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No one who suffers from chronic back pain wants to be told, “It’s all in your head.” But in a literal sense, it is. Even after the soft tissues in the back have begun to heal, the brain produces ongoing pain and assigns it to the back. That’s because the initial back injury sets off “pain impulses” that form neurological pathways over time, and once those pathways are in place, they are there for good, said Seattle-based orthopedic spine surgeon Dr. David Hanscom, author of “Back in Control” (Vertus Press, 2012).
Chronic back pain conditions the brain to make you hurt even after you’ve started to heal, but you can break the cycle
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