To understand your path to healing, it helps to know how the medical world categorizes the “source” of your pain.

Chronic Primary Pain: This is the diagnosis given when the pain itself is the main health problem, rather than a symptom of a different injury or disease. In this case, the pain is considered a “disease of the nervous system” in its own right. The driving mechanism is often neuroplastic but not always. An example would be fibromyalgia.

Chronic Secondary Pain: This is the diagnosis given when pain is an additional symptom of a specific, identifiable medical condition. Here, the pain is a secondary effect of an underlying disease. An example could be cancer.

Structural Chronic Pain:  is caused by a specific, identifiable physical issue within the body. It is often diagnosed using imaging (like X-rays or MRIs) or through a physical examination. This can be acute (a cut or a burn) or chronic.

Structural chronic type of damage in the body can either have nociceptive pain (ongoing long-term damage to the structure of the body, like a tumour, or an inflammatory condition, like rheumatoid arthritis), or they can be neuropathic, which is from damaged nerves or lesions in the nervous system.

Non-Structural Chronic Pain (Neuroplastic): is not caused by an identifiable physical structural problem, injury, or disease that can be seen on imaging or through a standard physical exam. It often starts without any specific event, injury, or disease and persists gradually and insidiously. Sometimes there is a link between when the pain started and a major life stressor or traumatic event. Neuroplastic pain (also called nociplastic pain) is due to a malfunctioning of the pain system and is linked to the nervous system becoming heightened and overly sensitive.

You don’t need to master these concepts to begin healing. Working together, we would explore relevant concepts together, moving at a pace that respects your nervous system and honours your unique story.