Although we can feel pain in the body, it’s actually created in the brain. The brain sends pain signals to areas of your body to make you take action – say if you touch something that can burn you, or you have an illness or injury that needs medical attention.
But sometimes the brain keeps sending these pain signals long after all action has been taken. A medical diagnosis has been made, the tissues have healed or will never heal but the pain persists, and your doctor prescribes painkillers.
This chronic pain is an old pain message that’s not helpful anymore, like a fire alarm that keeps going off after the fire has been put out.