What You Didn’t Know About Your Chronic Pain — And Why It Became Chronic

Most people misunderstand their body.

Maybe it’s not your line of work and maybe you’ve always been told things that fit a very specific and narrow lens or only part of a model.

You’ve been told to fix muscles, joints, posture…

👉 But what if none of that is the real starting point?

This isn’t a typical explanation of pain or the body.

It’s a different way of understanding what you’re experiencing.

👉 So you can stop fearing your own body —

and start seeing its true intelligence behind what hasn’t been making sense for you.

You’ll glimps into:

• why your symptoms don’t follow a straight line

• why what you’ve tried hasn’t lasted

• what your body is actually trying to do

• why certain treatments might never get you where you want to be

An important thing to understand about your body:

It is not working against you.

And it is not doing what it’s doing because it’s “broken.”

👉 Your system isn’t just reacting — it’s constantly predicting and filtering.When those don’t match, everything feels off.

Your body is not a structure you need to force, stretch, or “fix” into place.

It is an intelligent system.

And what you feel — tension, discomfort, pain — is not the problem itself.

👉 It’s a signal.

A signal that something in the system is not organized the way it should be.

But here’s where most people get misled:

👉 The absence of symptoms does not mean the system is optimal.

It often just means the system has become reliable in its dysfunction.

You might even notice this:

You try something “preventative”…

And suddenly you feel things you never felt before.

That’s not your body getting worse.

👉 That’s your system becoming aware of something it had adapted to.

🔹 THE CORE PRINCIPLE

Your body is information-driven.

Just like in business:

• No data → no direction

• No feedback → no refinement

Your body works the same way.

👉 Signal = information

👉 Information must be filtered, prioritized, and trusted

👉 Every signal entering your body is filtered multiple times before you even become aware of it.

This process is called gating.

🔹 UNDERSTANDING GATING

👉 Under-gating = too much signal → overwhelmed

👉 Over-gating = too little signal → under-informed

👉 Mismatch = poor prioritization → confusion

In simple terms:

👉 The system doesn’t trust the information it’s receiving.

🔹 WHY GATING BREAKS DOWN

Gating dysfunction is not one thing.

It comes from a mismatch between:

• input

• prediction

• modulation

• state/environment

🔹 1. INPUT PROBLEM

🧠 The signal itself is unreliable (noisy / inconsistent sensory input)

Sources:

• altered proprioception

• visual dysfunction (tracking, depth)

• vestibular asymmetry

• plantar sensory changes

• previous injury (even if “healed”)

• altered mechanoreceptors (scars, tissue changes)

• electromagnetic interference (EMF exposure)

👉 Result:

The brain receives inconsistent information

🔹 2. PREDICTION PROBLEM

🧠 The internal model is outdated or inaccurate

Think of it like using an old blueprint for a new structure.

Causes:

• long-term compensation

• repetitive patterns

• lack of variability

• past injury that was never fully integrated

👉 Result:

The brain predicts incorrectly → constant error signal

🔹 3. MODULATION PROBLEM

🧠 Control systems aren’t aligned

Like a team working without shared direction.

Causes:

• poor inhibition

• reticular system dysregulation

• inefficient filtering

• cognitive overload

👉 Result:

The system becomes unstable in how it filters information

🔹 4. STATE / THREAT / ENVIRONMENT

🧠 The system is in protective mode

Causes (primary):

• stress (of any kind)

• chronic overload

• past trauma (physical or emotional)

• perceived instability / uncertainty

👉 Mechanism:

Safety becomes the priority over efficiency

Causes (secondary):

• ongoing mismatch

• chronic pain

• instability

👉 System becomes stressed because of dysfunction

👉 Result:

• increased monitoring

• increased muscle tone

• increased vigilance

👉 State is not always the starting point—but it often becomes the amplifier.

🔹 5. NEUROCHEMICAL / FATIGUE FACTORS

Often secondary — but reinforces the loop.

Causes:

• fatigue

• poor sleep

• stress chemistry

• neurotransmitter imbalance

👉 Result:

Reduced precision in filtering → inconsistent output

🔹 HOW THIS SHOWS UP

🔸 UNDER-GATING

• hyperawareness

• constant tension

• can’t relax

• “Can’t shut off”

• background scanning

👉 You might recognize this if you feel like you’re always “on,” like nothing truly settles—even when you try to relax.

