What pain does to your brain

The brain is the command centre for the human nervous system. It receives input from the sensory organs and sends output to the muscles. The brain is one of the most complex and important organs in the human body. Our brain gives us awareness of ourselves and of our environment.  It serves as the command centre for the human nervous system.

As humans, we experience pain and pain affects everything from your activity levels to your personal relationships. Everyone experience pain but at the same time we all react to the same pain in different ways. Being in pain is quite uncomfortable for most people. Imagine being in pain that never fades or that fades only to come back a few hours later. This type of pain has a chronic effect

to your brain and this is what it does to your brain.
1 Recurring migraines: pains can have a profound effect on your day to day life when it goes untreated. People battling with ongoing or long term pain can become irritable, short tempered, and impatient. Now this is bad to your brain because it’s like a traffic jam everyone gets annoyed when stuck in traffic so it is applicable to humans too. Your brain becomes programmed to anger and this reduces your ability to find solutions to your problem.

2 Energy draining: pain wears a person down; it drains energy and sap away motivation. It reduces the brains ability to be sharp and concentrates on simple tasks through which isolation sets in.

3 Brain chemistry/ Wiring of the nervous system: pain can actually affect a person’s brain chemistry and even change the wiring of the nervous system. Cells in the spinal cord and brain of a person with chronic pain, especially in the section of the brain that processes emotion.

By Maimuna Bagudu