How chronic pain shows up in your brain (and why that doesn't mean it's all in your head)

If you experience long-term chronic pain, or you are close with anyone who does, you know how terribly draining and difficult that experience is.Coping with pain at that level and duration steals our energy, sense of self, mental health, even our incomes.It's a pervasive condition, and the solution can be evasive, sometimes causing us to wonder whether it's all in our heads.Understanding how pain works and what its purpose is, can help find a way through it.