How many of us have some kind of pain that seems to persist? Have you considered that there are many emotional components to pain?

Chronic pain is described as a challenge and a puzzle as so much of pain seems to defy accepted medical knowledge. For a long time pain was primarily thought of as a signal of physical injury. Most pain sufferers look to medical treatment for an explanation of their pain, and certainly to seek treatment and relief.

Chronic pain, and pain which lasts or goes on beyond normal healing time frames usually starts with an injury or illness but doesn’t respond to normally effective treatments. A bone fracture or ruptured disc, for example, causes great pain and can heal from treatment and rest. Chronic pain comes in many different forms – back pain, fibromyalgia, sciatica, migraines are often difficult to treat and heal.

The realization that there are different types of of pain involving different triggers and factors has led to the concept that pain can lead to both physical and mental problems.

A major advance in understanding pain was the discovery that stress is a major contributing factor to pain. Stress is a physical and mental feeling of helplessness or uncertainty in the face of challenging or life threatening circumstances. It usually involves many feelings including anxiety, mood swings, sleeplessness, decreased immune functioning, and concentration and memory problems.

In one of the largest investigations of its kind, a study of over 9,000 adult members of a health plan in the United States found that people who had suffered severe stress were more than twice as likely to have health problems like heart disease and fractures compared to people who had not. Stressed people are even more at risk of the common cold! Researchers found the more stressful the events, the greater the risk of pain and illness. PTSD is often associated with chronic pain. Around 50% of PTSD sufferers also suffer from chronic pain.

But don’t despair – there’s some really good news here. Neuroplasticity is the idea and science that the brain is modifiable. Neuroplasticity is the mechanism wherein the brain is affected by experience. And, neuroplasticity offers powerful information for new therapies which are designed to allow the brain to process physical and emotional pain. Stanford University is reporting much success with chronic pain sufferers.

I have many clients with chronic pain from injuries and pain from a lifetime of stress and trauma. Some have a hard time believing their pain can be caused by suppressed emotions or an upbringing where they were treated badly by parents and other caretakers.

Most chronic pain sufferers are not validated or understood, so I never question my clients about the validity of their pain. The longer a person has endured pain, the more helpless and defeated they can feel. So we start treating the pain itself with hypnosis and other modalities and go from there.

I have developed my own questionnaire to identify neglect, PTSD, physical injury, and depression. We get to work building resources to help people gain confidence so the pain can be minimized and the root issues solved. Emotions may come up or may not, but with continuation of my work with hypnosis, guided imagery, NLP, and EMDR, it seems the pain always changes, dissipates, creating a more positive state.

Teachers, parents, grandparents, babysitters, siblings are some of our caregivers. And, you might say that these people are our thermostats who regulate our states of being, our influences. When we are small, we are provided certain support and influence, and the degree to which that support is healthy and caring varies from person to person.

Now consider this: states equal traits, or rather, states of being, of influence from our caregivers become patterns and traits in us. If you had a caregiver in an anxious, angry state, what was that person subconsciously teaching you?

After sitting in on an interesting session that presented these examples and ideas, a few compelling facts struck and stuck with me.

Playing and laughter have a lot to do with activating the proper part of the brain system so individuals are able to engage appropriately with others. Through play, the higher parts of the brain form, and abilities to attach (to others) form.

I immediately thought of my dog. Animals play! Playing more allows the brain to develop (more). Cats and dogs deprived from play don’t attach – they are antisocial, and have behavior problems. (Kids, too.) And, once such animals are (re)introduced to play, they tend to overplay. You might observe this at the dog park with puppies or rescue dogs.

After thinking about our pets and how they might experience social interactions, and what we do via training to reverse some ill effects and teach better habits, I then had my ah-ha! moment: kids who aren’t able to attach in a healthy way “overplay” are labeled with ADHD.

Most of you who have attended my classes know how much I enjoy today’s amazing children – their ideas, their approach to life, their energy. The climate many children grow up in today is so very different from how I grew up (and we were told to get out of the house, out of adult business, and go out and play until dinner).

Many, many children today experience behavior problems that are handled with pharmaceuticals. A common label to these problems is ADD/ADHD, but all kids today can’t possibly have these in such severity and frequency that they all need to be on medication. Attachment may be the true problem as both parents usually work, and there are plenty of distractions that don’t allow for real human interaction (think: texting, television watching, computer using, gaming). Parents are too tired, busy, distracted to bond with their kids, and because of this fact of modern life, kids who can’t attach possibly act out or don’t know how to act and are thus treated with medication. Crazy, right?

