Ever heard of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849–1936)? He was a physiologist who did experiments with dogs. Put simply, he would ring a bell each time he served the puppies their dinner. After repeating the routine often enough, he could ring a bell, and the dogs would salivate even if there was no food in sight (or within smelling distance). They had been conditioned to respond to the bell – their brains believed “bell = food” and their bodies responded.
[Image source: Classical Conditioning: How It Works and How It Can Be Applied]
Ok – so you’re not a dog (even if you are more than occasionally prone to ‘pug-puppy face’) – so what’s this got to do with you?
Here’s the thing. Whether you like to think about it or not, your brain has been conditioned. I’m not talking weird brain-washing, tin-foil-hat, mind-bending, mad-doctor stuff like you see in the movies. Just normal, day to day, conditioning.
Do you eat dinner with a knife and fork or your fingers? In many countries it’s cutlery all the way, but there are plenty of other places where clean fingers are the norm. Society conditions you to believe what’s ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. But really, there is no ‘better’ or ‘worse’ – just ‘different’.
We are a product of our upbringing. Our parents, teachers, the television, the books we read, our peers, they all taught us what they thought was the best way forward. What’s more, we’re still doing the same thing to ourselves right now.
We condition our brains (and especially our pain-brains) to experience life a certain way.
“I wonder if this stove is hot” – “ouch!!” – “I won’t touch THAT again!”
Cause and effect, especially when repeated often enough, or with enough additional prompts (“NO! Don’t touch that!”) forms part of classical conditioning that leads to automatic, subconscious thoughts and behaviors.
“If I go to the movies, I’ll get a headache” I tell myself. Sure. In the past that HAS happened. I can remember three specific instances and all the humiliating and traumatic details. (I even remember the movies and why they were triggering: ‘Lord of the Rings’ with my parents (the air-conditioning was off), ‘Pearl Harbour’ with friends (the war-scenes were flash-bangy), and ‘Troy’ on date night with my husband (the movie ran into dinner time)).
I haven’t been to a movie cinema in years, because I have conditioned myself to believe that “movie = migraine”.
But let’s be honest – it wasn’t necessarily the movie that made me sick – or not only – it was the lack of fresh air, the strobing lights, and low blood sugar. Moreover, if I’m really honest myself, I also remember going to plenty of other movies and making it out alive. No drama. No pain, all gain.
I understand that there is an element of anxiety or even PTSD at play here. We’re all doing our best to avoid pain, so we learn our triggers and do our best to eliminate them. Even remembering the events that triggered a migraine can be triggering. Why would you want to risk re-living those bad times?
Here’s what I think: we need to separate pain from suffering.
What a shame that we have started to live such limited lives, that we have become scared of so many things. In the same way that you can adapt and learn to eat with a fork or your fingers, you can re-train your pain-brain to stop making assumptions. Especially unhelpful, life-limiting, catastrophizing assumptions.
Yes, you have a ‘migraine-condition’, but you don’t have to let it take over so much that your life becomes ‘migraine-conditioned’.
There’s more to you than just your pain, so tell it take a seat.
Today we’re going to try a new game.
Who knows, one of these days I might just write a movie review!
Take care taking care, Linda xx
PS – don’t forget that classical conditioning can be used to BENEFIT your healing process: set up bedtime routines and rituals that reinforce the “let’s sleep” message to your brain, place your running shoes beside the front door each night so that you see them in the morning and automatically think “time to get moving”, or teach your children to come rushing to your bedside every time you ring a bell… he he… (I wish!)
The Mindful Migraine 
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