Modern medicine sadly hasn’t yet caught up with the latest neuroscience, which has demonstrated over the last 20 years that chronic pain and many other persistent conditions are often rooted in nervous system changes and dysregulation: they are learned responses to emotional, psychological and stress triggers, which have caused the brain and therefore nervous system to get stuck in ‘fight or flight’ mode. Different terms are used to refer to this neurophysiological process, including the mind-body connection and tension myoneural syndrome (TMS). We prefer to talk about chronic neurophysiological symptoms.

 

Everybody knows that emotions and thoughts can cause physical reactions in our bodies – think of the way our cheeks flush when we are embarrassed, or how we sometimes get headaches when we are stressed or overwhelmed. Neurophysiological symptoms are really just an extension of this, recognising that a great many more physical reactions can be tracked back to our psychological processes, when our brains mistakenly interpret something internal as a threat to life. This is all taking place at a subconscious level, so we are generally not aware of what is happening. 

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Our modern medical model tends to treat symptoms rather than tackling the root causes of persistent conditions. This is why the treatments you’ve been offered may have given you short-term relief but ultimately your condition hasn’t been resolved. In fact, it is now estimated that over 40% of people who visit their GPs actually have a condition which is related to nervous system dysregulation, rather than injury, disease or infection. 

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The good news is that chronic symptoms of this type can be reduced and often fully resolved through learning to retrain the brain and regulate the nervous system. Through these methods, we can create new neural pathways in the brain, which then reduces the threat response that causes the symptoms. 

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See a list of likely chronic neurophysiogical symptoms and conditions here.

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