How can you experience this yourself?
You will need:
- Prism goggles.
- Beanbags, or similar.
- A target, e.g., a scrap piece of paper (or anything that won’t be damaged by being hit by a beanbag!).
How to do it:
- Place the target a few metres away from you and grab a beanbag.
- Hold the beanbag behind your ear – out of your sight – and then throw it over-arm at the target. Notice how easily you can get near the target.
- Put the prism goggles on and throw another beanbag in the same way at the target. You’ll probably miss, so leave some space around it!
- Throw some more beanbags at the target, trying to be as accurate as possible.
- Once you’re satisfied that it’s quite easy hit the target, remove the goggles with your non-throwing hand and throw one more beanbag at the target.
What should happen?
When you first throw a beanbag without the goggles on, you’ll probably hit quite close to the target. When you put the prism goggles on, what you can see is shifted to the side, making it harder to know where to aim. You’ll probably miss the target and slowly get closer to the target again as you throw more. When you take the goggles off and throw the last beanbag, you will probably miss in the opposite direction to before – it’s suddenly harder to hit the target, even without the goggles on.
How does this relate to pain?
Your brain is endlessly adaptable. Throughout your life, your brain continuously adapts to new tasks and challenges. Without the goggles on, you naturally know how to throw a beanbag towards a target. However, when you put the prism goggles on, they shift what you can see to one side. Your brain must adapt to the new difference between what you can see and how you move. It adapts quite quickly (rewiring your brain), so that when you try to hit the target again without the goggles on, you miss! Your brain has adapted to the new relationship between what you see and how you throw. Don’t worry, though – this example doesn’t last long.
When we have persistent pain, the brain adapts to become overprotective. This is to keep you safe, so the brain alerts you to potential threats even when there is no chance of injury. Just as your brain can adapt to this, it can also adapt to become less overprotective and reach a more helpful level of protection. It takes time and effort, but it is possible.
Read more about how here.