Does Pain = Damage & Fatigue = No Energy?
|
Physical or Psychological?
Is it physical or psychological – that is the question!
Well actually – It’s NOT the question. It hasn’t been for a while thanks to how we have moved on from our understanding of health. The division between conditions being physical (in the body) and real OR psychological (and somehow less real), never actually explained the human condition but we ran with that understanding for a few hundred years.
Now we have a much better understanding of health, which has opened up new and fresh treatment options for people struggling with their health. However most of us grew up with that old ‘physical vs psychological’ mindset, and it lingers in how we view health.
More importantly, the issue with the ‘physical vs psychological’ mindset, is that is limits options.
Because the LP looks at things like stress, thoughts, emotions and the role the brain plays in health, it was once assumed we thought conditons like fibromyalgia or ME/CFS were ‘all in the head’ and people were rightly angry that anyone could suggest this.
Luckily so much has changed from that dualistic view of health. We can now have much more meaningful and useful discussions by looking at health in a broader context.
This was a theme of a recent talk I gave on Chronic Pain. I’ll link to a recording at the end.
Your understanding of what the problem is determines your approach to solving it. Broadening your understanding broadens your options.
So for those who used to see anxiety as ‘all in the head’, they would pursue traditional psychotherapy on the assumption it was a ‘thinking problem’. Psychotherapy did have some success but so does yoga, exercise and breathing exercises. ‘All in the head?’ – Good luck trying to tell someone having a panick attack it’s all in their head. It’s a treatment limiting label.
The same applies to pain and fatigue conditions. Traditionally we saw them as purely physical so we would chase the physical cause. I call this the ‘Find it and Fix it’ model. While this also saw some successes most people in Chronic Pain were left managing their condition, rather than actually solving it.
In the last decade we have come to understand the role the brain plays in many conditions such as pain & fatigue. All pain and fatigue. Even if you break your leg and there is swelling and blood, modern pain science would say that the pain message is being generated neurologically (in the brain) to get your attention and protect you. Similarly, if a marathon runner runs their absolute best and collapses at the finish line – they have not run out of energy. The fatigue is partly being generated neurologically to protect the runner from using up all their biological energy store. You will often see a marathon runner, stand up then run a lap of honour. There’s still energy in the system.
So by being able to discuss pain and fatigue AND the brain, without the historic implications that this means ‘not real’ we have been able to make incredible progress in treating chronic illness.
This understanding has transformed treatment options. Now when cancer patients go through chemotherapy and are struck by crippling chemo fatigue and mental fatigue (chemo brain), we know this is not a running out of batteries but a neurological response to the process of undergoing cancer treatment. So in the past we would have seen fatigue as ‘no energy’ so suggested to ‘carefully managing their energy’ or ‘take it easy and rest’. Now we know this is detrimental advice and that moving the body through exercise is a better approach to this neurally generated fatigue.
By understanding the role the brain AND the body plays in states of pain, fatigue, fear and trauma, we open up treatment options. It does require us to think differently but that increases treatment options.
This was the subject of a recent lecture I gave in New Zealand last month. The lecture is not so much about my work with the Lightning Process, but highlights the change in focus that has occurred in the pain sciences. (I touch briefly on my work towards the end.) If you are suffering from chronic pain (or know someone suffering from chronic pain) it is so important to better understand the role the brain plays, as it instantly opens up options you may not have considered before.
Another thing that has changed significantly in the last decade, is the awareness of how the brain changes with ongoing experience – whether that expreince is learning an instrument, learning to juggle, practiced meditation or living with ongoing states of pain, fatigue, fear or stress. All these things change our brains.
This is why NEUROPLASTICITY is regarded as the greatest medical breakthrough in the last 400 years. NEUROPLASTICITY explains a mechanism how people get stuck in states of pain, fatigue, fear, sadness, guilt, stress AND also hints at the way out of those states.
As Norman Doidge, ‘the father of Neuroplasticity’ says, “It’s Neuroplasticity that got you into this mess, and it’s neuroplasticity that will get you out”.
That is what the Lightning Process is – a health focused training utilizing the brains ability to change back.
PAIN & NEUROPLASTICITY
If you are interested in updates on modern pain science & neuroplasticity you can listen to my recent lecture “UCOL PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES – UNDERSTANDING PAIN & NEUROPLASTICITY.
