may vary from person to person. The real upside is that you can learn to use hypnotic methods on yourself, so they’re available anytime you need them.
Because there are two potential sources of chronic pain, treatment will involve one of two different methods. As mentioned above, there is residual pain from an accidental injury, and pain from chronic diseases. Let’s take a look at the differences as well as the different methods used to treat them. We’ll start with accidental injuries.
Accidents Happen
Accidental injuries are far more common than chronic disease issues. When we get injured, the pain is immediate. That pain is our body’s way of telling us that something is wrong and needs attention immediately. It’s a messaging system that usually does a good job. But sometimes the part of the brain that sends the pain signals seems to get stuck in the “on” position. It keeps sending the pain signals long after healing has taken place. For some reason, it hasn’t gotten the message that the injured area has healed.
The solution to this type of pain is two-fold. First, we must get the message center in the brain to realize that the healing process is complete, and that it is now okay to turn off the pain signals. Sometimes this is all that’s needed, and the pain will subside. If it doesn’t, then we need to move on to the alternate part of the process.
In the alternate part of the hypnotic process, we try to determine why the message center is unwilling to turn off the pain signals. Generally, it’s because it doesn’t feel safe to do so. In such cases, we help it come up with a few new ways to prevent a repeat of the type of accident or situation that caused the injuries in the first place. Once it finds a few new and effective options to keep you safe, it will gladly comply and turn off the pain signals. It exchanges the pain for information.
understanding Chronic Pain
Now we’ll look at addressing the pain caused by a chronic disease. As mentioned, this type of pain is common with autoimmune diseases like fibromyalgia, arthritis, IBS and others. Although we can reduce this type of pain by treating it directly, the best course of action is to address the autoimmune disorder itself.
There is one thing common to all types of autoimmune disorders; the immune system is attacking the body itself, instead of protecting it. Why this happens is not yet known. But for some reason the immune system apparently gets confused about what to attack and what not to attack. When functioning properly (which it does most of the time), it only attacks things like bacteria, viruses, and any other potentially threatening, foreign invaders. I’m convinced there’s a good reason why our immune system sometimes does this, however science has yet to figure it out. Here’s a great video on the subject.
In the meantime, with the use of hypnosis and guided imagery, we can effectively communicate with the immune system and teach it to stop attacking healthy tissue. I know that this may sound like quite a stretch to some readers, but it is in fact, very doable. I’ve completed two extensive training programs on this very subject. My one teacher actually healed herself of multiple autoimmune problems. Once she figured it out to do it, she went on to help over 2000 people who were suffering with AI diseases as well. (Watch her video here). Another one of my teachers did a study on treating people who were suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. Her success rate was quite impressive.
Relaxation Relieves Pain
One of the very best ways to respond to all pain is to relax. This may sound hard to do when something hurts, but learning how to relax can actually break the pain cycle. The cycle of pain works like this:
You feel pain > your natural response is to tighten up > muscle tension reduces blood circulation > reduced circulation leads to muscle inflammation > muscle inflammation leads to reduced movement > and reduced movement leads you right back to feeling the pain. It is a vicious cycle.
It doesn’t really matter which part of the cycle you break first. Odds are you already know that applying heat to the afflicted area can bring some relief. It does so by increasing the blood circulation. Increased circulation then results in reduced inflammation, better movement and reduced pain. Hypnosis and guided imagery can accomplish the same thing, and much more.
I often use a progressive relaxation method to guide clients into the hypnotic state. This method takes them to a level of relaxation unlike anything they’ve ever experienced. It is incredible! Many clients have told me that they wish they could have stayed in it longer because they felt so good. And this is just the induction part! It’s the part that gets them ready to work on their chronic pain problem. Where we go from there is different for each client. It’s at this point that I usually switch over to using guided imagery. The imagery will be specific to whatever type of pain or condition they’re dealing with.
Speak the right language!
I use Guided Imagery because imagery is the language of the subconscious mind. When you show your subconscious mind exactly what you want by way of imagery, it understands! It will then go and begin to make the necessary changes to fulfill your wishes! The more you feed your unconscious mind the images of what you want, the more it will comply and work towards providing it. This procedure is 100% safe no matter what type of pain you’re working on. It is also highly effective and does wonders when it comes to breaking the pain cycle.
I could talk for hours on this subject, but I think you get the picture by now. The methods I use are not something I force on you. You are an active participant in learning how to tap into your own internal healing abilities. Another one of my teachers used to say “Anything the mind has caused – the mind can cure”. There’s a lot of truth in that statement. The body is made to self-repair. It knows exactly how to fix anything from a simple cut on your finger, to the most complex autoimmune disorder. You just need to learn how to speak its language. My job is to teach you how to do exactly that.
I sincerely hope this post has given you some insight to understanding chronic pain, and provided you with some valuable information about treating it. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. In the meantime, I wish you well.