Episode 96: Pain as Protection: Why Your Body Creates Chronic Pain & The 3 Questions to Ask to Release It with Georgie Oldfield

Listen to Episode 96 with Georgie Oldfield →

When Pain Protects You From Feeling

You've had MRIs, x-rays, and countless medical evaluations for your chronic pain. Doctors find minimal structural problems that don't explain your pain level. They offer pain management but not answers. Your pain persists despite physical therapy, medication, and various treatments.

What if your brain is creating pain to protect you from unbearable emotions you're not ready to feel?

Does trauma create a pre-existing state that sets the stage for chronic pain? Yes, it does. Your overwhelmed nervous system makes you vulnerable to developing chronic pain when injury or stress occurs.

Today we talk about chronic pain as a message from your body and part of an unconscious protective response learned by nerve pathways rather than caused by physical abnormality. While chronic pain can be traced back to an injury or event, science suggests it's caused by your brain's attempt to protect you from unbearable emotions. This protective purpose sits at the root of many common complaints including back pain, sciatica, migraines, fibromyalgia, and numerous other symptoms.

Georgie Oldfield joins me as a physiotherapist and chronic pain specialist who's a real leader in this space. A TEDx speaker and author of Chronic Pain: Your Key to Recovery, she's steady and strong in her leadership in trauma-informed care for chronic pain. I first came across her work when I sought training in psychosomatic medicine during preventive medicine residency after switching out of general surgery. I knew I wanted to lean into root causes rather than just treating with pills or surgery. I've been happy to see Georgie provide such value and community.

Understanding Pain as Protection

Does trauma's overwhelming impact create a pre-existing state that sets the stage for chronic pain development? Understanding this connection changes treatment from managing pain to addressing what pain protects you from. Without this understanding, treatment focuses on structures that aren't actually causing the pain.

Your chronic pain serves as communication from your body trying to tell you something important. Not about tissue damage or structural problems. About emotional overwhelm that you're not consciously processing. The pain distracts you from feelings that seem unbearable or gives your nervous system something to focus on besides emotional distress.

The protection purpose of chronic pain involves your brain creating pain to protect you from unbearable emotions unconsciously. This isn't a conscious choice or manipulation. It's an unconscious protective response your nervous system learned to keep you functioning when emotions threaten to overwhelm you. Pain becomes the lesser threat compared to emotional collapse.

Understanding the Biology of Trauma® alongside pain science reveals why trauma survivors develop chronic pain at higher rates. Your nervous system already operates from heightened threat perception. When you experience injury or stress, your system interprets danger more intensely and stays activated longer. This prolonged activation transforms acute pain into chronic pain through neuroplastic changes.

Neuroplastic Pain and the Three Questions

Chronic ongoing pain or recurring symptoms can be neuroplastic meaning learned by your nervous system rather than caused by physical abnormality. Your brain creates real pain through neural pathways that become habitual. The pain is genuine and measurable but doesn't require structural damage to exist. Your nervous system generates the pain experience through learned patterns.

The three specific questions Georgie shares help you get to the root of chronic pain and begin releasing it. These questions guide you to understand what your body is protecting you from, what emotions you're unconsciously avoiding, and what your pain is actually communicating beneath the physical sensation. The questions themselves become tools for dialogue with your nervous system.

Why these questions matter involves helping you understand the purpose pain serves. The right questions reveal what your body is protecting you from emotionally. What feelings you're avoiding unconsciously. What your pain is actually communicating when you listen carefully. Without asking the right questions, you remain focused on physical causes that don't address the protective function.

Why somebody develops chronic pain after an acute injury while others heal normally involves predisposing factors. Some people recover completely from injuries. Others develop chronic pain that persists long after tissue healing. Georgie explains the factors that predispose someone to this chronic transformation including nervous system state before injury, stored trauma, and emotional stress levels.

The Trauma-Pain Connection

Your nervous system state before an injury profoundly matters for whether acute pain becomes chronic. Stored trauma from earlier experiences. Current emotional stress from relationships or life circumstances. Unprocessed grief or anger. These factors make you more likely to develop chronic pain because your nervous system already operates from vulnerability. The injury becomes the trigger rather than the sole cause.

Trauma creates a pre-existing vulnerability in your nervous system that affects pain processing. When injury happens to a trauma-affected nervous system, your system gets stuck in protective mode. Pain becomes chronic because your nervous system perceives ongoing threat. The original injury heals but the pain continues because your brain maintains protection against emotional overwhelm.

Chronic pain can be your body's way of keeping you from falling apart emotionally through providing something concrete to focus on. The pain distracts you from unbearable feelings that threaten to overwhelm you. It gives you a reason for not functioning at full capacity. It protects you from having to face what feels too big to handle. Understanding this purpose removes shame while revealing what needs attention.

Communicating with your body requires learning how to listen and actually understand the answers it gives you. Not just hearing pain as a problem to eliminate. Actually understanding what information pain carries about your emotional state and needs. Georgie teaches how to decode what your body is saying through symptoms rather than just trying to silence the message.

Psychosomatic Medicine and Integration

Your body speaks constantly through sensations, symptoms, and pain. Pain represents one language your body uses. Georgie teaches how to decode what it's saying about emotional states, unmet needs, and protective functions. When you understand the language, you can respond to what your body actually needs rather than just trying to eliminate the messenger.

Psychosomatic medicine provided my introduction to Georgie's work during my transition from surgery to preventive medicine. Psychosomatic medicine addresses how emotions create physical symptoms through real biological pathways. Real measurable symptoms that aren't "in your head" or imaginary but rather your body's expression of emotional overwhelm. This framework changed how I understood the mind-body connection.

My personal journey switching out of general surgery reflected wanting to address root causes rather than just managing symptoms through pills or surgery. This led me to psychosomatic medicine and to discovering Georgie's pioneering work. Her trauma-informed approach to chronic pain aligned with my growing understanding that most chronic conditions have emotional and nervous system components requiring attention.

Georgie provides steady leadership in trauma-informed chronic pain care by understanding the nervous system piece that most pain specialists miss entirely. She recognizes that pain isn't just physical or just emotional but rather an integrated nervous system response. Her approach honors both the reality of pain and the emotional purposes it serves simultaneously.

The community Georgie has built provides valuable support for chronic pain sufferers and practitioners who work with chronic pain. This community matters because chronic pain creates isolation and misunderstanding. Having others who understand that pain can be real and serve protective functions without structural damage reduces shame and provides hope.

This Episode Is For:

✓ People with chronic pain that won't resolve despite extensive treatment 

✓ Anyone whose pain started after trauma or significant stress 

✓ Practitioners needing trauma-informed approaches to chronic pain treatment 

✓ Those whose scans are normal but pain is severe 

✓ Anyone interested in psychosomatic medicine 

✓ People ready to understand what their pain protects them from

What You'll Learn

Listen to learn the three questions that help release chronic pain by revealing its protective purpose and why your body creates pain to protect you from overwhelming emotions rather than solely from tissue damage. Discover how trauma creates vulnerability to chronic pain. Understand neuroplastic pain and how your nervous system learns pain patterns.

Your chronic pain might be protecting you from emotional overwhelm rather than signaling tissue damage.

Listen to Episode 96 with Georgie Oldfield →

Disclaimer

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The information shared reflects my clinical expertise and research, but every person's biology and healing journey is unique. Always consult with qualified healthcare providers before making changes to your treatment plan or starting new interventions. If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact emergency services or a crisis helpline immediately.

Join the Conversation

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode. What resonated with you? What questions came up?

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