How to Conquer Chronic Pain: The Role of Learning and Brain Plasticity
How chronic pain is influenced by learning processes and brain plasticity.
if you’ve been suffering in pain for a long period, it might seem that the pain will never end and that you might never be fully healthy.
It turns out that there’s a reason behind it.
In this article, we’ll explore how chronic pain is influenced by learning processes and brain plasticity and how to rewire the brain.
How chronic pain changes the brain
Chronic pain, defined as pain persisting for more than three months, is a widespread issue that significantly impacts the quality of life and has substantial economic costs. It turns out that chronic pain also causes significant changes in the brain's structure and function.Â
The brain's plasticity is the brain’s ability to reorganize and form new neural connections. Neuroplasticity allows the brain to adapt and reorganize itself in response to various stimuli and experiences and it also plays a crucial role in the persistence of chronic pain.
In the context of chronic pain, neuroplasticity can lead to maladaptive changes that perpetuate and intensify pain.
Scientists have found that chronic pain reconfigures the brain. Several brain regions are implicated in chronic pain, including the prefrontal cortex, the amygdala, and the hippocampus. These areas are involved in the emotional and cognitive aspects of pain, which can exacerbate the pain experience.Â
These changes in the brain can cause pain to continue even after the initial injury has healed.Â
This suggests that chronic pain is not merely a symptom of physical damage but also involves alterations in brain function.
Pain is a learned experience. Through associative learning, the brain can link certain stimuli with pain, creating persistent pain pathways even in the absence of a direct cause.Â
Chronic pain involves central sensitization, where the central nervous system becomes hyper-responsive. With persistent pain, the pain receptors become disinhibited, hair-trigger responses, activating faster than they would in pain-free people.Â
What does all of this mean? You feel pain after the stimuli are gone. You’re also more sensitive to new stimuli and they will cause you to be more in pain. It also means that you can't just treat the pain, you have to rewire the brain.
My experience with chronic pain
Until recently, I didn’t quite understand why my burnout experience affected me so much and left me with a lot of pain and struggles for such a long time. But learning about how prolonged pain changes the brain, it all made a lot of sense.Â
I realized that some of the burnout symptoms and experiences that followed in the years after my burnout were a consequence of my brain experiencing more pain than there was and being more sensitive and reactive to stimuli.Â
The first major improvement that I experienced in pain and psychological symptoms came after my first psychedelic experience: the psilocybin trip I did in 2020. It was a very challenging experience: I had to deal with a lot of psychological aspects of pain and burnout - even the possibility of not being fit and healthy again.Â
But in the months following the trip, something in my brain and mind changed. I wasn’t in such pain any more. I wasn’t afraid of the burnout recurring. I felt more in control of my mind and emotional responses to stimuli. I was taking charge of my mind and life: I started training again in the gym, making my body stronger and more resilient, which led to conquering burnout and preventing it from reoccurring.
We know that psychedelic substances, such as psilocybin, LSD, and DMT, play a significant role in promoting neuroplasticity and facilitating the rewiring of the brain. By promoting the growth of new neural connections and strengthening existing ones, psychedelics can potentially reset the brain's default mode network. This process allows for new perspectives and cognitive flexibility, enabling individuals to process and integrate traumatic experiences more effectively.Â
But psychedelics aren’t the only way to rewire the brain and unlearn the pain that was learned due to chronic pain exposure. There are other tools that you can use to achieve that.
How to rewire the brain?
Rewiring the brain to unlearn chronic pain involves leveraging the brain's inherent plasticity to alter maladaptive neural circuits established by prolonged pain exposure.Â
Tools and practices that can help us achieve this include:
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT): helps individuals identify and change negative thought patterns and behaviors that exacerbate pain. This psychological intervention helps reframe the experience of pain, making it less central to our daily lives and reducing its impact.
Mindfulness and meditation: powerful tools for rewiring the brain in the context of chronic pain. By regularly practicing mindfulness and meditation, we can decrease our emotional reactivity to pain, which can diminish the pain’s perceived severity.
Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT): an emerging intervention specifically designed to help individuals reinterpret their chronic pain sensations. PRT aims to retrain the brain to perceive pain signals as non-threatening, which can effectively reduce or eliminate chronic pain.
Psychedelics: these substances can enhance connectivity between different brain regions, breaking down rigid neural patterns associated with chronic pain.
Biofeedback: helps individuals gain awareness and control over physiological functions, such as muscle tension and heart rate, which can reduce pain symptoms.Â
Hypnotherapy: can help alter pain perception and response through guided relaxation and focused attention.
Studies have shown that such interventions can lead to substantial and lasting reductions in pain for many individuals.
Conclusion
Chronic pain is a complex, dynamic condition influenced by the brain's ability to learn and adapt. Understanding the role of learning and neuroplasticity in chronic pain opens avenues for new treatments.
Addressing both the physiological and psychological aspects of pain management will help us effectively rewire our brains, unlearn chronic pain, and improve our overall quality of life.
Excellent article! With 20% of Americans living in chronic pain, we need much more good info out there helping people.