Constant Pain & Triggers

Good Morning,

Follow up question to a previous question where I asked about constant pain....I read a lot about figuring out and addressing the triggers for your pain whether it is walking/sitting/anger/saddness...My pain is constant (non stop for 17 years now), so I can't identify anything as a trigger. The pain doesnt change in any noticible way either. Any advice so some alternative way I can look at this since I dont seem to have a pain trigger? Or maybe everything is a trigger?

Thank You!

 

I was reviewing older threads and found that you hadn't received any replies. I feel like I kind of answered this on your other thread, but maybe I need to be more specific.

My sense is that you may be too focused on the concept of triggers. It's important to understand and always remember, that obsessing about something that does not produce results is a distraction, and is thus a candidate for rejection from your conscious and unconscious thoughts.

That being said, I don't even remember triggers being something I paid any attention to when I did the work in 2011, and honestly, the term still doesn't resonate with me at all, because I think of "triggers" as something very tangible and noticeable, and I was so committed to accepting that my symptoms come from my brain that I had no problem rejecting any kind of physical source very early on.

Based on your other thread, you also have it fixed in your mind that a "trigger" is a physical action that literally triggers pain, but insteading of rejecting the concept, you're obsessing about it - or rather, your fearful brain is trying to keep you distracted by obsessing about it so you don't get anywhere!

I suggest that you open up your mind to encompass a different definition. What I did (and still do) was to listen to how my fearful brain anticipated experiencing symptoms in various situations. Without associating this with the concept of a physical "trigger" I was in fact directly addressing the mechanism behind triggers - because this is the thought process that goes on, right?

In other words, the concept of a "trigger" as a TMS mechanism is that we know that the action itself does not cause pain - rather the action produces an expectation of pain, which your fearful brain is more than happy to provide.

Thus, if you are in bed thinking about getting up, and your brain tells you that you're going to have pain all day, then just the thought of getting out of bed is the trigger - not any particular physical action.

I believe that Pain Reprocessing Therapy is focused on rewiring the brain in order to reprogram the old patterns of symptom expectations.

 

Thank you! After I posted this I realized I had already posted it and couldn't delete. Mom brain plus pain brain. Appreciate the response!