Pain Is Shaped by Belief, History, and Fear

Pain doesn’t just come from the body—it’s filtered through the mind, history, and culture.

When someone feels pain, we often ask: What’s wrong with the tissue?

But we should also ask: What’s the story the nervous system is telling?

Because pain is not just physical. It’s shaped by:

• What we believe

• What we’ve lived through

• What we fear

Belief Amplifies or Dials Down Pain

If you believe movement is dangerous, your nervous system will treat it like a threat—even if it’s safe. That belief becomes a filter for perception (Bunzli et al., 2013).

“Belief is biology’s lens.”

Beliefs are shaped by:

• Medical diagnoses (helpful or harmful)

• Cultural stories about fragility or toughness

• Personal identity (e.g., “I have a bad back”) (Darlow et al., 2013)

Lived Experience Leaves Traces

Your nervous system remembers everything:

• Childhood injury

• A doctor who dismissed you

• Family members who modeled pain-related fear

These become reference points. Your nervous system isn’t just reacting to what’s happening now—it’s responding to what has happened before (Eccleston & Crombez, 2007).

Sometimes pain is not about what’s present—but what’s unresolved.

Fear Turns Up the Volume

The more we fear pain, the more intense it becomes.

Fear sensitizes the system. It primes us for danger, even when there is none (Lethem et al., 1983).

That’s why calming reassurance, validation, and reframing are so powerful—they reduce perceived threat, which can turn the volume of pain back down (Moseley & Butler, 2015).

Final Thought

Pain isn’t just physical. It’s personal.

And when we understand how belief, history, and fear shape pain, we stop asking, “What’s wrong with you?” and start asking:

“What has your system been through?”

“What does it need to feel safe again?”

Because pain isn’t just a problem to fix. It’s a story to understand.

References

1. Bunzli, S., Smith, A., Schütze, R., & O’Sullivan, P. (2013). Beliefs underlying pain-related fear and how they evolve: a qualitative investigation in people with chronic back pain and high pain-related fear. BMJ Open, 3(9), e003112.

2. Darlow, B., et al. (2013). The enduring impact of what clinicians say to people with low back pain. Annals of Family Medicine, 11(6), 527–534.

3. Eccleston, C., & Crombez, G. (2007). Worry and chronic pain: A misdirected problem-solving model. Pain, 132(3), 233–236.

4. Lethem, J., Slade, P. D., Troup, J. D. G., & Bentley, G. (1983). Outline of the fear-avoidance model of exaggerated pain perception—Behavior research and therapy. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 21(4), 401–408.

5. Moseley, G. L., & Butler, D. S. (2015). Explain Pain Supercharged. Noigroup Publications.