Children show scars like medals. Lovers use them as secrets to reveal. A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh. "The Favorite Game” Leonard Cohen
I have lots of scars, they tell stories of childhood fights and falls; of teenage cooking experiments; of two slightly difficult births. My scars are testament to the healing power within my own body. I have also had broken bones and sprains. Though you can’t see ligaments re-weaving their fibres or a bone knitting, through experience of past healing we have lived this regeneration of tissues and cells. While we are healing our body protects us by triggering its danger detectors. We feel this alarm system as pain but it is more than this. Angina is a chest pain that also triggers the growth of new arteries. This shows us that pain protects and helps us repair at the same time. Pain turns itself off when it is no longer needed. Think of the last time you cut yourself, it stopped hurting after a day or two even though it wasn’t fully healed.
Lorimer Mosely and David Butler are neuroscientists who study, teach and write about the psychosocial nature of pain. They help people recover with “nuggets” of positive information to guide their thought processes as they heal. Imagine going into a doctors surgery and having them say to you “well done you old self healer, you should take pride in your body’s healing response, this swelling shows me that your body has the resources to heal itself.”
If your doctor does say this to you then they have read The Clinician’s Handbook of Explain Pain Supercharged and you are in very good hands. This blog post is a list of the ten Explain Pain concepts (of seventy one) that I use most often when working with people who are recovering from injury:
Context is everything
The brain tells us when it is in danger and then decides when to produce pain. If you have a sore tooth and you’re at the dentist you probably feel more pain than if you’re recovering from a bad bruise while sitting at the movies. When you feel safe, happy and relaxed your pain experience lessens.
Positive words only
This is the concept that thoughts and beliefs are nerve impulses too. When you hurt your knee this sends a danger message to the brain. Negative thoughts also send danger messages to the brain. Our thoughts are physical and our words matter.
Relax
or in Mosely and Butler’s words: fingernails grow faster on holidays. This points out that when we are under stress things get put on hold, this includes our healing.
Take some hug drug
Oxytocin is a neuropeptide and analgesic that calms, de-stresses, reduces cortisol, makes you happier and eases pain. To get oxytocin you need to cuddle, sing, dance, look at a photo of a loved one, watch a romantic movie or spend time with (pleasant) animals.
Get out of the house
Mosely and Butler use the ship metaphor - a ship is safe in harbour but that’s not what ships are for. This is to remind you not to withdraw from society or life. Test the waters, nudge your boundaries and have graded exposure to the world out there.
Crutches are temporary
A brace or splint is the first step to mobilisation. Orthotics give you support and they rest the injured area but you don’t need them for a long time. Early activity and decreased reliance is best for healing.
Knowledge is analgesic
When you understand your injury and the healing process the threat is taken away and the stress decreases. Be an expert in your illness or injury, just google wisely.
Motion is lotion
Moving lubricates the joint surfaces, flushes old fluid out of the muscles, makes blood thinner, nourishes and awakens brain cells and pushes oxygen deep into the lungs. These are all good for healing.
Visualisation and meditation
There is a part of the brain that has a map of the surfaces of your entire body called the hermunculus/homunculus. The larger the body part the more brain cells are used to make its map. We can create more brain real estate and clearer paths in your brain for your injury site and it’s healing by visualising the healing. Here is a guided healing meditation that I prepared earlier -
Ups and downs
The recovery journey is like a toblerone chocolate bar. We will climb out of this pain and we will be okay. There will be a few ups and a few downs along the way. But there is always chocolate to make things better.
and there you go! This was super quick. Essentially, when you are injured, go to your happy place, focus on what you have not what you don’t, make choices that decrease stress, use positive words, give someone a hug, chat to a friend or neighbour, educate yourself, move, and be willing to experience the journey that is healing. If you’d like to learn more about David Butler and Lorimer Moseley then these two websites are a good start
xx