Scar Tissue: A Favorite Non-Sensical Excuse

Scar Tissue is real. Surgeons who operate in the area of a prior operation know that patients often have thickened tissue that needs to be cut through or removed to initiate or complete an operation. It is real. You can also get scar tissue from a cut that doesn't heal right or an excision in certain areas of the skin.

But scar tissue is also an explanation, an excuse, and a fallacy.

Scar tissue is often stated as an explanation for why an old injury continues to hurt or for why pain continues in a particular area. It is unproveable, but in my experience almost always wrong. Because we cannot see scar tissue (it is usually below the skin) and because most imaging doesn't capture it (some does, however), doctors, chiropractors, and others can use this explanation for pain. This frightens patients and seems irreversible and difficult to change.

In my experience, many of these patients get better without removing or treating their "scar tissue". That is because most chronic pain is not structural but rather nervous system in its persistence. The brain and nervous system is where chronic pain must be addressed. TMS is usually the method to that success. The scar tissue is just another in a long line of explanations that is not correct and not helpful at all to mind-body healing. The fear it engenders is actually counter productive to healing.

So be careful when you hear "your pain is from scar tissue". Ask questions, see if there is any basis for this, any imaging that can verify it (like an MRI with contrast or gadolinium dye) or read my book on Chronic pain, instead. Read about self-talk, affirmations and other methods to relieve pain cycles.