3x Ways Your Brain Can Sabotage Your Health & Cause Chronic Illness or Pain

Have you ever wondered why an illness or injury doesn't always get better with treatment or rest?

Mainstream medicine is built around managing systems and symptoms - digestive system, respiratory system, cardiovascular system, immune system etc.

But that often leads to an endless cycle of:

Symptoms -> pain / illness -> treatment -> feel better -> symptoms -> pain / illness -> treatment........on and on, over and over

Sound familiar? Maybe you're already stuck in this cycle?

How you break the cycle lies in your brain and nervous system.

Think of your brain as the flight control centre, and the nervous system as the messenger delivering messages between the body and the brain.

How The Brain Responds to Danger - A Potential Pathway to Chronic Pain

The brain has many jobs:

• Keeping the body in balance (homeostasis) for optimal function and health
• Looking out for potential threat or danger to the body
• Keeping the body safe from harm and injury
• Analysing information from your senses

You're constantly getting information about your environment - external and internal - from your senses. 

One region of the brain, the limbic system, is responsible for deciding if a stimulus is potentially dangerous or harmful. The amygdala is the "fear" part of the limbic system. 

As well as being triggered by what you perceive as dangerous or threatening, the amygdala can also become stimulated by memories stored in the nearby hippocampus. 

The pain pathways pass adjacent to the limbic system and hippocampus, and can become stimulated by activity in these parts of the brain. Here we see a potential route to chronic pain, where pain has stopped being an accurate indicator of actual, structural damage. 

When the limbic system and amygdala are stimulated they activate the HPA axis. This is part of your "fight or flight" response to possible danger.

The HPA axis is made up of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal glands, and might be described as the "stress centre" of the body. 

The hypothalamus in the brain signals to the pituitary glands to release ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone). ACTH tells the adrenal glands in the kidneys to release cortisol, the "stress hormone".

Cortisol has many effects on the body, some of which include:

• Blood pressure increases
• Heart rate gets faster
• Breathing becomes quicker and more shallow
• Blood glucose levels go up
• Muscle tension increases ready for explosive action
• Melatonin release is inhibited to increase alertness

All of these effects essentially prepare the body to take the actions needed to survive.

Remember, your brain and nervous system are ALWAYS trying to protect you from harm.

Now lets look at 3x ways the brain and nervous system can unwittingly sabotage your health and wellbeing.

3x Ways The Brain and Nervous System Can Sabotage Your Health and Cause Chronic Illness or Pain 

1) Hypervigilance

A nervous, fearful brain and nervous system is constantly looking for possible threat or danger. It may even invent some, as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You may notice this as avoiding certain movements or activities, negative thoughts, low self confidence, needing external validation, restlessness, sleeping poorly or anxiety.

The amygdala is over-active, regularly stimulating the HPA axis and triggering a "fight or flight" response to even minor daily stressors.

This can lead to a chronic, low level of stress and build up of inflammation in the body.

Regular colds, sniffles, chest infections, tight or tense muscles, skin irritations, gut upsets and slow recovery after exercise or illness are some of the physical symptoms of chronic low level stress and inflammation building in the bod

You may feel the classic 'wired yet tired'. You may find it hard to get to sleep, or wake up at silly o'clock with your mind racing. 

2) Dysregulation

A dysregulated nervous system is one that's unable to adapt flexibly and quickly to change.

The human nervous system has evolved to exist in different states, from safety to "fight or flight" to immobilisation, depending on the level of threat in your external and internal environment. 

If your nervous system becomes stuck in "fight or flight", you feel tense, anxious, confrontational or defensive. You may experience high blood pressure, heart palpitations, tummy upsets and soft tissue injuries.

If your nervous system becomes stuck in the immobilisation state you may notice you procrastinate a lot, be indecisive, have low energy, low mood and little motivation to move or exercise. Has Netflix or scrolling on social media at every opportunity become your daily norm? 

A well regulated nervous system should exist mostly in safety, the "social connection" state. This is where you feel social, can engage with other people, be curious and open minded.

As your environment or circumstances change your nervous system should quickly shift to "fight or flight" or "immobilisation", and then return back to the safe state of social connection as soon as the threat has passed.

3) Trauma

Now, you may be thinking this one doesn't apply to you.

I think we need to reframe trauma. 

Trauma isn't just the big, life changing stuff that we see on the TV or read about.

A soft tissue injury or surgery is traumatic to the body. There's also relational trauma and generational trauma.

Neglect, being misunderstood, feeling alienated or helpless can all lead to trauma.

When you encounter a trigger that resembles the original trauma, such as certain movement or activity, the brain remembers and initiates immediate protection protocols.

Whatever strategy you used at the time to survive the trauma is how you'll respond in response to the trigger.

Let's look at a really common example I see a lot of in my classes:

Original trauma = Sudden, severe lower back pain after bending over and picking up your laundry from the floor

External Influences = Friends and family sharing their experiences of back pain, being told by the doctor to avoid bending forwards, Googling terms like "slipped disc"

Coping strategy = Stop physical activity, avoid bending over, take painkillers or anti-inflammatories, get a massage

Outcome = Less mobility, back feels stiff, nervous of exercise or doing certain movements, your back "goes" whenever you bend your spine and you have to rest or take more painkillers.

Can you see the pattern?

The original coping strategy that kept you from further harm initially is now holding you back from recovering fully.

What To Do?

There's one common factor in each of these 3x scenarios. Do you know what that that is?

Answer = SAFETY

Your brain, nervous system and body are constantly trying to protect you from harm.

So if you want to stop your brain and nervous system from inadvertently sabotaging your health, whilst trying to protect you, the priority has to be safety.

• Recognise and cancel unhelpful thoughts, thought patterns and beliefs
• Retrain the limbic system and amygdala to reframe how / when they respond to potential danger or stressors
• Down regulate the sympathetic nervous system and upregulate the parasympathetic nervous system 
• Increase vagal tone
• Reframe triggering movements or experiences from threatening to safe

The steps and tools you need to achieve all of this is covered by the BYB (Befriend Your Body) Method.

The BYB Method

The BYB Method is a 4 pillar process that takes your brain, nervous system and body from danger to safety. 

Subconscious survival reactions are replaced by more helpful self regulation strategies. 

The BYB Method works because that it includes BOTH top down (brain -> body) AND bottom up (body -> brain) techniques. 

In short, you work on interrupting unhelpful thought patterns AND show your body how it feels to be safe at the same time, creating a powerful somatic (body) and neuropsychosocial (brain / mind / social ) experience.

How To Contact Me 

If you'd like to learn more about the BYB Method please use one of these methods to contact me and chat further:

1. Email norma.pearson1@ntlworld
2. WhatsApp message 07512 665388
3. Facebook Messenger (you can send me a friend request @ https://www.facebook.com/norma.pearsonfitness )

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope it's been interesting and helpful.