Your Pain is Not Imaginary
Dec 14, 2015
Everyone has a different tolerance for pain because the way our bodies interpret and perceive pain is wildly subjective. This article will focus on how the body perceives pain, and what to do if it seems like your pain is just a figment of your imagination.
Pain is transmitted from the brain throughout the body and back via our central and peripheral nervous system. If you burn your hand on the stove, the nerves in your hand take those pain signals, and send them up your arm, to your spinal cord, and up to your brain in a fraction of a second. At that point the brain processes the signals as pain and your hand begins to hurt.
Every person experiences and interprets pain differently. Two people can suffer the same exact injury and report vastly different pain. Due to a variety of factors, different people have different pain thresholds. In short, pain is a very subjective beast.
Patients who suffer from chronic pain (especially conditions that are difficult to treat like fibromyalgia and CRPS) may think that they are just imagining their pain. When nothing seems to help reduce the pain, this is an easy thought train to follow. The fact is that your pain is technically in your head insofar as your nerves receive signals from other parts of your body and report it as pain. But thinking that your pain is all in your head typically implies that the patient is inventing the pain, and this is not a healthy way of approaching pain. To effectively treat pain, you need to have a physician on your side that you can trust and put your confidence in.
Contact an experienced pain management specialist if you are dealing with chronic pain or think that your pain is all in your head. At Advanced Spine & Pain Clinics of MN, we treat each patient according to their unique needs. Our doctors have a combined 20+ years of experience treating Minnesotans for all types of pain conditions. Give us a call today to set up your appointment.