- Our target concepts

The key to understanding pain

Learning about pain is not easy, but it can be fun. It is usually surprising. There is much to learn, but the most important concepts are covered here.

Health care guidelines all around the world agree that good pain education is key. Pain Revolution recognises this fact and puts modern education strategies at the heart of all we do. These Target Concepts are ‘a work in progress’, which means that scientists are busy working together with education experts, pain experts, and people with lived experience to communicate this important information in the most useful way.

one

Pain is always real

Pain can be complicated.

two

Learn more about your pain

If your situation is making you feel helpless or hopeless, it might be time to take a new approach to overcoming your pain.

three

Pain doesn’t equal tissue damage

All pain is real, no matter what’s causing it. What surprises most people is that you can have pain when there is no tissue damage. That is, when there’s no damage to muscles, tendons, nerves or any of the linings within the body.

four

Pain equals protection

The relationship between pain and tissue damage can be very surprising. This is because pain isn’t there to give you a running commentary on the state of your body tissues. It’s there to protect them from anything dangerous. Pain gets your attention and urges you to act to avoid that danger.

five

Pain depends on context

Pain is influenced by biological, social and psychological factors.

six

Pain and your Protectometer

Our brains have survival as their number one priority. We are evolutionarily ‘primed’ to be aware of danger and pain is one response to protect us from it.

seven

Your overprotective pain system

The purpose of pain is protection. However, sometimes it becomes over-zealous. This is because – like all biological systems in the body – the pain system learns. So when you’ve lived with pain for a long time, your system will have become more effective and more protective of that body area.

eight

Retrain your pain system

Just as the pain system learned to be overprotective, it can be retrained to work normally thanks to bioplasticity.

nine

Being proactive about your pain

There’s overwhelming evidence that the best treatments to prevent and overcome persistent pain involve planning ahead, taking control and having a long-term approach.