We’ve all experienced that painful moment when our computer has officially crashed and we’ve lost EVERYTHING. Sometimes technology doesn’t work the way we planned, or as reliably as we hoped.

What is the most common reason for your computer freezing or crashing? Usually software error. You could open your computer up and, even if you knew what you were looking for, the hardware would probably look fine. You wouldn’t spend the time running to a computer store looking to replace a hard drive or internal modem, because software is the problem, not the hardware.

Consider this analogy:

Chronic pain is like software failure on a crashing computer.

There is nothing wrong with the body’s hardware, such as the bones, muscles, or organs, but there’s a glitch in the software that sends messages throughout the system (N. Schechter).

Just like there are different reasons why your computer software might have a glitch, there are reasons why your body’s software has turned faulty.

Your body’s software turns faulty during a cycle of chronic pain that starts after you’ve had pain for more than 6 months.

When pain has persisted longer than 6 months, changes in the nervous system are now contributing to your overall pain experience. In addition, emotions, thoughts, coping behaviors, language/education used by your providers, and environment are contributing to your pain.

This process happens:

Regardless of diagnosis.

Regardless of whether your condition is "curable".

Regardless of what you've tried in the past.

And the cycle goes…with your long-standing pain, you start to worry that pain means you are doing damage or harm to your body.

When we think hurt means harm, research shows that we experience higher pain intensity regardless of whether actual damage is occurring. In addition, any suggestion that we may be in danger of harming ourselves will cause the brain to produce pain order to draw our attention to that situation and protect us.

How do we usually protect ourselves? By avoiding.

You start to avoid activities because they hurt! Fear is a very normal reaction to any perceived threat, such as pain or injury. Fear prompts the fight or flight response but also defensive behavior. One defensive behavior triggered is avoidance of activities that you associated with the occurrence or worsening of pain.

Avoidance of activities is adaptive in the acute phase of pain (months 0-6 when most of the healing takes place) to avoid further injury. Continued avoidance during the chronic phase (after month 6 ), however, can lead to distress, disability, absenteeism, and increased healthcare costs. In addition, weakened muscles cause normal activities to become more painful.

Negative thoughts start to creep in, resulting in negative emotions.

Pain is taking up more space in your mind.

Negative thoughts about pain, its consequences (often worst-case scenario thinking) can result in pain-related fear, avoidance of daily activities, and hypervigilance about the body and movement.

Three types of negative thoughts to look for:

• Magnification: Worst-case scenario thinking about the power of your pain, how much worse it will get, how long it will last.

• Rumination: Constantly thinking about your pain, it becomes a distraction, difficult to stop thinking about how much it hurts.

• Helplessness: Thinking everything you do is futile, losing hope that you can overcome your pain.

The cycle keeps going and then find yourself avoiding and withdrawing further.

We think that we can avoid our pain or a flare-up by majorly reducing our movement, the positions we put ourselves in, the small rotations of our body, the activities we do, and the people we see.

We think we can avoid pain by making our lives smaller.

Instead, we see increased fear, more protection from the brain, and more sensitivity. We see more activities causing pain when we avoid.

One of the very normal jobs of everyone's brain and nervous system is to monitor for threats constantly. Its purpose is to protect us. When there is a threat, the alarm is activated, it sends a message to the brain, and we take care of the problem. When threat goes away, alarm goes down.

But as we know, there are so many contributors to our experience that can keep us on high alert - avoidance, negative thoughts, negative emotions, isolation, fear. The alarm to alert us to pain becomes faulty, our brain becomes overprotective, and more practiced at creating pain.

You have more distress and more chronic pain... The loop starts again and this time, your nervous system is more sensitive.

5 signs of a sensitized nervous system:

• Persistent, constant, unremitting pain

• Pain has become more widespread and easily provoked

• The list of failed medical or therapeutic interventions is getting longer

• Worst-case scenario thinking, distress, and avoidance

• Low sense of ability to cope as well as negative emotions, unhelpful thoughts

Your computer has crashed because your software is faulty.

The good news is that, even though this cycle is easy to fall into, you break free from it starting with education. And here you are, doing just that! BRAVO!

Education provides the power to take the next step in managing your pain. You want to do the things you enjoy (or even basic daily activities) without flaring up your pain. For a limited time, you can grab my free video tutorial to get you started:

3 Simple Steps to a Balanced Day... Without the Flare-Ups.

This free video tutorial is dedicated to helping women with pain begin to find confidence to return to the moments, activities, and people they love the most.