Can you make your brain not accept pain?

I ask this mainly due to a couple of old army injuries of mine absoloutely killing today. I am fed up with taking medication for them, so do so as little as i can bear it.

The last time i went to the doctors for painkillers, i said the ones i was on were not working. He advised me to try some others that altered the brains persception of pain.

I was slightly wary of this, saying i didn't want to be drugged up all day and have my mind altered like that, but as he said, what is it that you want at the end of the day......to not feel the pain right?

Fair enough i guess.

I remember a while back i was a big fan of some of Anthony Robbins CD's, i listened to them frequently and took from them what i thought was useful.

One particular CD was called "The Power Of Emotions", and it discussed how to train your mind to feel a different emotion when you are experiencing something. For example, if someone annoys you and acts badly, instead of the normal feelings of anger, hurt etc, change your perception of it.

Shut off that emotion straight away. Think to yourself "What else could it mean?". It could be that they are having a bad day and you are getting the brunt of it, but it's not as bad as you fear.

What i am getting at is, if you can change your emotions in the brain, which in turn can bring on physical pain and discomfort, do you think it is possible to eliminate pain from the brain? Maybe just reduce it a bit by thought alone?

Before anyone says it, i realise pain can be a good thing too, it tells you that something is up. Yet if i have to put up with it every day, and the physical condition does not look like changing any time soon, i wonder if the power of the brain can reduce pain on it's own?

CX.

I've never had anything serious. A toothache is about the worst of pains I've personally felt, and eventually they did go away if I stopped taking pain medication for it.

Seems like your body would eventually get used to the pain and work a way around it, by either numbing the area or nerves dieing in that area.

But, a toothache is a lot different than what I think you are talking about.

I wish. I think it depends on the level of pain. But really, I have no clue. I look forward to hearing others responses.

For me an example, getting a tattoo = pain. But for me, I can easily block it out and not feel the pain. Easy. I literally can block it out.

However, I had back surgery at age 29. And I was never able to block out that pain before my surgery. And now I have other types of back pain as a result and have not been able to block out the pain. I just suffer thru it. I try and block it out, but I cant.

So, im not sure if it is really possible. Or if just depends on the level of pain.

As far as emotional pain. I have never been able to block it. It can easily consume me and feel more horrible then if I had been stabbed. But I think that emotional pain can be blocked. Just havent figured that one out yet.


Very good question/topic though.


[edit on 4/1/2009 by greeneyedleo]

yes you can, it is possible. There was a woman last summer, who had an operation on her knee, with NO anasthetic. She ust disconnected herself from the leg via meditation, whilst they chopped away at her.

I've never done it myself, but I do know that it's possible. Maybe read up on some meditations which work on disconnecting the body from the mind. *shrugs* maybe someone will come along and give you some better advice. I hope your pain subsides soon. Being in pain sucks man.

actually, the other day at work i had an upset stomach...

i went outside on my break, and decided to try something - i told myself that "my stomach is not hurting; and that i actually feel fine!" ...and i totally believed myself!

well guess what, while i was believing my stomach wasn't hurting, it stopped hurting! the trick is to truly believe it though..

tell yourself that you're "normal, and that your body is perfectly healthy", and believe it 100% - when you tell this to yourself, say it with surprise that you're astounded that it's actually not hurting, and just by telling yourself made you feel normal and healthy again!

it all has to do with the power of positive thinking - here's a pretty good .pdf about an ancient Mayan method of self-healing, that really works!
www.thesonsofthelawofone.com...

[edit on 1-4-2009 by adrenochrome]

I don't know about accepting pain but you can block it so it is minimal.
To practice you need to be somewhat of a masocist tho.
Try biting your arm as hard as you can and see where your breaking point is.
Yes I know it sounds nuts but its true.
The more you deal with the easier it gets.
I used to be into violent sports and had to deal with punches and kicks quite often.
The pain lessens the more you do it.

It is very hard to do this, as you live all your life taking pain and accepting it. Some people may be better than others at it.

As the previous poster mentioned, meditation is one way. It takes practice, but it does work.
The medication your doctor was talking about was probably Neurontin. It was originally developed as a medication to control seizures. It was found to have the side effect of blocking pain signals in some people who experienced chronic pain. Doctors began using it as an "off label" drug to control pain.
It has been found that many anti-epileptics have this ability. Topramax and Depakote are a couple of others.
These drugs don't normally make you veg out like narcotics, and you may still need pain medicaton, but at lower doses or with more time between doses.
I would spend sometime talking with the doctor, your pharmacist(they usually know more about the medications than the doctors, and will be glad to answer your questions.) And don't forget the internet. Start with WebMD.com and go from there.

The anwser in my case is simply yes. I had 14 operations since i was a child and i have 2 ways of doing it.

Your mind is a very powerfull thing, always remember that. If you spend all day thinking you're going to get a cold, at the end of the day you'll probably have a cold.
My first way is fairly simple, just tell yourself you're fine and feeling good.
It's just a state of mind. You can think the pain away.

My second way wich works very well for me is to go into the pain. It's hard to explain. Really feel the pain and dive into it. The longer you do it, the better you get at it. When you dive into it and feel it conciously you can say to your self this isn't so bad.
I think this moves your threshold for pain, it's like when you first enter a room that smells like roses, 5 minutes in that room and you don't smell it anymore.
I don't know if this makes any sense to you, but it works for me.
Feel free to u2u me with questions.



