Why Pain Science Needs Storytelling

Because data alone doesn’t change minds—stories do.

Pain is not a number. It’s a narrative.

Modern pain science has revolutionized how we understand pain. No longer is it seen as a simple signal from tissue to brain. Instead, we now know pain is constructed—shaped by context, emotion, memory, culture, and belief. We’ve moved from a “pain equals damage” model to a more nuanced, biopsychosocial understanding. But there’s one thing the science community often forgets:

People don’t learn in layers of citations. They learn in stories.

1. The Brain is a Storyteller

Pain is meaning-making. The nervous system doesn’t simply detect signals—it interprets them. If you twist your ankle running to save your child from danger, you might feel nothing at all in the moment. Why? Because your brain, in its role as storyteller, writes “not now” (Melzack, 2005).

Pain is not just input; it’s a narrative output. When pain doesn’t make sense to the person experiencing it, suffering deepens. We say things like “I don’t know what’s wrong.” What’s missing isn’t more data—it’s coherence.

That’s what storytelling gives us: coherence.

2. Clinicians are Story Editors

Clinicians, whether they know it or not, are constantly shaping and reshaping patient stories. Every time you explain a diagnosis, offer a metaphor, or suggest a rehab plan, you’re not just giving information—you’re offering a version of the story that patient will tell themselves (Main & George, 2011).

Do they walk out believing their body is broken? Or do they leave understanding that pain is a protective response—one that can be guided, shifted, reframed?

Science gives us the tools. But story delivers the transformation.

3. Stories Travel Faster Than Evidence

Peer-reviewed journals change the field. But Instagram reels change public perception.

Story is the delivery system that moves knowledge from ivory tower to kitchen table. People may forget the exact function of the anterior cingulate cortex in pain modulation, but they will remember the story of a soldier injured in battle who didn’t feel pain until he was safe (Beecher, 1956).

This isn’t a call to dumb down the science. It’s a call to embody it in lived experience.

4. The Wrong Stories Hurt People

Stories are already being told. Many of them are harmful.

• “Your disc is out of place.”

• “You have the back of a 70-year-old.”

• “Don’t bend. You’ll hurt yourself again.”

These are stories too—bad ones. Ones that spread fear, reduce agency, and reinforce fragility (Darlow et al., 2013).

So when we say storytelling matters, it’s not just about inspiration. It’s about intervention. Correcting the narrative. Updating the script.

5. Pain Science Needs a Human Voice

We now understand nociplastic pain, central sensitization, and the role of perception and expectation. But until these insights are translated into stories people can live by, they remain locked behind paywalls and academic language (Moseley, 2007).

Pain science needs a voice that sounds like someone’s grandfather, coach, friend, or inner monologue. Because the nervous system learns through exposure, but the person learns through story.

Closing Thought

If we want to reduce the burden of chronic pain, we need to make meaning—not just models.

Tell better stories. Write better scripts. Teach people to narrate their pain with compassion, flexibility, and power (Sullivan et al., 2009).

Because healing often begins the moment someone hears a better story about their pain—and believes it.

References

1. Melzack, R. (2005). Evolution of the neuromatrix theory of pain. Pain Practice, 5(2), 85–94.

2. Main, C. J., & George, S. Z. (2011). Psychologically informed practice for management of low back pain: future directions in practice and research. Physical Therapy, 91(5), 820–824.

3. Beecher, H. K. (1956). Pain in men wounded in battle. Annals of Surgery, 123(1), 96–105.

4. 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.

5. Moseley, G. L. (2007). Reconciling pain and tissue damage: a modern view. Physical Therapy in Sport, 8(3), 105–113.

6. Sullivan, M. J. L., Thibault, P., & Simmonds, M. J. (2009). Pain, perceptions of injustice and the persistence of pain-related disability. Pain, 145(3), 222–228.