Danger Sensors
Our body has danger sensors, not pain sensors. Understanding this cracks the code and unlocks the door to effective pain management.
Danger Sensors
Tissue damage doesn’t have to be present to experience pain – Pain is never detected, it is only produced – Pain nerves, pathways, and signals do not exist – Our body has danger sensors, not pain sensors
Understanding what pain is and how it works changes your perception of it. This enables you to reframe sensations, build safety neurotags, and desensitize your nervous system.
It creates a pathway for you to step away from your fear-based, damage-focused view of pain toward one that sees it as an output. This helps reduce anxiety, hypervigilance, and central sensitization.
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- Tissue damage does not equal pain.
- Nociception is not pain.
- DIMs create pain.
- Pain is in the Brain.
Tissue Damage Does Not Equal Pain
Pain is an unreliable indicator of tissue damage. You don’t have to be actively injured to feel pain, and an injury can be present without discomfort.
For example, I am sure you have stubbed your foot on the coffee table, experienced crazy pain with a definitive “youch”, yet there have been other times, albeit more rare, when it didn’t hurt at all. Just because we experience an injury, it doesn’t mean it will hurt.
Testing pain levels is rarely useful, except when attempting to identify central sensitization, but even then, the results are significantly influenced by other factors.
For example, Quantitative sensory testing can help evaluate how neurotags respond to stimuli to determine your pain threshold and pain tolerance, but these readings are location- and context-specific. Meaning that the location where the testing took place and the context of the situation may influence the reading’s outcome. In effect, that test may only be relevant under those specific conditions.
Nociception is Not Pain
Many people, including some physicians, believe that nociception is the same as pain. Nociception is not pain; instead, it is a change detector, not a condition marker. A nociceptive signal is neither sufficient nor necessary to create pain. In fact, our body does not have pain nerves, pathways, or signals, because pain is never detected, only produced.
Instead, it is a biological mechanism that acts like an alarm system, increasing awareness to protect the area from further damage.
DIMs Create Pain
The brain uses neurotags to determine whether it is safe or in danger. If it believes an area is in danger, it will create pain to protect it. A neurotag is a network of neurons that communicate with one another to interpret incoming stimuli. Together, they decide the threat level based on patterns of evidence for safety and danger.
There are two types of neurotag, DIMs and SIMs.- DIM: Danger in me, a negative neurotag.
- SIM: Safety in me, a positive neurotag.
All Pain Is In The Brain
Pain does not occur within the area that hurts. All pain originates from the brain because it is an output, not an input.
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