Are you sensitive to light, noise, touch and medications in addition to having chronic pain such as fibromyalgia, or wide spread pain, moving pain (have you had pain in a number of different parts of your body over several years)? Dr. Dan Clauw, the Director of the Chronic Pain & Fatigue Center at the University of Michigan, presents an overview of what is currently known about the underlying causes of chronic pain. He then discusses the rationale behind a variety of different treatments for chronic pain, not just medications. According to him, high sensitivity leads to a turned- up pain volume. He calls it “Brain Pain”. I had not heard anyone quite describe pain issues, especially fibromyalgia like this, but it makes a lot of sense to me.
Don’t get turned off by the title! At about minute 20 he uses the analogy of an electric guitar to explain how the nervous system works, that chronic pain is a problem of amplification, like the knob on the amplifier is constantly turned on high. So the way to work with the body-mind is to begin to turn down the volume (especially stress). Much of what I offer on this site addresses exactly that. He concludes by encouraging us to increase activities that bring pleasure and to keep moving.