Does Stress Cause Pain?

Could it be that stress causes pain?

Yes it does. Here is how it works. We each have a central nervous system (CNS.) Our CNS governs everything in our body.

Think of it this way: Your nervous system is a highway. The impulses, or messages, that travel on your CNS are the cars.

Everything is going fine, your cars are all travelling smoothly along the highway.

Ow! Banged my big toe into the table leg. That’s okay, all the cars are still moving right along.

Dang! Another notice from the bill collector! All the cars are still moving right along.

What do you mean, you want a divorce?  Tire might be getting flat.

I have such a cold! Cars are still moving pretty good.

Fender-bender. That’s going to cost me plenty. Traffic is getting heavy.

What a headache! Uh-oh. One of the cars just slid into the median.

The dog died. A bunch of other cars are slamming on their brakes to try to avoid a pile up.

Just slammed my hand in the door. I think I broke my finger. Big pile up on your highway. Cars are screeching to a halt, some are smashing into others. Traffic is stopped.

The highway is overloaded, and nothing is moving smoothly now.

We function great when we have no problems. We do pretty well when we have only a few problems. But when a lot of things are going wrong and we feel stressed…

Our CNS – our nervous system highway – begins to show symptoms of overload. We begin to have pain.

If we cannot relieve a lot of the stress, it is possible for our pain to become chronic – we have it all the time.

However, if we can remove any of the stressors in our lives, our pain can diminish and become less. Each stress that we get rid of will lower our pain level.

The more stresses we can get rid of, the more smoothly the cars on our CNS highway will start to travel again.

So, the car gets fixed, we get a new dog, our cold goes away, our toe heals. Our stress level goes down.

To help our CNS highway work better we have to do some things to straighten out the cars and get them all moving again.

You get a nice massage, take a soak in the tub, get lost in your favorite music to relax by, talk to your favorite friend, work something out, finish a project that’s been bugging you, take a brisk or slow walk, sniff some lavender oil or a relaxing blend of aromatherapy oil.

You do some stretching or deep breathing while relaxing. You take a walk in the softly drizzling rain. Clean a closet or a drawer.  Hum or sing or read or laugh. Watch a kid or a puppy or a cat. Garden or dance.

Talk with a therapist or counselor, take a nap, or volunteer.

Distract from the stressors or correct them.

Anything we can do to eliminate or negate any stresses we have will help us to feel better.

The less stress we have, the less pain.

And, there are basically two types of stress.

1. The jet fighter pilot. You have stress but it is good stress. You are in control.

2. The prisoner of war who has no control.

Good stress can feel energizing and powerful.

Repeat after me: I am the jet fighter pilot!

Yes, you are.