I recently got to spend a couple of days listening to this highly entertaining and seriously clued up guy, Lorimer Mosely, and his equally awesome sidekick David Butler talking in depth about pain science and how to educate people about it.  Put 15 minutes aside to have a watch and start your own journey towards understanding pain!  More of my own musings and links to those of others below. 

Approximately 20% of the world's population (myself included!) experience chronic pain and it's effects, which are not limited to just the soreness in the body.  Interrupted sleep; anxiety; depression; reduced quality of relationships; impaired daily activities; and feeling disconnected with life are among the main impacts that chronic pain can have on those who experience it on a daily basis.  Quite frankly, pain sucks!  My own is widespread and I have experienced it for years.  About 12 of them.  I could talk about my pain experiences and the things I have tried to deal with it for hours.  Possibly days.  My personal experience is not the important thing here.  What is important is that I am learning more about it every day and it is helping in so many ways. 

Thankfully there is a lot of research into pain and its effects, as well as into how to best help those who experience it.   And some of the very best of this is happening right in our neighbour's back yard, across the ditch in Australia.  Two amazing guys, Lorimer Mosely and David Butler have, along with some amazing team members behind them, focused on not only having an impressive understanding of the science behind pain, but have also focused on education of other health professionals and members of the public to ensure clearer understandings are held about pain. 

They are both hilarious and articulate and together have written an amazing book, 'Explain Pain' which is suitable for anyone to read - no need to be a health professional (although it's a great starting point for health professionals as well!).  It has been proven (with impressive research) that understanding how pain works can have big impacts on how people experience it.  They have also written a handbook to go alongside it, Explain Pain: the Protectometer.  There is also a Protectometer app available, currently only for IOS in the App Store - hopefully the Android version is on its way soon.  People can read and work through these books independently, or can find themselves a therapist who knows a bit about Pain Science and work alongside the therapist.  Either way, you're going to be ahead of many many others, including health professionals in the pain game, and well on your way to dealing to your pain and living a  more comfortable life.  
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There are many key understandings to be taken from the books - but one of the most important to understand is that YOUR PAIN IS REAL!!! It is not imagined in your head. It is a real and can be a vicious and debilitating experience.  Pain can take its toll on your life and is possibly make you feel pretty miserable at times.  However, pain is a (sometimes inappropriate) construct of the brain misinterpreting signals it is receiving from various sources both in and outside of you.    Behold the onion of intrigue....

But what does the onion of intrigue show?!

The (now somewhat revered) onion is showing the components of the Biopsychosocial aspects contributing to your pain experience.  The BIO refers to the body's inputs and processes - nociception, which refers to the body's danger detection system - the nerve cells that actually deliver messages about our physical experiences and interactions with the world to our spinal cord or brain.   Often our initial nociception occurs as a result of an injury, or when the body identifies that injury is imminent and that protective measures must be taken - so the ACUTE pain alarm system is activated. 

The thing is, primary nociception is a relatively short lived process.  Once an injury is healed, there is no reason for our nociceptors to remain active.   Pain should, in theory be alleviated as the alarm system is no longer need.  However, all the remaining layers of the onion, the PSYCHO (our beliefs, attitudes and behaviours) and the SOCIAL (what is around in our environment, including the messages we see in media etc) can keep us in a heightened state so we are aware of danger and often over sensitive to it.  This can mean that we may continue to experience pain for a long time beyond the healing of the initial insult to our tissues that created the pain in the first place.  This, if it lasts beyond 6 months (by NZ's definitions), is then referred to as CHRONIC pain.

This is a very simplistic and incredibly brief starting point with which to begin your pain knowledge journey.  I am not wanting to irritate anyone, especially the amazing people who have created the Explain Pain texts, by using copyrighted images on my page.   
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An important thing to note:

There is a pertinent link to a post from David Butler to include here that I would be remiss to leave out.  You see a lot of people think that by looking at the video I have linked above, or many others like it, for 5 minutes, or even 15 or more, that their pain should and will disappear... or worse still, that it wasn't even there to begin with!  Then, because it isn't instantly gone and doesn't match their reality, they throw all of this amazing information and knowledge out the window because it doesn't work.  Here's the thing: PAIN IS COMPLEX.  It has MANY different facets and inputs and it has often taken many years of individualised inputs and learning experiences to become what it is.  So the education about all the different aspects of pain must be equally as in-depth.  

Just to clarify misconceptions and accurate conceptions about Explain Pain... (table below taken from the link above)

Where to from here?

So I leave you with this note.  I am more than happy to talk with you and teach you what I know about your pain experience. It will only make me a better practitioner and, all going to plan, you a happier and more comfortable person!  I am on the learning journey here too and am hugely excited.  Anyone is welcome along for the ride!
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MORE LINKS and cool videos

The role of the brain in chronic pain - Some repetition from the above video but still a goodie from Lorimer Moseley
Getting a grip on pain in the brain - Did I mention Lorimer likes to be known as 'Loz' - also includes a bit of information on phantom pain.
Treating pain using the brain - David Butler showing his own inimitable style to educate.
Expanding our understanding of pain biology - Lorimer again
Pain:  is it just all in your mind?  Lorimer addressing the common idea we hear

I may or may not be a bit of a fan girl at the moment.... ;)