Pain & Neuroplasticity Lecture
“I believe the first step to beat chronic pain is to understand it.”
I was recently asked to speak on Chronic Pain as part of the UCOL Public Lecture Series.
The audio is not great but here is the lecture. It might stretch you but as I point out, that’s a good thing.
While the talk was not about my Lightning Process work, having an update on modern pain science helps explain the Lightning Process approach.
Enjoy
Are you ready for change?
Never confuse the failure of past approaches to the potential of future recovery.
Over the last 12 years I have worked with many people with a range of different conditions across all levels of severity and duration. From decades of illness, or being bed bound through to just getting a recent diagnosis or mild enough to still able to push through with full time work. Some have even been able to hide their health experience from everyone but their closest friends.
So yeah. I’ve seen lots of people. Maybe even some one like you.
But what they all had in common is that none came to me as their first port of call. They came having tried many different things, having a long history of failures and yet went on to see massive change in their lives.
Weekly in consultation, I hear the comment “Ian, I’ve tried everything”. But it’s useful to remember – you haven’t.
Never confuse the failure of a past approaches to potential of future recovery. They are unrelated.
Ongoing failures might merely be a sign that a different approach could be useful. Many past failures might not even mean recovery is even hard or will take a long time. It might just be a sign that it’s time to take a radically different approach.
That’s what the Lightning Process is. It takes a radically different approach to change. A new approach means all your past failures can be irrelevant.
Are you ready for a different approach?
To be ready for the Lightning Process, people do need to be ready to dig deep and give 100%, to be ready to think differently about themselves, their condition and the role they can play in recovery. For some the biggest step is just shifting from ‘I can’t’ to ‘just maybe I can’.
So are you ready to begin the process of thinking differently?
Are you ready to see that ‘chronic’ does not necessarily mean broken or permanent?
Are you ready to challenge your understanding of what the problem even is? Are you ready to begin look at the powerful role the brain can play, and how historic and current stress can keep someone’s health stuck below optimal function.
This ability to be flexible with our thinking has changed the life of so many people – people that were often told there was nothing they could do but learn to manage better rather than actually get better.
Chronic Pain research is leading the way in helping us change our thinking. Over the last decade we have gone through a pain revolution where we have fundamentally changed the way we understand pain. The model of understanding has changed. Now, people who were told their problem was structural and they could at best merely learn to manage their pain, can take on board a more up-to-date understanding of pain and move from managing their pain to treating it. This applies to real chronic pain sufferers – fibromyalgia, CRPS, migraines, period pain, back pain, osteo-arthritis pain, pelvic pain, bulging or herniated discs who can learn to live full and active pain-free lives.
HOW? They became flexible in their thinking and changed their understanding of pain.
If you are suffering from chronic pain then I would recommend watching the short video below. It’s not about the Lightning Process. It’s about pain. This video is an award winning video put together by some of the top pain specialists in the world. People who almost certainly know more about pain than you. The information is up-to-date and accurate. As you listen to it, notice how you respond to it – excited, confused, angry, frustrated. If you are excited then you are demonstrating the flexibility of thinking that has changed the lives of millions of people. If you are frustrated, angry, confused, dismissive (listen out for the ‘yeah buts’ or the internal argument how your pain is different) then at least keep questioning whether your model of pain has worked for you (or the millions of people who are stuck in pain).
Question why some people do get well even though they got a rock solid diagnosis. Question why x-rays and MRI’s can not predict either the presence or the levels of pain. Question why doctors are now being told NOT to send back pain clients to get X-rays or MRI’s. Question why research shows medication is not the best practice for successful treatment of chronic pain. If osteo-arthritis pain is caused by ‘bone on bone’ structural issues why is exercise the best way to treat it?
Keep questioning until you feel better. By feel better I don’t mean find the answers that supports your current understanding of pain and you feel better about your belief that there is nothing you can do about you pain. I mean keep questioning until you FEEL BETTER and are physically living a rich and active life.
Keep questioning.
While this post has focused on pain, the same applies to outdated models of fatigue, anxiety depression or trauma.
If you’ve tried everything and nothing works, or works for long, then maybe you are not broken, but the model you are working with is broken.
