Structural pain vs neuroplastic pain - sports injury

[Missrunningsomuch]

Does anyone have insight / experience of structural pain (from a sports injury) vs neuroplastic pain?
I have had a knee injury (patellofemoral pain) for over a year. Working hard with physio, little improvement in pain. Fear of going backwards / making it worse is quite a big factor after so long. Have been investigating mind / body connection and structural vs neuroplastic pain. I find it difficult to fathom that what I am feeling might be my brain misinterpreting things but after a year, this could well be the case……

I don't have experience of this exactly but had another chronic condition in the past which I have virtually entirely recovered from using mind body methods. I recommend the Curable app and look up Nicole Sachs journalspeak.

Should say I was really concerned about being scammed or whatever. But I spend £50ish a year on Curable and that's all I've spent. The rest I've got from totally free resources online. A lot less than the fortune I spent on supplements, acupuncture, and whatever else.

^ good recommendations about Curable ans Nicole Sachs. Also Alan T Gordon is a good one to look up.

Oh Christie Uipi is another good one on Instagram.

There’s also a Curable podcast - https://www.curablehealth.com/podcast

Thank you for your reply, this is great to read. I am hearing lots of positive things about the curable app. Were you sceptical to start with?

Yep, I have spent a fortune on physio this last year…

I was pretty sceptical, I think. But I was also basically housebound and not getting much better with any other therapies. I was also concerned because I'd heard of people spending nearly a grand on something - some people swore by it and others had horror stories.

I first heard of Nicole Sachs and jpurnalspeak. Ultimately her premise is that these chronic conditions come about because of unexpected emotions. It involves journallingfor 20 minutes and then destroying what you've written (so you're less likely to censor yourself) and I decided that it couldn't be a very effective scam as I didn't need to give her any money, and would only cost me a pad of paper. And I did start to get better. Through all of that I came across curable, which is a bit less emotionally traumatic! Though I still use both from time to time. Not as much as I should maybe!

But as I said from being essentially housebound I'm back at work in a physical job, running regularly. My health is better than it's ever been (if you consider both mental and physical combined) and I'm in my 40s.

I think fear of symptoms makes them a lot worse. For example for years and years I've occasionally had painful knees in the evening. Never often enough to do anything about it, but enough that I was convinced I was going to need knee replacements in my 50s. Now I think, "sometimes my knees hurt." And it doesn't hold any more significance than that for me.

Also this is a good podcast episode on the topic. https://open.spotify.com/episode/4umQWbRWEEru6u9z8aDlU5?si=f2sLCLvLQX-WLHrHU_FEFA

That’s incredible. Thank you for sharing. What does curable actually involve you doing? Will have a listen to that podcast too :)

There’s a few elements to the Curable programme (I did it a few years ago for whiplash/nerve pain through my face and neck) - something like education, writing exercises which are like journal speak, and meditation exercises. They lead you through a series of education pieces first, guiding you through the science of it all, studies (the Boulder Colorado back pain study is one commonly cited in mind/body medicine), and lots of anecdotal stories. Then you can pick which kind of element you need most depending how you feel.

A lot of the education is in the Curable and Dr Howard Schubiner’s and Nicole Sach’s podcasts. And the writing exercises are basically Nicole’s journalspeak but a bit more broken down and guided. The self-compassion bit after journalling is really important. A lot of mind/body medicine is based on Dr John Sarno’s work.

Recommend having a read of Nicole Sach’s own story and she’s also recently helped a famous American basketball player recover from chronic pain too.

The Big Daddy of this sort of thing is Dr John Sarno - the books are cheap/free from the library and The MindBody Prescription is probably the place to start. 🙂

David Butler explains things well:
As does Lorimer Moseley, who is very funny:

The Way out by Alan Gordon is a good book, as is the workbook The Protectometer by Butler and Moseley. The Pain Reprocessing Therapy Workbook by Blackstone is relatively new and very helpful.