Joanne Smith followed the standard advice to rest and do less for chronic pain, but her symptoms got worse. She realized her brain was interpreting inactivity as a threat, which amplified the pain instead of relieving it.
How on earth does that work? And so I'd do as I was told and I would attempt to— so hopefully this is a good example because I was told you need to stop running, do less, rest more. Okay. That makes logical sense because I'm in chronic pain. I've got chronic symptoms pretty much all over my body at this point. And I'm being told to do less. So guess what happens? I have the opposite problem to what most people have, so this is why I'm using this example. I then decide, okay, I'll do less. If that's going to help me, then I'll do less. Guess what happens? That's the moment when I have the huge increase amplified. My brain is perceiving me doing less as more dangerous than doing loads. So this is the proof and the evidence. It's all the proof and evidence that I need personally from my situation, is that if my body was the reason and it did need rest and it was over— it was being overloaded and overstrained and this and that, then I wouldn't experience a huge increase in physical pain and physical aches
