From Survival to Overprotection: Exploring the Evolutionary Roots of Pain Hypersensitivities
Investigating how learned pain behaviours, which are essential to our survival, sometimes go awry.
Our inherited survival tools learn by rapidly associating stimuli, like predators or fire, with defensive responses such as pain.
Defensive circuits adapt to repeated stimulation by strengthening their neural pathways.
The more we encounter a specific threat, the more hypersensitive its connection with our brain becomes.
This turns up their threat volume, enabling us to identify hazards around us sooner.
Detection of familiar danger sensitises our brain, strengthening its connection with defensive responses like fear and pain.
This turns up our pain volume, making defensive reactions faster and more intense.
Our adaptable nervous system instinctively adjusts its wiring and sensitivity to prioritise protection. So, the more we trigger our pain, the more intense it becomes, dominating our attention until we sense safety.
This feature of pain is designed for brief, intense bursts to guard against immediate threats or acute injuries. Then once the danger passes, pain should subside, restoring our sense of safety.
Pains that intensify are not meant for long-term symptoms like back pain, which can worsen even if one’s health improves.
Due to past conditioning, hypersensitive pain can malfunction. It might disconnect from injury and cause pain without actual harm, or fail to recognise safety, resulting in ongoing pain in otherwise healthy individuals.
Past threats can evoke pain memories, prompting defensive reactions that once kept us safe and now guide our current actions.
This can make us perceive everyday behaviours as potentially harmful, such as sitting at work or expecting hard tasks.
Additionally, environmental or emotional cues like fatigue, stress, or overwork can prime our body to expect pain even before an activity begins.
Learned pain behaviours do not directly cause pain. Instead, they prime our body to feel pain more easily when familiar threats are sensed.
These painful responses are conditioned by situations where the pain occurred in the past, manifesting sooner to protect us earlier.
By reassuring ourselves that pain is our body’s attempt to protect us the best it can, and does not necessarily mean harm, we can foster resilience and self-compassion. This understanding can lessen emotional distress, restore lost function, and alleviate the burden of pain in our daily lives.
