intro
The Nervous System and Chronic Pain
Calm what now? Our nervous system is a complex network of nerves and cells that help us perceive and respond to the world around us. It’s responsible for sending signals between our brain and body to regulate everything from our heart rate to our breathing. But when we experience chronic pain, our nervous system tends to be stuck in a state of high alert. They are overactive and not functioning as well as they could. This can lead to increased sensitivity to pain, as well as other physical and emotional symptoms like fatigue and anxiety. Which is why we need to know how to calm it.
We are looking to switch from running its sympathetic nervous system to its parasympathetic nervous system. This is the so-called switch from “fight or flight” to “rest and digest”.
The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is the “alert” system in the body. This is the one in charge when you’re facing a stressful situation at work, driving through heavy traffic in a storm, or when you receive an unexpected bill in the mail. When the SNS takes the lead for too long, you feel anxious, tired, on edge, and irritable. You don’t sleep as well, and your digestive system might act up. It also messes with our pain experience.
Retraining the nervous system to “calm down” is a key component of managing chronic pain. But it’s important to remember that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. What works for one person may not work for another. We are unique human beings with unique likes and dislikes. Our joys and sorrows are different. That’s why it’s important to explore a range of strategies and find what works best for you.
Calm the Nervous System Like You Would a Crying Baby
Think about it for a moment. Brand new baby, just came from a warm, dark, noise dampened environment out into the cold, bright and often loud world with a brand spanking new nervous system. Sometimes, those precious little beans get over excited and cry out. Their tiny little systems are overloaded, and they don’t have the tools to help them regulate. So, we help them. I am a huge believer in co-regulation. (2 humans helping each other regulate emotional states.) But co-regulation is a different blog post – this one is mostly about what you can do for yourself. Those things fall well into the categories of things we do for crying babies.
Check the Big 3!
Have you ever noticed that when you’re feeling tired, angry, or hungry, your pain levels seem to increase? That’s because these three factors can have a big impact on our nervous system and how we experience pain. It’s important to regularly check in with yourself and see if you’re feeling any of the Big 3.
Let’s start with tiredness. When we’re sleep deprived, our nervous system is more likely to be in a state high alert. 3 nights of less than 6 hours of sleep has been known to increase our pain experience by 25%! So, make sure you’re getting enough rest and practicing good sleep hygiene to help calm your nervous system.
Next up is anger. When we’re feeling angry or frustrated, our body releases stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones can make our nervous system more sensitive to pain, and also increase inflammation throughout the body. So, finding healthy ways to manage anger and stress is key to managing chronic pain.
Lastly, let’s talk about hunger. When we’re hungry, our body is under stress. This stress can cause our nervous system to become more sensitive to pain and also lead to feelings of anxiety and irritability. So, make sure you’re fueling your body with healthy foods and eating regularly throughout the day.
By checking for the Big 3 regularly, you can start to identify patterns and triggers that exacerbate your chronic pain. With this knowledge, you can start to make changes and adjustments to your lifestyle that will help calm your nervous system and manage your pain more effectively.
Bouncing/ Vibrating
When my daughter was an infant, she loved to be bounced. All.the.time. On my knee, in a bouncy seat, on someone’s hip, it really didn’t matter as long as she was jiggling. Car rides and the baby carrier on top of the dryer were common ways to get her to sleep. Why, because it was soothing to her!
to create calm for adults, it would be a touch odd if we held each other on our hips and bounced. However, we do have many manual interventions that fall under the same category! Think about it, joint mobilizations, joint manipulations, massage guns, vibration plates. They all utilize similar mechanisms that, for some, can create a sensation of safety.
Touch
Touch, there is a whole body of research about how vital human touch is to the health of a human being. Without it our incidents of anxiety, depression, and even immune system disorders.
It has been found that touch calms our nervous system and slows down our heartbeat. Human touch also lowers blood pressure as well as cortisol, our stress hormone. It also triggers the release of oxytocin, a hormone known for promoting emotional bonding to others.
Studies using PET scans have found that the brain quiets in response to stress when a person’s hand is held. The effect is greatest when the hand being held is that of a loved one, but it still works even if it’s just a stranger.
Any hands-on intervention fits into this category. Your cat, dog, or other pets can help fill this need. Plus, they are so fun, right? If you live in a touch deprived situation, I strongly encourage you to get regular massages, volunteer to hold babies at a local place of worship, volunteer to sit with people in hospitals or nursing homes and hold hands. Find ways to get touch needs meet. It is vital to our health and well-being.
Rocking
Rocking can produce a calming effect by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, which counteracts stress and anxiety by promoting relaxation. It can increase the release of endorphins, the body’s natural “feel-good” chemicals. These neurotransmitters help to alleviate pain and stress, as well as generate feelings of pleasure and well-being.
How can you use this to your advantage? The back yard hammock or hammock chair – inside or out! If you have one of those exercise balls tucked away, sit on that and sway. Of course, a regular old rocking chair or glider will work.
Swaddling
Please tell me I was not the only mom who made their babies into burritos! My son loved to be wrapped up tight and as an adult still loves to be wrapped up in blankets. Deep pressure/ compression can feel good. It not only calms the nervous system, but it can prompt better sleep.
Using compression to aid in pain reduction is actually quite simple and more accessible than you might think. Your shapewear is a compression garment. Many athletic stores sell compression shorts for sports like volleyball. Your braces, belts, straps and various forms of taping fall into this category for me. One of my favorite versions of compression is a tight long hug.
Enjoy this Grey’s Anatomy clip showing us how this works 😀
Sounds and Smells
Don’t underestimate the soothing power of your favorite smells and sounds. The market for baby sound makers and lavender lotions is huge. So, while I don’t think it’s worth buying essential oils to “heal” you with magical properties. Smells that you enjoy can be very relaxing. So go ahead and use those scents in candles, wax melts, oils, lotions and enjoy them.
While I was going through a particularly stressful time in my life, I even carried cotton balls with my favored scents on them in my purse, in case of anxiety attacks. A few drops on a dryer sheet can be slipped into your vents or your pillowcase to calm you at night.
Sounds can be anything from your favorite music mix to YouTube soothing sounds. Many people really enjoy listening to Tibetan bowls, frequency music, or colored noise. All of these will need some experimentation to find what works for you. I find that brown noise is like a warm cuddly blanket to my brain, but pink or white noise make me twitchier. You’ll need to jump on the internet and see what sounds best to you.
Final Thoughts
Your nervous system is uniquely yours. Because of that, it stands to reason that you will feel calm with things someone else won’t, and that’s ok. The important thing is to find what works for you. In our efforts to create safety internally and externally, I hope that this blog post has given you some things to explore that you had not considered yet. If you can use it to calm a crying baby, you can use it to calm a screaming nervous system.
Want to continue the conversation? Join me in my Free Facebook Support Group!
Further Reading
Hands On Research: The Science of Touch (berkeley.edu)
The Vital Importance of Human Touch | Psychology Today
Sound Healing: What It Is and How It Works (verywellmind.com)
