How come some people always seem under control? What do people who can manage their own pain do differently? It has everything to do with the emotional part of our brain. And the great thing is, you too can learn to get more control over this part of the brain!

It's good to know more about this part of the brain. The emotional part of our brain makes decisions all day long, without us noticing. It is therefore considered to be part of the 'subconscious'. 

The emotional brain often makes decisions based on previous experiences. Chronic pain can go wrong there. This way it can happen that the emotional brain keeps shouting 'DANGER!!', while there is no real danger (anymore). 

You can compare the emotional brain with a smoke detector. Once upon a time there was a fire and the smoke detector did its job. When the fire is extinguished, you will notice that the smoke detector always goes off. It's too sensitive and goes off when you're frying an egg! 

In case of chronic pain, your smoke detector has also become too sensitive to pain in the emotional brain! The alarm goes off at the most improbable moments, and you always feel pain.

Fortunately, there are techniques to adjust your internal smoke detector. Please note, this is a long process. Adjusting your emotional brain often takes weeks of daily practice. But it is possible!