How to Live with Half a Brain Because You're in Pain

It's a little-known fact that people with pain have a considerable amount of pain messages flooding their brain at all times. This necessarily means that less brain-power is available for other things. Thinking, for example. Perhaps this is the reason for what I call "looping", when your brain cycles through things obsessively, and you can't seem to stop it.

If you live with someone in pain, it's important to understand their availability fluctuates. For you, for thinking, for anything. At times when the pain is low, they are fully available for you (unless they are just in their cave recovering). But when the pain is high, it takes priority.

The way to function when you are in pain & only have half a brain is to - block out the pain. If you have done everything you can to address it (by meeting your basic needs), you just gotta suck it up & go on with life. Crumbling in and falling down because of the pain is not an option if you support yourself or others.

How do you block out the pain? Well, you have to learn to concentrate very well. Fortunately, as a musician, this is an easy one for me. But if you are not in the habit of concentrating, then you probably should learn it. Get books, practice. Reading is good for this. TV is not. Anything that forces your brain to gain strength is good, because of course, you only have 1/2 of it to work with.

Remember that old childhood rhyme: "Concentration, concentration, get the rhythm?" Well, that's what it's all about. Work at it, practice, and you will find you can get more done with the 1/2 brain that is available to you, than many pain-less people will get done with their whole brain. It's all about perspective.

When I was writing this I googled pain & brain to get a picture. And look what I found: "Chronic Pain Harms the Brain." So I guess I'm right-on here...

Check out this quote:
"'If you are a chronic pain patient, you have pain 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every minute of your life," Chialvo said. "That permanent perception of pain in your brain makes these areas in your brain continuously active. This continuous dysfunction in the equilibrium of the brain can change the wiring forever and could hurt the brain."

Picture credit: Comparison of brains. These images show the brain from the left side, demonstrating striking differences between chronic pain patients and healthy subjects. They illustrate with colors how much activation (red-yellow) or deactivation (dark/light blue) was found at each location. (Credit: Image courtesy of Northwestern University)

I am a firm believer that your brain can be hurt, but grow in other areas. So don't give in to the pain killing your brain concept. Just work on concentrating with what you do have, and using new areas of your brain. You can do it. You just have to believe it.