How The Mind Can Make Your Pain WORSE
00:00:00.000 | I remember the first time I went to the chiropractor and they said I had degenerative disc disease.
00:00:03.920 | I remember from that appointment on, somehow my pain just got worse and worse and worse.
00:00:07.500 | And it was the fear and it was the anxiety surrounding it that I felt like tightened up my muscles.
00:00:12.200 | What's actually happening when people feel really stiff in their back?
00:00:15.120 | When you burn your finger, you don't feel pain in your hand.
00:00:19.620 | The nerves in your hand send a message to your brain.
00:00:22.180 | And the message says one thing, the sensory environment has changed.
00:00:25.520 | Now, in your brain now, we have to interpret, is that change good or bad?
00:00:29.300 | It's expressed through your finger.
00:00:30.940 | You are feeling it in your brain.
00:00:33.340 | What happens when you are told that something is wrong with you is that you will start to attach meaning and dread and fear to the thing.
00:00:41.540 | The problem with chronic pain is it keeps us in fight or flight.