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Pain.Why won’t my chronic pain go away?

Because pain is often treated where it hurts, not where it starts. The imaging comes back clean, the prescription dulls it, and the pain stays. The practitioners here look at the whole chain: old injuries and posture, inflammation, sleep, stress, and a nervous system stuck on high alert. Pain is real. It is rarely just local.

Last updated October 4, 2026

Why does this get missed?

Because care is organized around the place that hurts. Imaging shows tissue, not a nervous system that learned to stay on guard, and a clean scan can feel like the end of the road.

Old injuries, posture, sleep and stress usually live with different specialists who rarely compare notes. When the whole chain is laid out in one place, the pattern is often hiding in the links between them.

The curated pieces

3 pieces

  1. Talk, 15 min

    01

    Why things hurt | Lorimer Moseley | TEDxAdelaide

    Lorimer Moseley, PhD, a physiotherapist and Professor of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of South Australia whose pain science research has changed how clinicians around the world explain chronic pain.

    What you’ll learn

    Funny, and it rewires how you think about pain. Moseley tells the story of a snake bite he barely felt and a stick scratch that later hurt enormously, and uses it to show that pain is the brain’s protective output, not a direct readout of damage. That idea explains why pain can linger after tissues heal. It is hopeful without promising anything: a system that learned to protect too much can also learn to settle.

    Worth asking your doctor

    Could my nervous system be amplifying my pain, and would pain education or physiotherapy that uses pain science help me?

    Go to the source

  2. Study, open access in JAMA Psychiatry

    02

    Effect of Pain Reprocessing Therapy vs Placebo and Usual Care for Patients With Chronic Back Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial

    Yoni Ashar, PhD, with Alan Gordon, LCSW, who developed Pain Reprocessing Therapy, and Howard Schubiner, MD, an internist who has spent decades treating pain that comes from how the brain processes it.

    What you’ll learn

    One of the most striking pain trials in years. People with long term back pain who had about four weeks of Pain Reprocessing Therapy were far more likely to report being pain free or nearly pain free than those who had placebo or usual care, and most kept their gains a year later. Brain scans shifted in pain related regions too. The paper is open about who the therapy may not suit.

    Worth asking your doctor

    Does my back pain look like it might be driven more by the nervous system than by structural damage, and could a program like Pain Reprocessing Therapy be right for me?

    Go to the source

  3. Article, NIH summary of a 2021 trial, 4 min read

    03

    A Single-Session Pain Management Skills Class Benefits Patients With Chronic Low-Back Pain

    Beth Darnall, PhD, a pain psychologist and scientist at Stanford who led this trial. She has spent her career making psychological pain care practical and widely available.

    What you’ll learn

    One well designed two hour class can matter. In a trial of 263 adults with chronic low back pain, a single skills class did as well as eight weeks of group CBT on catastrophizing, pain intensity and how much pain got in the way of life. The class taught how pain works, calming skills, and ways to reframe distressing thoughts. The summary is honest about the study’s limits, which is exactly what you want.

    Worth asking your doctor

    Are there pain coping skills classes or pain psychology services I could try alongside my current treatment?

    Go to the source

Every card links straight to the original source. We summarize and send people there. We never republish. How pieces are chosen

Questions to bring to your next appointment

  1. 01Could my nervous system be amplifying my pain, and would pain education or physiotherapy that uses pain science help me?
  2. 02Does my back pain look like it might be driven more by the nervous system than by structural damage, and could a program like Pain Reprocessing Therapy be right for me?
  3. 03Are there pain coping skills classes or pain psychology services I could try alongside my current treatment?

This is a starting point, not medical advice. Talk with a doctor you trust before changing anything.

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