It may be what a strange title - the beast in your brain. But it's a comparison often made in pain. Chronic pain has quite a few characteristics that correspond to a false beast....
The growling beast
Suppose one day you run into a cute little wolf. You decide to take in the wolf. Soon he turns out to like meat very much, so you give him a lot of meat.
He grows and grows and starts to become a real wolf more and more. The cuteness is a bit off. When he is hungry he starts to growl. He needs more and more.
Until one day the wolf looks like you're the boss. You don't feel safe in your own home. The wolf has become an animal. He doesn't settle for anything anymore and keeps growling and crying, no matter what you try. It's completely out of control...
The beast in your brain
You can compare pain to the wolf. Pain is usually good for us. It doesn't feel good, but it makes us adapt. Maybe we do a little less, or take painkillers. If the pain stays, he'll start acting more and more like the wolf. Even if you take a lot of rest, you keep feeling pain. You have to take more and more medication, but the pain stays or you even feel it through the medication... In short: Your pain has become a growling animal that doesn't want to go away anymore and won't let itself be tamed just like that.
Taming the beast
Luckily there are ways to tame the beast again! It's not always easy and takes time, but it can be done! With Reducept, and with these blogs, you train your feelings, attention, thoughts and behavior. All parts of the pain beast.
In this video it is well explained how pain resembles an animal and how we can make progress together.