The teachers and trainers at this particular conference presentation showed many videos of children trying to capture eye contact or make some sort of connection with parents who are texting, watching televsion, or otherwise not engaged. These children eventually give up and “numb out” when they don’t receive the attention/connection they want or need from their caregivers. It was hard to watch.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that many of the PhDs, medical doctors, psychologists, and counselors were on the same page about medication. Most professionals interviewed for the presentation I attended advise using pharmaceuticals only use if absolutely everything else has been done to deal with behavior problems, and only for serious cases. And, especially when it comes to anxiety, most highly advised to not use meds at all. When people can work through their issues in other ways, dealing with root problems, can real change occur.

There are many many modalities for teaching resources. I always do resource building with every client I see. To me it’s the most important thing to do for confidence building. And, in serious cases of attachment issues leading to behavior problems, the best resource is to play.

Strengthening attachment creates a safe place inside for healing. An easy way to create this climate within our relationships is to play, to laugh, to connect on a light-hearted level. Be sure you play today! Laugh with your family! Connect with your kids! It’s great for the brain, body, and soul.

Some of us dive right into the inner work we know we can truly benefit from while others are more hesitant to dig up (and through) the past. Counseling, self help guides, even creative endeavors and exercise can assist us along our personal paths. And, this process of uncovering and healing all takes time.

Sometimes you can get stuck traveling down this path to healing, and a healthy, helpful boost is what you need. When you feel stuck, which is natural and common, your mind can be compared to a computer that uses software programs. These software programs are filled with your emotions and beliefs that combine together to make up what you think and feel. And, sometimes this software can get stuck in a loop and stop working the way we desire.

It seems that trauma and negative emotions can combine with a certain thought or feeling and create a locked neural pathway in your brain, trapping the negativity in your brain and body. This is how many define post traumatic stress, which seems daunting to deal with, but if you make time to approach your issues with the appropriate tools, you can and will heal.

Take a moment out of every day to assess where you are, where you’ve been, and where you hope to be. With an open mind and heart (and the right tools) you can make big changes that help you heal.

When helping a trauma victim heal, it’s critical for them to be able to relax in order to address the traumatic events and resolve them. If you are having anxiety, practice this important breathing exercise often.

During the course of a lifetime, approximately half of all men and women will exposed to or experience at least one traumatic event, such as an assault, vehicular or work related accident, serious sports injury, domestic violence event, or natural disaster (earthquakes, hurricanes). Some people can resume their normal lives after such an experience while others will suffer significant distress or impairment. Traumatic experiences impact both the brain structure and processes.

But, what is trauma? Trauma is characterized as a rare and overwhelming event that produces an intense emotional response (fear, helplessness, horror). It’s not just an external event – the event is traumatic and/or intensely scary.

Trauma also has a psychological response. For many years mental health professionals and others have recognized that exposure to trauma produces enduring psychological consequences. Many people mask or self medicate the symptoms that develop from exposure to traumatic stress as a form of numbing.

Trauma can be traced to a natural defense mechanism that all human beings share. It is referred to as the flight or flight or freeze response. In the face of stress or danger, the body releases a chemical called adrenaline, which results in a wide range of physiological and psychological responses such as increased heart rate, overall hyper arousal of the bodily systems, and increased pupil size. A lesser known fear response is the freeze response or immobilization. This reaction to fear or terror often leaves people with the belief afterward, “why didn’t I do something?”. Freezing and fleeing are often defensive responses that are connected to unrealistic and debilitating feelings of guilt and shame in the aftermath of trauma.

A few symptoms that a person who has experienced trauma may also have:
• nightmares
• avoidance of people, place, and other situation is associated with trauma
• visual, auditory, and kinesthetic flashbacks
• intrusive thoughts
• persistent anxiety, increased arousal, and hypersensitivity
• sleep disturbances
• diminished interest or participation in previously enjoyed activities
• feelings of detachment and isolation
• psychic numbing

Symptoms can be mild to severe. Ongoing symptoms are very taxing on a person’s nervous system and people can try to self medicate for relief. Anyone who has grown up in a household of alcoholics or drug addicts or family that is depressed or anxious (who often have had their own history of trauma) can be well aware of the symptoms mentioned above.

There are countless studies about trauma. For more information on trauma (and related PTSD) please visit LifeForce or Sara Gilman.