IC Awareness Month Series Part 3: Is Your Nervous System Affecting Your Bladder?

So first, I wanna make something very clear.

If your bladder burns, you are actually experiencing that burning.

If you feel urgency, you're actually experiencing urgency.

If you have pelvic pain, your pain is 100% real.

Your brain and nervous system are involved in creating all of the sensations you experience in your body.

So when we talk about neuroplastic symptoms, we're talking about a biological process involving the brain and nervous system.

And to understand that, we need to talk about pain for a second.

We used to think about pain pretty simply.

Something gets injured, the injured part of the body sends a pain signal to the brain, and you feel pain.

But our understanding of pain has become much more nuanced than that.

Your brain is actively involved in creating the experience of pain based on information coming from your body and things like context, previous experiences, expectations, attention, emotions, and how much danger your brain believes you're in.

And usually that system is incredibly useful.

If you put your hand on a hot stove, we want your nervous system to create pain.

Please remove your hand from the stove.

Thank you, brain.

But sometimes that protective system can become overly sensitive.

Think about a smoke detector.

If your house is on fire, you absolutely want that alarm going off.

But imagine your smoke detector becomes so sensitive that every time you make toast, the alarm starts screaming.

The alarm is real.

You can hear it.

It's really obnoxious.

Your nervous system is genuinely producing that alarm, but the presence of the alarm doesn't necessarily mean the house is burning down.

Something similar can happen with chronic symptoms.

Your nervous system can learn to become extremely protective around certain sensations, activities, foods, situations, or parts of your body, and this is where the word neuroplastic comes in.

So first, I wanna make something very clear.

If your bladder burns, you are actually experiencing that burning.

If you feel urgency, you're actually experiencing urgency.

If you have pelvic pain, your pain is 100% real.

Your brain and nervous system are involved in creating all of the sensations you experience in your body.

So when we talk about neuroplastic symptoms, we're talking about a biological process involving the brain and nervous system.

And to understand that, we need to talk about pain for a second.

We used to think about pain pretty simply.

Something gets injured, the injured part of the body sends a pain signal to the brain, and you feel pain.

But our understanding of pain has become much more nuanced than that.

Your brain is actively involved in creating the experience of pain based on information coming from your body and things like context, previous experiences, expectations, attention, emotions, and how much danger your brain believes you're in.

And usually that system is incredibly useful.

If you put your hand on a hot stove, we want your nervous system to create pain.

Please remove your hand from the stove.

Thank you, brain.

But sometimes that protective system can become overly sensitive.

Think about a smoke detector.

If your house is on fire, you absolutely want that alarm going off.

But imagine your smoke detector becomes so sensitive that every time you make toast, the alarm starts screaming.

The alarm is real.

You can hear it.

It's really obnoxious.

Your nervous system is genuinely producing that alarm, but the presence of the alarm doesn't necessarily mean the house is burning down.

Something similar can happen with chronic symptoms.

Your nervous system can learn to become extremely protective around certain sensations, activities, foods, situations, or parts of your body, and this is where the word neuroplastic comes in.