For some, this builds into constant tension that never really drops, sometimes leading to pushing through or relying on stronger interventions just to get relief.

🔸 OVER-GATING

• low awareness

• sluggish movement

• reduced responsiveness

👉 You might see this in people who feel slower, less reactive, or like their system isn’t fully “online.”

I often see this after concussions—but not only—where the system feels dulled rather than overloaded.

🔸 MISMATCH GATING

• symptoms move

• inconsistency

• “some days good, some days not”

• “it doesn’t make sense”

👉 This often shows up as pain that moves, changes, or fluctuates—good days, bad days, and no clear reason why.

It can resemble patterns seen in conditions like fibromyalgia, where the signal is constant, but never consistent.

Or when treatments seem to help… but the sensation simply shifts somewhere else.

👉 Most people are not one category.

They are a combination.

🔹 THE LOOP THAT MAKES IT CHRONIC

This doesn’t always start with trauma.

👉 Sometimes it begins much earlier—during development.

If the system didn’t fully integrate certain movement or sensory patterns early on, it may build its coordination on an incomplete foundation.

Over time, that becomes the reference point the system trusts—even if it’s not optimal.

👉 This loop can start in different ways:

• an injury

• a period of stress

• or even early developmental patterns that were never fully integrated

👉 Old injury → altered input

👉 System adapts → prediction shifts

👉 Stress increases → protection rises

Now:

• input is noisy

• prediction is off

• system becomes hypervigilant

👉 This creates a self-reinforcing loop:

• prediction error → more monitoring

• more monitoring → more tension

• more tension → worse input

👉 And the system can try to stabilizes around that. (“cementing” that loop)

Over time:

• what started as adaptation

  
  

  becomes the system’s new normal

👉 What you’re feeling isn’t random—it’s your system trying to organize itself with the best reference it currently has.

🔹 WHY NOTHING SEEMS TO LAST

Because most approaches:

• add to the load without knowing

• chase what you feel instead of what drives it

• assume the problem is local

• try to force change instead of allowing reorganization

• miss how everything is connected (focus on one layer, use one model, apply one solution)

Mechanical approach:

👉 tissu (muscle, fascia), joint, structure

Chemical approach:

👉 medication

But neither addresses:

👉 how the system is organizing itself —and how it interprets its own mechanical and chemical information

🔹 WHAT ACTUALLY CHANGES IT

You don’t fix gating directly.

You change:

• input quality

• prediction accuracy

• system state

👉 Then the system reorganizes.

And when that happens:

👉 changes begin to carry over

👉 other treatments become more effective

👉 the need for constant intervention decreases

Because you’ve probably experienced the opposite:

• needing stronger medication over time

• needing more frequent treatments for shorter relief

👉 Not because your body is failing you —but because sight is often set on fixing the body which leads to working against how it actually functions.

🔹 APPROACH

👉 Most approaches look for a structural problem.

But what happens when imaging shows nothing… or findings that don’t match what you feel?

That’s because not everything is structural.

Some of the most impactful changes happen at the level of how your system processes and organizes information—something imaging doesn’t capture.

👉 The issue is often in how your system processes, predicts, and responds to what it receives.

That’s why I work through the body — but not only structurally.

By working at the level where those things are decided :

👉 The quality of the information your system receives changes

👉 How it interprets and predicts from that information changes

👉 How it regulates and responds begins to shift

👉 This is where the nervous system plays its role — not as something to fix, but as something to reorganize.

And when that happens:

• tension no longer needs to stay

• movement reorganizes

• coordination improves

• the system settles

👉 Not because you forced it or gave it more effortbut because the system updated itself.

This is not about “treating a symptom.”

👉 It’s about reorganizing how your system functions.

🔹 TRY SOMETHING NEW

If this resonates with you —if you feel like you’ve tried multiple approaches and something is still missing —

it may not be about doing more.

👉 It may be about finally working with the system itself.

You can explore more here: www.andyaudet.com

Or simply reach out if you want to understand how this could apply to you.

Andy Audet – Un Corps Équilibré

Specialist in Body Recalibration and Human Performance

Saint-Bruno-De-Montarville, Québec