Pain care you deserve.
What is Pain Psychology?
One of the most common fears pain psychologists hear from patients is that they were referred to us because providers believe their pain is “all in their head.” We assure you this is not the case at Alpine Relief Therapy. We hold firm to the belief that any pain you experience is valid and should be respected as such.
So Why Pain Psychology?
In 2020, the International Association for the Study of Pain redefined pain as:
“An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage.”
What makes this important? The IASP took the step and recognized that pain involves not only the physical experience, but also the emotional experience.
If you take 60 seconds and spend that time doing something you love, completely distracted from the world around you, time flashes in an instant.
Now imagine taking those same 60 seconds and adding the component of pain. A pain that is so distracting you cannot take your mind off of it. You are now experiencing agony due to pain. And that same unit of time takes an eternity to pass. This is due to the emotion of agony - which occurred because of pain.
Pain is an alarm signal. Typically speaking, we want the alarm signal to happen - it is our survival mechanism. The body is telling us we are in danger. It is signaling our “fight, flight, or freeze” system. In other words, the body is telling us to engage in one of these three actions in order to avoid further harm to our self.
We absolutely want this to happen when we experience acute pain, such as a broken leg. However, when experiencing persistent pain, wires have crossed in our alarm system. It’s like a car alarm we just can’t turn off. We’re hitting all the right buttons, but the alarm just keeps ringing. And ringing. And ringing.
Our bodies don’t know what is wrong. They just know they’re in pain. They send signals to our brain and this is interpreted as danger. So we developed an alarm system with no off-switch. Not only do we have to deal with the physical components of being in pain, but we also have irritability, depression, anxiety, anger, frustration, and shame. Why? Because we know that pain signals light up the emotional centers of our brain.
Pain psychology focuses on rewiring the pain circuitry in our bodies and our brains in order to allow that alarm system to start re-learning how it should function. As a pain psychologist, Dr. Iwamoto will work together with you as a team to develop a pain toolkit to begin finding ways to interrupt that alarm system, so you can have a break, take part in an activity you used to enjoy, spend time with your family and/or friends, or simply sleep for more than a few hours with less pain.
Pain psychology isn’t intended to replace your current pain treatment plan, rather it is a complementary intervention and Dr. Iwamoto will also communicate with your healthcare providers, upon your permission, to ensure that you are provided with the most comprehensive and evidence-based treatment plan possible.