Reading for Healing

There is a chronic pain and illness relief tool, sitting in your house right now, that is rarely talked about and completely underrated.

A book.

Reading may be one of the most powerful tools for not just managing, but actually resolving chronic pain. More than meditation, journalling, somatic work and all the other tools people like me yak about endlessly. So let me walk you through WHY and HOW to unlock the power of reading for your body.

Why Reading Outperforms Other Distractions

You may be thinking “yeah, I get it, reading is a form of distraction”. And you’re right, but you’re only halfway there.

Because unlike other forms of distraction like watching TV, playing games, or talking with a friend (all of which are also great and useful distractions), reading is a cut above because it actively engages your imagination. The words on the page do not spoon-feed you the story like a movie or TV show does. They make you engage and generate the story collaboratively. This engages your brain in an entirely different way. In a way that almost no other medium does.

Flow State and Down-Regulating Pain

Reading can put the brain into a flow state. I could write a whole other article and make 10 other videos on the benefits and wonders of flow state.

For now, just know that flow state is a particular state of mind that the brain can only reach in relaxation, and reading is one of the quickest and easiest ways to get us there.

And what does the brain do when it's relaxed? Down-regulate.

Down the pain goes with it. Down go immune responses, inflammation, and all other neuroplastic symptoms.

Replacing the Scrolling Trap

Reading is also a positive habit that replaces a negative habit: scrolling. When you’re sick and in pain, one of the things we long for the most is escape. What better way to zone out of our life than to scroll?

But the effects of scrolling are detrimental for chronic pain. Studies have shown how it messes with our stress response and ability to focus and engage in critical thinking. I recently read an article about how your heart rate actually lowers initially when you start scrolling, which explains why it feels relaxing. But then it spikes when we stop. That is part of the reason it feels so hard to pull ourselves away… It's like it feels dangerous to stop. Not to mention all the other detrimental psychological effects of scrolling, but again, that’s a topic for another article.

The Anti-Productivity Rule

So what kind of reading am I talking about? I think reading got caught up in the productivity hustle culture a few years back. It became all about self-help and books that could make us more productive.

The temptation to try and make your reading productive is doubly tempting when you are in pain and looking for answers. Part of the trap of hypervigilance is spending every waking minute looking for answers.

The key to making this work is to NOT look for answers. The kind of reading I'm talking about isn’t based on its outcome or insight. It's not about WHAT you’re reading; it's about how it feels WHILE you’re reading.

So put down Dr. Schubiner's book (for now! I do actually highly recommend his work, but not for this particular use). Put down the medical journal or paper on your condition.

Pick up the trashy YA novel you used to love as a kid, the romance that feels silly, or the sci-fi novel that has nothing to do with the planet we live on. Let yourself be taken to a far-off land, to be someone else with other people.

Interrupting Predictive Processing

This leads me to my final point about why reading is one of the best tools for pain relief: it's a pattern interrupt.

One of the biggest factors that causes the brain to create pain (ie: neuroplastic pain) is something called predictive processing. When the brain thinks it knows what's coming, it will anticipate and produce the reaction it thinks is appropriate. In your case, it's decided to generate pain in anticipation of what it perceives is danger.

The more it does that, the more it feels like it needs to do that. It’s a vicious cycle. But reading interrupts that cycle. It takes us out of our daily routine and makes it hard for our brain to predict.

Even if reading becomes part of our daily routine, the brain is far more interested in the content of our imagination than what we are actually doing with our body. If our mind is somewhere different every time we sit down to read, the brain is not going to have that same anticipatory protective reflex. Especially if we are loving what we are reading!

That’s why it’s so important to choose what you read based on how you feel while you read, rather than the productivity of the book.

Low-Energy Alternatives: Audiobooks and Shared Reading

On a more practical note: when you have chronic pain or illness, that can often come with things that may prevent you from being able to actually read.

I know there were days I was far too exhausted to keep my eyes open and focused for any length of time. Perhaps you have too much muscle tightness or joint pain to hold a book up. Or your brain fog makes it hard to retain the words on the page.

Alternatives:

Let me introduce you to reading's sexy younger cousin: audiobooks. I cannot count the amount of looooong nights that Stephen Fry’s voice, narrating Harry Potter, kept me company and provided much-needed solace.

The benefits are basically the same, so long as you don't multitask (which is the temptation, especially in this modern anti-rest culture). Closing your eyes and letting the images play as the words swim around you… you get all the benefits of distraction, imagination engagement, flow state, and rest.

Shared reading:

Or, if you have a partner or friend with a soothing voice and the willingness to sit with you, they can read a story to you.

During the absolute worst time of my illness, when I had to stay with my parents so they could look after me… when I was practically disabled, couldn't walk more than 30 meters, couldn't bathe myself, couldn't dress myself, couldn't do anything… I asked my dad to read to me. Well, actually, I first asked him to bandage my hands together so I couldn't scratch at my open wounds, then I asked him to read to me (it was a f**cked up time).

It still makes me tear up thinking about it. It was the kindest, most loving thing he could do. To not only be able to think about something else, but to have someone I loved and trusted sit next to me, and hear this story read out loud by a voice I’d known my whole life... that was the most valuable things anyone could do while I was in the depth of illness. It wasn’t meant to heal or cure. Only relieve and comfort.

Which is my final point. I don't mean to say that you can read your way out of pain and illness.

But I do mean to say that the relief it brings is not nothing. When you feel your breathing slow, when your heart soften, when your mind is transported somewhere else... these are all conditions that your mind, brain, nervous system, and body need to come back to health.

You don't need to make healing happen. You Just have to get out of the way long enough to allow it to happen. Reading does just that.