Will Chronic Pain Ever Go Away? Hello, this is James Lowery at James Lowery Hypnotherapy where I, with the help of a medical provider, aid adults suffering with immune disorders in relieving the emotional stress surrounding their discomfort in order to achieve a better quality of life in as little as one session. Today’s frequently asked question is: will chronic pain ever go away? Now, before I answer that question, I want to make it abundantly clear that the information I am presenting is not to serve as a substitute for medical advice. My role as a hypnotherapist is to serve as an effective adjunct to those already receiving medical treatment who might need additional care.
Will chronic pain ever go away? Chronic pain becomes chronic pain because it is pain that is persistent beyond three months. Now, if it has been discovered that there is ongoing physical damage taking place beyond the three month mark, it would only be reasonable to assume or conclude that some level or degree of pain would be persistent beyond that three months. But, let’s assume that the body has had the appropriate amount of time it takes to heal upon an initial physical injury or structural causation and there is no ongoing structural damage taking place beyond three months, and yet, the pain still persists. It is at that point that pain may be more appropriately labeled as neuroplastic pain. The primary thing that allows pain to persist in this way is fear.
Now, I use the term fear as an umbrella term to more generally describe maladaptive psycho-emotional responses to pain or discomfort where one looks at one’s current situation and assumes or fears that it is just as bad, if not worse, than when the pain or discomfort first started out. Based on that conclusion, one then assumes or fears that it will get worse going into the future. This type of maladaptive psycho-emotional response to pain or discomfort is what really pushes pain beyond what is considered to be a tolerable threshold. When pain is brought on in this way, it brings with it a lot of emotional stress. When emotional stress is brought on, it makes pain more apparent. When pain becomes more apparent, it increases or amplifies. When pain increases or amplifies, it brings with it further emotional stress, which makes the pain more apparent, and so forth, and so forth. It becomes a vicious cycle.
So, how does one effectively get out of this vicious cycle and remove the fear or the maladaptive psycho-emotional responses that allow it to persist and push it beyond what is considered to be a tolerable threshold? Through a branch of science known as psychoneuroimmunology which studies how the mind, the psyche, one’s neurology, and one’s nervous and immune systems all interact with and affect one another. At the core of psychoneuroimmunology, and its applications in the form of mind-body therapies such as hypnotherapy, is looking at where attention is placed, the degree to which that attention is gathered and maintained, and the overall emotional quality or flavor of that attention. Mind-body therapies such as hypnotherapy aim to therapeutically affect attention in this way in order to help individuals break out of these vicious cycles and reestablish a healthy communication between their mind and their nervous and immune systems. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, “But James, I’ve tried talk therapies before and it didn’t work for me. How is this different?” Most therapies aim to alter or bolster your conscious perception of the problem.
But, let me ask you something. If you could consciously decide right now not to have the pain, the problem, the discomfort you are experiencing, it would only be reasonable to assume that you would consciously do so. Would you not? If you could have consciously decided not to have taken on the pain, the discomfort, the problem at all, again, it would only be fair to say that you would consciously have done so by now. So the pain, the discomfort, the problem, and the maladaptive psycho- emotional responses that surround them do not effectively exist in the conscious mind. Rather they are most predominant in the unconscious part of the mind. So, if you’re looking to adopt this kind of therapy in such a way that, with the help of a medical provider, aids you in relieving the emotional stress surrounding your discomfort in order to achieve a better quality of life in as little as just one session, then give me a call or book a free consultation at James Lowery Hypnotherapy.