[edit on 1-4-2009 by locster]

reply to post by locster


I agree.
After awhile the pain is kinda just another feeling like having to go to the bathroom.
You learn to live with it and then it becomes alot more minor in your mind.
It can be dulled to the point of it being ok.
My buddy broke his collar bone and didn't realize it until a day later simply because his mind was too busy to notice it as he had work to do.

Its possible, yet it takes a jedi like amount of concentration. there is also misdirection, keeping your mind occupied with something else.

personally, i stopped eating lunch to save some money. I get hungry around 1:00, but I dont think about it and after about 30 minutes the hunger pangs go away. I know hunger pangs are quite diffrent than a long term injury, but in my eyes you can use the same techniques.

Martial artists and samurai's are pretty good at localizing the pain. Ive seen people get cut pretty bad and not even bat an eye.

reply to post by CX


Can you give a little more information , regarding the location / severity of the pain .
Do you have more pain in the morning /evening ?
Does it effect your sleep /eating habits etc ?


------------------------------------------------------------------
Stinging Nettles :

Rubbing stinging nettle on the effected area may give some relief , but without knowing the details of your discomfort i can`t say.

I`ll give you some details anyway .

Stinging Nettles contain the neuro-transmitters Serotonin , Histamine & Acetycholine ,and trigger an anti-inflammatory action by the body .
Its effectiveness is also understood as a "counter irritant " ....... it will certainly take your mind off the pain.

The face or mucus membranes should be avoided even though I know you military guys are a tough breed .....

This may or may not help , it just depends on the nature of your injuries.

------------------------------------------
DrumsRfun :

You might not be far off the mark !

reply to post by DrumsRfun


Exactly, just like how you cut your hand while working and don't notice it untill you are finished.
What works with small things works with bigger things. The mechanics are still the same.

Originally posted by UmbraSumus
reply to post by CX

 

Can you give a little more information , regarding the location / severity of the pain .
Do you have more pain in the morning /evening ?
Does it effect your sleep /eating habits etc ?

Another thing that influences pain is weather. It is spring, and all the storms tend to make some people I know feel more pain than usual.

Special forces are trained to ignore pain. My brother who was an Airborne Ranger and later joined an elite special forces team (of which he would not disclose) used to tell me all the time how he trained to ignore pain. He never got into specifics but he told me about extreme cold and hot climate training, starvation training, torture training, etc. He told me stories about how they were dropped in the jungle where it was 110 degrees and 100% humidity and left for days and had to survive off the resources of the land.

Before he was shipped to Iraq, he had to do some desert training of which he told me was some of the worst torture he ever went through. Again, b/c of the sensitive nature of the training he wouldn't disclose where or what he was training for or doing, but I imagine they put you through some grueling training to get you ready for anything.

yo if your brain doesn't feel pain it doesn't know what's hurt or what needs healing, that's a bad pill well unless your injury is unrepairable but i seem to be able to deal with pain it never was a big issue with me maybe i have a high tolerance but i started to experiment just a bit not enough to confirm that i actually have any effect or im just maxing out my nerves and killing their sensitivity but if something is causing me pain i try and spike the pain the most i can go when it gets to that point really feel the area just feel it in your self like in your head your body and tell yourself
"body this pain its not pain its just another feeling something is wrong with you your gunna have to deal with it until it goes away so dont be such a puss" more or less this so far works for burning and muscle spasms and no i'm not into S&M.

[edit on 1-4-2009 by AndreDC]

heyy im soooooo stupid they show this on some doctor show yeah if you max out your nerves liek locster was saying dive into the pain just do something that wont infect or worsen your condition but amplifies the "pain" factor do it,( dont make yourself pass out from the pain) but spike your pain and just feel it and deny it's existance lol someone less lazy then me go find the video that shows if you immunize yourself from pain it mutates your nerves and # theres a video that sshows exactly what happens your nerves become less sensitive in the video it showed kind of like spiderman web shooting up over the nerves. and the nerve covered in the white spiderman web looking # is your desensitized nerve.

Ever Since I was 5 I was disgnosed with a disease called perthy disease, every day I would have to deal with the pain, but I believe this disease was given to me for a reason. after so many years I am now able to control how much pain I can reduce most of the time and have really good pain tolerance. How did I do it? We have energy running through our bodies called chakra, ki, Chi, or what ever you wanna call it and you are able to use that energy on certain body parts and numb it up. this might be harder for older people to learn how to do this since I got started on this when I was 5 and I am now 16. What I do when you feel pain is you try to feel your energy in your body (comes natural to me) and concentrate it on the area, The ways of this could work differntly for people so start experimenting with your energy. Meditate it will help get the mind off of pain.

[edit on 1-4-2009 by KennyRJR]

reply to post by CX


It is said to be possible with meditation and visualisation...

But, although I'm well trained in both I never accomplished pain to go away completely.. and believe me I tried hundreds of time to get results with this. It works to an extend while your meditating but in my case, the minute I stop the pain is back... that said, it should be possible, maybe just not if you haven't trained yourself for years and years and years.

I recently read an article (not in english) about a doctor who is experimenting with visualisation techniques . What she basically does, is let the patient visualise a healing process, for example, patients with leukemia visualized their bodies making white blood cells and attacking the cancer (something like that). The results she had with it looked promissing. I guess you can do the same with the cause of the pain.

All other techniques, like breating techniques help only as long as you do them.

That said, if you need to take a drug in order to live a normal life, then don't be ashamed to do so, or at least give it a try.. it's the quality of your life were talking about here

take care