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Chronic pain can be debilitating and frustrating, especially among aging adults.
While physical remedies and treatments can provide some relief, experts have found that shifting one’s mindset — or the way the brain approaches pain — can actually ease the discomfort.
Dr. Daniel Amen, a California-based psychiatrist and founder of Amen Clinics, has studied how changing the brain can help defeat chronic pain, as shared in his new book, “Change Your Brain, Change Your Pain.”
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In an on-camera interview with Fox News Digital, Amen noted that many people don’t know that chronic pain doesn’t just live in the joints, the knees or the back.
“If it’s been around for more than three weeks, it is now living in your brain,” he said. “There are actually circuits in your brain that feel pain. They feel both physical pain and emotional pain.”
Pain that sticks around for more than three weeks is also living in the brain, according to the doctor. (iStock)
Some medications that treat depression are FDA-approved for chronic pain, treating both emotional and physical imbalances, according to Amen.
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“It’s because they work on the same circuits in the brain,” he said. “The healthier your brain is, the less physical pain and emotional pain you’ll be in.”
That doesn’t mean, however, someone is “making up” the discomfort in their head, the psychiatrist emphasized.
“It’s going to be a lot more effective if you get your back and your brain working together.” (iStock)
If the brain — which is an organ like any other — begins to work too hard in certain areas, or not hard enough, finding ways to balance it can ease pain and calm the whole body, Amen noted.
In his book, he introduces the “doom loop” — chronic pain activates the suffering circuit in the brain, which then triggers negativity and muscle tension, followed by bad habits.
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“It gets you into the spiral … Your brain is out of control,” Amen said. “Which means if you have back pain, all the muscles around that inflamed area are clamping down and making you hurt even more.”
“It doesn’t mean you won’t need surgery — it just means it’s going to be a lot more effective if you get your back and your brain working together.”
“The healthier your brain is, the less physical pain and emotional pain you’ll be in.”
For people dealing with chronic pain, Amen recommends first checking in on the health of the brain.
“Ask yourself, ‘What does the pain mean to you?'” he suggested, adding that the biggest worry around pain is often the fear of losing freedom.
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Pain is often a symptom of repressed rage, Amen said, citing rehabilitation physician and chronic pain author John Sarno.
“Repressed emotions have to go somewhere, and they in fact go to the pain circuits in your brain that can then activate back pain, knee pain, neck pain,” he shared.
Amen warned of falling into the “doom loop,” which leads from physical pain to negativity, muscle tension and bad habits. (iStock)
The doctor suggested a practice he calls “emotional freedom,” which involves journaling about every five-year span of your life, writing down what happened during those blocks of time. This can include positive experiences, or moments of sorrow and anguish.
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“You really get a sense of where these repressed emotions could be,” he said.
Keeping a positive attitude and optimistic outlook can also suppress anger, therefore relieving pain, the doctor added.