I have been thinking lately about the ways people flip that switch that starts their recovery from CRPS.
A reader reached out to me about a year and a half ago. He is a professional musician, so when his hand was injured in the accident and he developed CRPS as a result, he was devastated. From his hand, CRPS spread to his entire body. His pain was unbearable. He lost his income, his profession, and his life’s meaning. It went on for a year and a half. A young man in his twenties, he was considering suicide. But then, he found one of my interviews on the TMS Roundtable and discovered that CRPS can be reversed.
He got to work, but it was not going well. He suffered setback after setback – until one day he understood that his brain was sending him the pain signals and putting his entire body in disarray for only one reason: it was trying to protect him. His brain was doing its job, trying to keep him safe. Knowing that there was nothing wrong with his body wasn’t enough. Only when he understood that there was nothing wrong with his brain did he begin to conquer his fear. He is now back to performing and playing music as much as he wants, he exercises at the gym, and lives his life to the fullest!
Pain exists for a reason: it is the only way to teach us how to stay safe. But sometimes, our brain becomes too cautious, like an overbearing mom who wants you to put on a sweater when she feels cold. It does not matter that you don’t feel cold; she is too worried about you! This is what your brain does in response to the fear that sits deeply in your subconscious: it tries to stop you from doing what you are afraid of. Just like you gradually convince your mom that you don’t need that sweater, you need to convince your brain that you are safe!
Leave a Reply