Physio Doubles Down On Tortured Metaphor

A Physiotherapist with a personal passion for the neurophysiology of pain has gone to great lengths to help his Patients better understand their chronic pain problem.

“Pain is like a smoke alarm spilling out of an overflowing cup, with a hypersensitive handle. When the cup overflows, the smoke alarm is soaked to the point that the handle gets hot and you get pain” explained the Physio to a group of Patients, whose names we will not disclose for the sake of anonymity.

“The main “cup filler” is likely liquid stress. But the structural components of your pain also contribute because it’s really hard to turn off the faucet of stress when you have an injured wrist.

Usually the smoke alarm works best when it’s dry and can effectively sense smoke. But when its sitting in an overflowing cup under a stress faucet, the alarm’s circuits get all wet, and it starts to work too well.

Thankfully, we now know that exercise, breathing and mindfulness are like an anti plug for your cup. If we add an anti plug, the cup can empty out all your stress and the smoke alarm’s wiring can dry out enough for the sensitivity in the cup handle to dial down .

At that point, your pain might not change but at the very least, you will have a better idea of how it all works”.