# How do you know it’s your nervous system ##### Untangling Pain ---  --- ## tl;dr **Signs it’s the nervous system and not tissue damage** - If doctors can’t diagnose it and all scans come back clear, it’s probably the nervous system - Labels like fibromyalgia, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, myofascial syndrome, nonspecific pain, psychosomatic pain often point to nervous system sensitivity - If pain persists past six months, it’s likely no longer tissue damage - Pain that spreads from one area to multiple areas can be a sign of nervous system involvement - Worsening pain might be due to increased alarm sensitivity from the brain - If even small movements (or just thinking about moving) cause pain, that’s the nervous system protecting you - Pain that comes and goes without clear cause, or shifts location, is likely central nervous system-related --- ## Transcript How do you know if it's your nervous system, so your brain, and your spinal cord, and the whole danger alarm system, that is being more sensitive? As opposed to something being wrong in the tissues? So again, this is taken from that Explain Pain book. So how do you know that it is your central nervous system and not a physical damage? The first thing is the label. if doctors are struggling to diagnose what's going on, then chances are there is an issue with the nervous system. If they've done scans and x rays and everything else, they will usually be able to pick up something physically that they can see. When they can't find something, it doesn't mean that it's all in your head and that you're imagining it. That's not the case. It probably means that it's a problem with the nervous system and the sensitivity of the nervous system. And right now, they don't really have many tests and scans for that. So, if you have been given a diagnosis or a label of fibromyalgia, of chronic pain, of chronic fatigue, of myofascial syndrome, of nonspecific pain, of psychosomatic pain. Of course, this diagnosis depends on who you speak to, but, if you have been given these type of labels, and you've had all the scans and all the tests. And they found nothing to be an issue with your tissues, your bones, joints, muscles, ligaments. Then it's probably the nervous system that's at play. Number two is that the pain persists. Maybe you were injured. You might not even have realized it. But if the healing time has passed, so every injury has a healing time. And definitely six months, no matter what the injury. If it's after six months and you're still in pain, then chances are it's now the central nervous system that's causing the pain. Number three is the pain is spreading. Quite often what may have started as a small local area of pain is now generalized. The nervous system has no barriers. It means that the brain believes that more of the body is in danger than it really is. So, it might create pain in more areas. If it thinks, okay, that bit there, that little part of our body is where the fire alarms are going off, in order to protect us, what we're going to do is we're going to increase that area. And we'll protect it even more. And over time it goes, okay, so we've protected that even more, but the firearms are still going off, so we're going to increase it even more. So the pain seems to be spreading. Number four is the pain is worsening. It is sensible for your brain to increase the sensitivity of the alarm system. if there is a threat, then we need more protection, that's obvious. More protection can mean more pain. So the pain may actually be worsening, and that again could be the central nervous system, that's what's actually causing this worsening of pain. Number five, lots of movements, even small ones hurt. More sensitivity means your brain wants you to stop moving. It's afraid that you're going to hurt yourself. So, even smaller movements cause pain. And it's actually been found that in people with persistent and chronic pain, even just thinking about movement can cause pain. Even just thinking about moving can set the fire alarm off. And again, fire alarm goes to the spinal cord, goes to the brain. The brain then goes, well, last time this happened, we were in bed for a week. Oh my god, we can't have that happening again. Let's produce pain to stop that from happening again. So just thinking about moving can cause pain. It's this protective system from the nervous system, from the brain and the spinal cord that we have in place. That's what then can cause this pain. Number six, pain can be unpredictable. You may hurt one day. But not the next. And quite often there's no explanation for when it starts. For when it ends. You can't find a definitive activity that caused it to flare up. If it was something actually physically wrong with your tissues, if it was an actual injury to, say, your knee or your back, something physical, then it wouldn't start and stop. It would just either gradually get worse or gradually improve and the tissue heals. But when it's unpredictable and actually when it changes areas as well, sometimes that's what happens is, oh, do you know what? I'm sore here today, or I'm sore there today, or it's probably more the central nervous system that's going on. --- Next lesson → [[Untangling Pain – Module 1 Lesson 07|next lesson]] %% - [[how do you know it’s your nervous system and not the tissues?]]