Where does chronic pain come from?
That pain in your back? It’s not coming from your back. It’s coming from your brain. Why is this important? Because understanding the source of pain informs how we respond to it and treat it. Advances in pain science have shown conclusively that all pain is generated in the brain as a protective warning signal trying to keep us safe from potential danger. Pain is made by the brain, not measured by it. And there is no such thing as “pain, out there in the body” that exists independently of the brain’s role in generating those warning signals. And that’s a good thing for us, because we need those warning signals to help us survive moments of physical danger to our bodies: a burn, a fracture, an ulcer, a tumor, a bowel obstruction all require our immediate attention and response, and pain is how we are alerted. Thank you, brain, for sounding the alarm! But what if it’s a false alarm? While most acute (short ter...