# What the words actually mean ##### Untangling Pain ---  --- ## tl;dr - Labels such as fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, and chronic fatigue describe what you feel, but often not why it is happening. - “Nonspecific” pain means a clear physical cause has not been found; it does not mean the pain is not real. - I find “psychosomatic” especially unhelpful when it is used to dismiss women’s pain. - A sensitive central nervous system can be one piece of the puzzle, alongside body, mind, emotions, and social factors. - Pain is an output of a complex, overwhelmed system, not proof that you are broken. > [!abstract]- Transcript > > Going back to the first one about labels, chances are, many of you watching this are going to have been given one of these labels. Maybe multiple labels. Maybe labels that I haven't included here today. But I want you to understand what these labels actually mean. > > So, fibromyalgia. It means pain in the muscles and ligaments. That's literally it. It doesn't actually tell us what's causing the pain in the muscles and ligaments. Just that there is pain in the muscles and ligaments. > > I think it's amazing, they give this diagnosis, fibromyalgia, and you're like, Okay, so it means pain in the muscles and ligaments. > > Well, no shit, I could have told you that myself. > > But what's causing fibromyalgia? > > And again, more often than not with fibromyalgia, it's this central nervous system that is overly sensitive that is then causing pain in the muscles and ligaments. Problem is, the doctors don't really tell you that. That is the problem. > > They don't actually tell you that. > > Chronic fatigue syndrome means you're always tired. Again, no shit? > > But why are we always tired? There is no explanation as to what's going on. Just having that diagnosis, gives us nothing. It gives us nothing. > > And again, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome may be the result of the central nervous system basically going, okay, instead of pain, we're going to shut everything down. > > I'm going to shut down the body in order to protect you because you've done too much. Because we're in danger of doing too much. Because we think you're going to do too much. So we'll shut the body down. > > So again, it's probably more the central nervous system that's causing this, or is a part of it at least. > > Myofascial syndrome or myofascial pain syndrome. Similar to fibromyalgia, where there's pain in the muscles and the fascia, so the surrounding layer. The fascia is like a surrounding layer, think sausage skin, around the muscles. Again, no explanation of what is actually causing it. But more often than not it's going to be the central nervous system. Chances are if you've got pain in the muscles and fascia, they've probably been tested, .And if you've been given this diagnosis, they've gone, there's nothing wrong physically with the muscles and the fascia, but we'll give you this diagnosis. > > Non specific pain. This means pain not caused by anything in particular. Again, absolutely brilliant diagnosis. Non specific back pain. Non specific shoulder pain. Non specific pain. Not caused by anything in particular. > > If you've got this diagnosis, and you're going, yes, but what is causing it? > > And they're going, well, it's non specific pain. You're like, well, I need to know what's causing it so I can fix it. Again, the thing is, it's probably the central nervous system, the brain, the spinal cord, and the whole danger alarm system that is causing this nonspecific pain. They've not found anything biological. Anything physical. Anything biomechanical, to actually cause this pain. So they give you this diagnosis of nonspecific pain, and send you away, and that's it, you don't know what to do about it. This is what we're hoping to do with this training. > > Finally, psychosomatic pain. This is pain caused by thoughts and emotions. Psychosomatic pain, it's such a shit definition, isn't it? Thoughts and emotions are a factor in pain, and we've already said that with this new definition. But they're not the only factors. And this psychosomatic pain label is one that's very much been used mainly for women. And mainly "hysterical" women. Rarely is psychosomatic pain used for men. > > I don't have any statistics on that. But I'm sure if you look at the research, this will most definitely be the case. Men are rarely told that their emotions are causing their pain. > > So you can see how all of these terms are not only confusing, but they're unhelpful too. And yet, these are the labels that we are being given, especially as women. Fibromyalgia, psychosomatic pain, nonspecific pain. And I think it's because so many of the painful conditions that we experience, they are not caused by a single thing. > > They're not caused by a single one factor. And they're not caused by just one biological thing which seems to be, if it's not seen on a scan or an x ray, well, we don't know what's going on. Because pain is complex, there's this complex relationship between the body, the mind, the emotions, the social factors, the spiritual side. And pain is an output. > > And when it comes to chronic pain, it's because the whole body, the body as a whole, including the central nervous system, the brain and the spinal cord, is being overfilled with so many things and the brain perceives everything to be a danger and as a result pain is the outcome. Sources → [[Sources – Untangling Pain#Module 1|Module 1]] Next lesson → [[Module 1 Lesson 08 – The autonomic nervous system|The autonomic nervous system]] %% - [[What do the labels around chronic pain actually mean?]] %%