Do you have to have childhood trauma in order to have chronic pain?
I feel as if trauma is being overly blamed for every issue these days
Of course childhood trauma can affect us in the present day, it’s good this is being recognised and it's important to address it.
When it comes to developing pain, numerous studies have cited how having a high amount of childhood trauma can have a significant lasting effect on our lives.
So finding ways to attend to this is very important
But your present day pain can be down to lots of things: A challenging past, or maybe societal conditioning or maybe you were meant to go through it, or maybe it’s just random.
Causes can be varied, intertwined and often unclear
But if we blame everything on trauma, we run the risk of overly defining ourselves by our past and pathologizing ourselves
Internal balance more likely occurs when we’re focused on the perspective of our experiences, rather than the causes of it.
Searching for causes is something we do to make sense of our lives, as uncertainty can feel crippling.
So rather than allow the feelings of uncertainty, we latch on to new buzz words to describe what we’re going through.
And whilst it’s good to recognise and address how the challenges of our past have affected us in the present day, if we overly focus on that we create this ‘I’m a childhood trauma victim’ identity.
Which is a sort of pathology in itself
Much like most diagnoses, they both empower you and disempower you.
You’re told you have ADHD or IBS or a skipped disk
And it finally explains years of issues. However, you’re now both empowered and disempowered.
They empower you because you finally figure out what may have been causing issues. But they disempower you because rather than moving past it, you constantly define yourself by the diagnosis.
Defining ourselves by something removes uncertainty, but it also keeps you stuck.
In my experience, if you want to get lasting relief from pain, you must embrace uncertainty and find new perspectives on your life.
The perspective shifts aren’t about serial positivity or ignoring issues.
Rather about understanding suffering as your greatest teacher, allowing space for challenging emotions whilst also adopting a resilient mindset in the face of adversity.
These are things I speak about and teach at length on all of my pain relief programmes.
Some people come to me with clear childhood trauma, some people come to me with barely any at all. And they’re both experiencing similar levels of pain.
Why??
Developing pain has mostly got to do with personality traits and mindsets.
If you have certain personality traits and mindsets, you’re more likely to bury emotions. And if you’re burying emotions you’re more likely to have pain.
Contrary to common belief, all pain is created in the brain. This does not mean you’re making your pain up, rather the brain creates real pain in the body.
It creates pain in the body when there’s a real physical injury and due to emotional stimuli as well. To find out more, visit this page.
The personality traits which are more likely to bury emotions, and therefore create pain are ‘controlling’ personality traits such as:
People pleasers
High Achievers
Perfectionists
Do gooders
Planners
And the mindsets likely to develop pain are:
Victim: Blaming others for your problems.
Fixed: Thinking you can't get better at things.
Scarcity Mindset: Believing there's not enough to go around.
All or nothing: Seeing things only as good or bad, with no middle ground.
Dependency: Relying too much on others.
Fortunately, there’s a way to transition out of these mindsets, and to grow past these personality traits. Teaching yourself how to acknowledge, accept and affirm emotions.
By doing so, you begin to teach the brain that it no longer needs to give you pain,
Transitioning from disempowering to empowering mindsets
Transitioning to empowering mindsets does NOT mean ignoring your old mindsets and challenging emotions. It means acknowledging how you’re feeling but taking a new considered perspective on things.
e.g.
“A part of me thinks I’m not making any progress at all, and I can see why. I’ve been raised to think healing is only worthwhile if it’s immediate. But I’m learning to celebrate the small wins more ”
or
“A part of me is afraid and frustrated at my pain, I can see why. This has all been very confusing and scary for a long time. But I’m learning that I can lean into these sensations and that my body is actually working for me”
What you’re doing there is fantastic, you’re acknowledging and accepting how you’re feeling. Yet affirming to yourself that you’re learning to have new mindsets.
In doing so, you’re taking the steps to teach your brain that you’re safe to feel emotions and you’re taking a new perspective on things.
Learning how to acknowledge emotions and which mindsets to cultivate, becomes an important part of getting lasting releif from pain.
If you’d like to learn more about how this process works, click below. I offer free consultations to anyone looking for lasting relief.
IBS
Back / Shoulder / Neck / Knee / Pelvic Pain
Migraines
Dizziness
Fatigue
Fibromyalgia
If you’ve tried lots of treatments and nothing has worked, you may be missing a vital part of your healing equation. That missing piece, often has to do with your personality traits and mindsets.
I had chronic stomach and back pain for over a decade, only when I sorted out this area of my life did I finally find the relief I was looking for.