Can you hallucinate pain?

So basically around a year ago I got a new pair of insoles. I've been getting insoles all my life and once the podiatrist or orthotist gives them to me I just put them directly in my shoe without a second thought. HOwever, around a year ago I go to a podiatrist and I get an orthotic. He tells me that you have to break it in other wise your knees may hurt. I took his advice but at the same time I was kind of scared.

Two days my knee are hurting and I got pretty angry at him as I thought that perhaps the insole was causing thae pain. However, could it really be that this pain was all hallucinated and I only had the pain because I got scared and as a resutl contaigously got this knee pain from the doctors warning. If I hallucinated pain that wasn't there then I have to say that's crazy how powerful the brain is.

 

Yes absolutely. The brain creates all sensations. Think about the times for ex., when you may have thought you felt your cell phone vibrating, but it wasn't. Look at the case of the Salem witch trials where a bunch of girls started "hallucinating" and accusing people of witchcraft. The term for that is social contagion and it's common. There's a book you may want to check out called "Hallucinations" by a neurologist, Oliver Sacks.

I your case, it's the "nocebo" effect in action. A doctor gave you a negative suggestion to your already vulnerable, suggestible self and brain....and voila! Your brain said "here ya go". It's the opposite of the placebo effect. Different side of the same coin and this is well documented in science.

 

Insoles are broken in when you wear them. They're completely painless. Knee got tense due to nocebo.

 

Yes, I also experience hallucinating pain before and I agree with this one.

 

that’s honestly crazy. Thanks for your reply. Essentially I had inception on me performed albeit accidentally. If you haven’t seen the movie haha I don’t wanna ruin it for you but essentially one oof the main lines is “the most resilient virus is an idea”. Basically in the movie they try implanting ideas in the subjects subconscious in order for it to grow naturally. I think that’s what happened to me lol. I also read that after the Berlin Wall came down the amount of back pain I. East Germany rose dramatically as it started to merge cultures with west Germany. The result of the study was that back pain is a contagious disorder.

 

I agree with everything that's been said but I don't see it as hallucinating pain. The way I think it goes, at least sometimes, is that an idea gets planted in your head (Google is a great source of nocebos, as is television, as are doctors) about a certain area of the body or symptom and you start focusing on it and obsessing, creating physical tension in that area or about that symptom, which can lead to unfamiliar sensations and, as the obsession continues, the focus and the tension can amplify those sensations and make them stick. But however you understand the process, the treatment is the same.

 

I 100% agree. I used to think I was mad but in reality it is just the brain sending false signals. Neural pathways can turn on and off just like that