Can past life events be the cause of chronic pain?

I believe that answer to this is yes and no. We have to really think about what is meant by the word cause, the cause of chronic pain.

I think when we try to find a cause of an illness for instance: -

o   The cause of high blood pressure may be related to what we eat or to how much stress we experience.

o   The cause of diabetes again can have lifestyle causes particularly for type 2.

o   If we look at type 1 diabetes that often starts in childhood, it's when the body is unable to produce insulin.

Therefore, when we talk about general illnesses and diseases yes, we can say there is a cause.

There's certainly a cause of acute pain such as when you: -

o   Fall and break your leg or your arm.

o   You hit your head and get concussion.

Do Life Events Cause Chronic Pain?

My point that I'm putting forward is when we talk about life events being the cause of chronic pain, I think the conversation is different.

What I discovered in my clinical research gives me reasons to say yes, past events can be the cause of chronic pain. I have worked with clients who had the opportunity to spend time thinking about past life events and to be able to express the stress and the emotions that arose from the life events.

But there is also research that was done in the 1974 by Dr. Ian Hislop, that I’ve mentioned before on the website, that showed the propensity for getting inflammatory bowel disease was increased for those people who had experienced major life events in the previous 12 months.

I have had discussions, or more like disagreements, with people that will argue against the work of such people such as Howard Schubiner and David Clarke who do consider childhood experiences being implicated in chronic pain and should be involved with neuroplastic treatments.

Our Brain Remembers Past Accidents and Trauma

This time I add the consideration of accidents or trauma, yes, there are physical injuries. But the impact of an event may have been enormous, its aftermath will be interlinked with chronic pain.

Like ivy growing on a fence, you can tear off the ivy, but you will be left with ‘aerial roots’ that damage the wooden fence, often called ivy feet leaving residue impossible to remove.

Ivy is difficult to remove from the fence - leaving small aerial roots that cannot be removed.

This is akin to various chronic pain treatments that assist people to live with their chronic pain – the aerial roots of their past are still integral to the continuation of their pain and other chronic neuroplastic symptoms.

Locked in pain for 30 years after car accident

Here’s an example from my clinical research: -

o   A woman in her 60s.

o   Chronic pain for over 30 years.

o   She had been involved in a car accident.

o   Her sister had been killed.

o   She had been driving and her sister.

Obviously in a serious car accident there were injuries, but the tissues and bones heal. Perhaps in such examples as this there is not full acknowledgement of the actual emotions and the feelings like aerial roots are immovable.

I think just to have counseling or psychology about the awareness of how to handle emotions may not be enough for some people. Post traumatic events could be given the opportunity to actually express and release emotions.

Emotions this person has carried for 30 years. After several appointments she began to release emotions, or I should say process her emotions. Of guilt and other concomitant emotions, it was an opportunity to have some relief from her chronic pain. 

I think once again what comes into question, as I mentioned at the beginning of my article, is the word the cause of the chronic pain. When we try to put acute pain and chronic pain in the same bucket (with similar treatments) they don't fit.

When we talk about the cause of chronic or persistence of pain, I think we are trying to define something and it's the wrong something that we're trying to define!

Why Treat Chronic Pain like Acute Pain?

One of the errors in the past that has created a lot of uncertainty and disability - with catastrophic outcomes for people with chronic pain - over the past years, even decades by treating chronic pain in the same way as we treated acute pain.

And unfortunately, I am fairly sure that the same thing is still going on. Where ongoing persistent pain whether constant or intermittent is being treated by doctors first of all by medication as if it was acute pain. Patients are being given the same prescriptions I had when I broke my arm, when in fact nothing is broken.

Yes, I had to put up with pain but there was also inflammation at the same time while my body healed. As we well know much chronic pain is not inflammatory pain. However, we are now learning that chronic pain can cause physical symptoms. Unfortunate for these patients their physical symptoms look very like acute conditions such as in the research above inflammatory bowel disease. Oops once again medical intervention, again?

It seems in this article I'm almost talking myself around in circles so I need to return to the main question and that is can we find a cause of chronic pain.

When we or when doctors are looking for the cause of an illness, a disease or difficult to explain sensations or some part of your body responding to daily actions in a very uncooperative way.

Diagnoses - the clinician is looking at signs and symptoms, then trying to put a label otherwise known as a diagnosis. Of course, this is necessary because this is how our medical system works.

It's a system of boxes: -

Separate boxes that can contain parts of our body.

All the boxes probably a different color.

Boxes that contain parts of our mind,

“So far the box for the brain are a bit too much out there with just a few researchers having fun with brain scans.”

In the same way we have boxes of treatments which I cannot understand in any way, and I think it's possibly because I am trained as a naturopath.  

Naturopaths have a holistic approach to health and wellness.

In fact, we're looking at health and wellness - we're not looking for disease and illness.

Jean Jordan – Naturopathic Medicine Practitioner 20 years’ experience in treating ongoing pain issues and anxiety.

Trainer for 2^nd career health practitioner available through Natural Pain Solutions.

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After studying Postgraduate Pain Management & Freedom from Chronic Pain with Howard Schubiner, I want to spread the word about holistic self-help techniques and introduce basic neuroplastic ideas.

NOTE: If you have pain or any health concerns see the relevant healthcare professional.