Neuroplastic Symptoms vs. Physical Symptoms
I recently did a recent YouTube video about 3 things that define neuroplastic symptoms. Neuroplastic symptoms are real bodily symptoms. The difference lies in the causes of neuroplastic symptoms vs. physical symptoms.
Neuroplastic Symptoms
- Brain produced
- Psychological threat/danger
- Perceived threat/danger
Physical Symptoms
- Body produced
- Physical threat/danger
- Actual threat/danger
When we approach neuroplastic symptoms, the first thing is target the treatment towards the brain instead of the body. This is where some people can get caught in medical diagnoses and the cycle of medical/physical treatments. My experience is that medical/physical treatments for neuroplastic symptoms typically give only temporary relief, if any relief at all.
The second big difference is that neuroplastic symptoms are psychologically produced by the brain vs. physically produced by the body. We can think of psychological stress here instead of physical stress, which can take on a number of different things. Psychological threat and danger can produce the very same or worse symptom in the body that a physical threat and danger will produce. Both psychological and physical symptoms represent an alarm going off to alert us to danger or threat that is present.
The third difference is that when the brain feels psychologically threatened and produces a neuroplastic symptom, it’s a perception of danger or threat. The threat or danger is not actual physical body danger like we see with an injury or infection. So when it’s a perception, we call it perceived danger/threat. There may not be anything actually threatening or dangerous happening, but our brain’s can perceive threat and danger because of our past experiences, learning, present moment experiences, stress, etc.
Our goal with neuroplastic symptoms is to treat them from these three components and not get flipped into approaching neuroplastic symptoms as physical symptoms.
