5 sneaky clues that your body is fighting an invisible illness — and what to do about it

Pain on your mind?

Chronic pain can destroy a person’s quality of life, leading to withdrawal from family and friends, sleep disturbances and feelings of depression.

Injury and disease are common causes of chronic pain — but millions of Americans don’t have a clear, identifiable reason for their suffering, making treatment tricky.

Their agony could be neuroplastic pain, a type of chronic pain rooted in changes to the nervous system rather than trauma or illness.

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change and adapt in response to experiences and learning.

Not all these changes are good — sometimes the brain strengthens existing pain pathways or creates new ones, making the nervous system more sensitive to pain signals.

“This heightened sensitivity can result in the brain misinterpreting normal or low-level signals from the body as dangerous, causing pain and other symptoms even when there’s no ongoing tissue damage or structural issue,” Dr. David Clarke, a gastroenterologist and president of the Association for the Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms (ATNS), told The Post.

Besides pain, a person might experience fatigue, digestive issues and headaches.

Research suggests that neuroplastic changes in the brain and spinal cord contribute to the development and persistence of chronic pain conditions like fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, migraine, chronic fatigue syndrome and long COVID.

So, how do you know if your pain is neuroplastic? Clarke shares five tell-tale signs and several treatments to consider.

5 signs that neuroplastic symptoms may be fueling your pain

• Your doctor has completed diagnostic testing without finding a definitive cause of your pain or illness — or treatment is not working as expected.
• You’ve had more than one symptom for over six months.
• Your symptoms are located in different parts of your body or change locations.
• Your symptoms get worse when you are stressed.
• If you learned that a child you care about was experiencing situations you faced as a child, you would feel sad or angry.

Traumatic events in childhood, like abuse and neglect, can lead to chronic pain and illness later in life, Clarke said.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common cause of neuroplastic symptoms, he added, and anxiety can worsen them.

If you suspect you have neuroplastic symptoms, you should see a physician for an evaluation.

If an illness or injury isn’t identified and your doctor is on board, Clarke recommends taking ATNS’ self-assessment quiz, which asks about stress, trauma and emotions.

Answering “yes” to several questions may indicate you’re on the right path to finding a solution.

The idea is to address underlying stressors and psychological factors to see if symptoms improve.

Instead of medication, treatment may involve rewiring the brain with gradual exposure to anxiety-provoking situations, completing emotional awareness exercises and reducing stress.

“New research confirms that neuroplastic recovery therapies achieve far better outcomes for non-structural pain or illness than earlier forms of treatment,” Clarke said.