Is chronic pain due to damage or sensitivity?

In many cases of chronic pain, I prefer to use the word ‘sensitivity’ instead of ‘pain.’ People associate pain with damage but chronic pain is often due to issues with the nervous system making it too sensitive rather than physical damage.

In over simplified biological terms: If your pain nerves (Nociceptors) have a fault which makes them overly sensitive to cortisol they will be triggered when you get stressed because stress causes the release of hormones like cortisol into the blood. This will mean you’ll sense pain because of the faulty nerve rather than damage to a muscle or joint.

Obviously, this is still a problem but it’s akin to being told the ‘fault light’ on your car dashboard is due to a faulty sensor rather than a serious problem. IE So long as you trust the opinon that the fault is a sensor rather than something which might cause the car to crash you’ll probably feel safe to drive home and get the sensor fixed another day.