Maybe chronic fatigue is not ‘running out of energy’, maybe anxiety and depression are not a lack of a neurotransmitters. And maybe the doctor who said there is nothing you can do meant – “there is nothing I can do”. Maybe there IS something YOU can do.
The benefit of looking at a model of understanding that takes into account both the body and brain function, as well as the role of stress both past and present, emotions, beliefs and thought processes, is that it gives people more options to make changes.
Keep questioning.
If one of those questions is ‘What is the Lightning Process’ then I would recommend downloading the Lightning Process audiobook (HERE). It guides people through the concepts behind the training, and helps people question their current situation and question if they are ready to make massive changes in their lives.
If you have questions for me then simply make contact. You can email me HERE.
Play the video & notice how you respond. Stay curious and if you suffer from pain I hope you get excited.
VIDEO – WHAT TO DO ABOUT PAIN IN 5 MINUTES
Avoid or push through? Or….
Many people I work with are stuck with two choices. Avoid the things that trigger them (exercise, movement, food, light, touch, chemicals, people, noise etc) or push through and suffer the payback.
The Lightning Process offers a third alternative – retrain your brain and body to respond differently to the triggers.
This approach also moves people out of the ‘management model’ of care which has nothing to do with recovery.
Its aim is in the title – management.
Choose wisely
Not Broken…Just Stuck
Here’s a radical thought. What if the way you are thinking about your condition became an obstacle for full recovery.
Would you be willing to begin to think about your condition differently?
What would it be like to begin to think about yourself as just stuck rather than broken.
What would it be like to think that you already have all the resources inside for making massive change in your life and health.
What would it be like to know that you are not missing anything, lacking anything, deficient in anything. You just need to know how to change.
What would it be like to get back in the drivers seat of life.
What it be like to begin to look at the role the brain and chronic stress can play in physical health without thinking it means you’re crazy or the problem is ‘all in your head’.
What would it be like to think differently about the things you are experiencing – pain, tiredness, stress, fear, negativity, low motivation, frustration, sadness. To see these as normal AND essential human responses …… that can become ‘stuck’ states due to neuroplasticity.
What it be like to hear that brain science is really clear that while a brain can become stuck it also retains it’s capacity to change until the day we die.
What would it be like to think that the problem is not brokenness but stuckness.
What would that be like?
You probably know what it’s like to be told that your tests seem fine so we don’t really know what’s going on but we do know there is no cure and you just have to learn to live with it and manage it. Yet you know that people ARE getting well.
Is it time to begin to think differently about yourself, your health and your life?
EXCITED, CURIOUS, UNCERTAIN?……..
READ
You can learn more about the Lightning Process by reading the Introduction to the Lightning Process or downloading the Lightning Process Audiobook.
But be ready to begin to think differently……
EMAIL
Drop me an email and arrange a time to discuss your situation and the Lightning Process.
BE INSPIRED
Read about other people’s experience HERE. As you read their successes, just know that each one of these people once thought the way you did, they felt broken, they were probably told there ‘is no cure’ and they would just have to learn to live with it or manage the best they can.
If others can you… can you?
What would it be like to be one of the success stories?
What’s your Yeah But?
If you search you will find lots of stories of people successfully recovering from ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia, CRPS, PTSD, anxiety or depression.
Join the Pain Revolution
Are you ready to join the pain revolution?
There is a massive mismatch between what research now tells us about pain and the public perception about it.
Given that we find ourselves with Chronic Pain as the number burden on human health AND a massive over-prescription of Pain medicine, is it time to join the revolution?
Watch Lorimer Moseley’s discussion on the Pain Revolution below.
Join the Revolution. Vive la Sante!!! (Long Live Health)
You are not at the mercy of your Emotions
One of the concepts of the Lightning Process is to use current understandings of how the brain and body interact to have a positive influence over our health. While we might be a product of our past we do not have to be at the mercy of it.
Learning to engage in the PRESENT moment and our automatic responses, we can use tools to influence our mind and body. This opens up options that can increase our physical and emotional health. With focused effort we can look to retrain our brain to respond differently to the present moment – laying down new ‘automatic’ responses.
While we may often feel at the mercy of our thoughts, emotions or beliefs, as Lisa Feldman Barrett points out in this TED talk on emotions – We are not at their mercy.
Enjoy –
