System Wind-Up | More Information
What is it? | What causes it? | How to recognise it? | Solutions
What is it?
A direct contribution to pain, stiffness and injury primarily from specific, unhelpful thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
It is commonly understood that a dysfunction in the muscles, joints, bones or nervous system can contribute to pain, stiffness and injury within the human body.
However, it is not well-publicized that thoughts, emotions and behaviours can also lead directly to injury and pain creation, or persistence, in the body.
When we recognise the primary cause of a condition can be any of these factors we have a much better chance of solving any problem.
This holistic approach helps ensure the most important factors for each condition are not missed.
What causes it?
System wind-up occurs when there are too many unhappy signals (negative signals/noxious input) resulting from unhelpful thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are sent to the subconscious brain & spinal cord which directly negatively effects the structures of the body.
A simple, commonly recognised example is neck muscle tension (shoulder hitching/forward head) with a stressful time at a computer; another example is jaw tension (clenching) from a build-up of worry. System wind-up can be the primary cause of a painful condition and injury or a result of a condition, and this is what the Ridgway Method problem-solving process can efficiently help determine.
How recognise System Wind-Up?
A list of common examples:
Thoughts | Hyper-vigilance, Unhelpful beliefs, Mismatching ideas, Unhelpful expectations, Unconfident for a solution, Memory of painful events, etc.
Feelings | Frustration, Stress, Excessive self-joint cracking, Worry, Anxiety, Fear/scared, Depressed, etc.
Actions | Frequent self-massage, Jittery movements, Overdoing activities, Excessive stretching, Upper-rib-cage-breathing, etc.
The above factors can be the primary cause of the factors below or a result of:
Muscles | Tight/Guarding, Ache, Spasm/Locking-up/pulling, Swelling, Tearing, Weak, etc.
Joints | Stiff/tight, Unstable, Clicking, Cracking, Giving way, Swelling, etc.
Nerves | Guarding neck/back muscles, Difficult to ease the pain, Persistently tight muscles, Pins/needles, Shooting pain, Burning sensation, etc.
Dysfunction of any of these body parts results in negative signals informing the brain of an 'unhappy state' which leads to the brain creating protective strategies such as pain, guarding and injury (see diagram below).
Persistent Pain/Chronic Pain Diagram
The above diagram shows the interactions between the mental & physical systems of the body and how these influence the brain & creation of pain. For example, an underlying cause of anxiety can lead to an increase in muscle tension around a body part. e.g. The neck-shoulder muscles or low back muscles | This can accumulate to be a significant injury.
The anxiety and the muscle tension/injury transmit negative signals to the subconscious brain which contribute to “wind up” within the nervous system. Once this wind up reaches a threshold, the final outcome is the brain creating pain & discomfort. This painful experience is our protection mechanism, an indicator that something needs to be fixed to turn off the negative signals.
An analogy: Car engine revs have an ideal range, just like nerve impulses in the body. A car that always revs in the red-zone can be analogised as similar to stress causing the nervous system to always be in the 'red-zone' - i.e. wind-up. A car always revving in the red-zone overheats and the engine warning signal comes on the dash. In the body the stress and red-zone nerve signals cause excessive muscle tension and the warning signal is pain. What can be done? Receive treatment to decrease the 'revs' (nerve signals) to normal, this decreases the muscle tension and the brain no longer has a reason to create pain.
Solutions | What can be done about System Wind-U p?
The negative signals to the brain can be turned off rapidly once the primary, or most significant, mental or physical factor is changed. In complex conditions multiple factors contribute negative signals to the nervous system. Therefore in order to most quickly and successfully solve system wind-up, the most significant negative signals from the mental & physical components need to be the focus.
Addressing these components, and making positive changes, is like settling the 'car-revs' down to normal, and allowing optimal function with no warning signal and no pain (as described in the diagram below).
Eliminating Persistent Pain/Chronic Pain Diagram
The psychological components can be changed with a number of options. Good physiotherapy treatment with assessing the worst contributing factors and changing these; pain education; specific behaviour modification; changing unhelpful thoughts and unhelpful beliefs; and with conditions that don't respond quickly we refer to a psychological health expert.
However, once the psychological and physical components are tailored to the individual needs of each person, and fixed, there are no longer negative signals contributing to wind up within the system, and no pain.
For more detailed information download our free eBook: Want Your Pain ‘Managed’–Or Gone? »