Chronic pain (any pain lasting over 6 weeks) actually rewires your brain.
How does pain go from acute to chronic? 
The nervous system is plastic which means it picks up habits easily. Pain is one of those habits. The more the nervous system practices activating a certain symptom, the easier it becomes to activating it again and again (it's kind of like the more sugar we eat the more our bodies will crave sugar).
It's having an overactive nervous system that effects neuropathways, your amygdala, and your brain rewires itself to experiencing chronic pain.
The brain has a memory for pain pathways.
The more a type of pain occurs, the easier it becomes for the brain to replicate this pain regardless if there is a reason for it. You may still experience pain long after your body is actually healed.
It's called pain memory.
That is why amputees, for example, experience pain in limbs that no longer exist.
The brain never forgets how to create a certain sensation. When pain is chronic, over time your brain keeps track and it becomes more fearful of anything that could be a threat for your pain.
This hypersensitivity is unversial in chronic pain sufferers.
Things that use to feel enjoyable like walking, exercising, or even sitting, may now feel unbearable.
Your brain begins to fear these physical activities, weather patterns, etc.
It's a protective over reaction.
It's kind of like a child that has had an incident with an overly excited dog. The dog jumps on him and knocks him over and it scares the child. Now, every time this kid sees this particular dog, he runs from it. The dog thinks the child is playing so he chases the kid. This puts more fear in the child.
As time goes on, the child now learns to fear other dogs. His fear of that one dog turns into fear of all dogs.
This is similar to what happens when we spend a long time in pain.
Our brain starts to perceive normal activities as dangerous and your brain then brings on pain when actually nothing has happened to trigger that pain.
It is possible to relieve this pain though. I am learning and reading about how we can re-wire our brains so our learned neuropathways that are causing our real pain, alter themselves and rewire themselves to stop the chronic pain cycle.
I know it's a lot to wrap your mind around but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Our brain is incredible as well as our nervous system and they work together when it comes to chronic pain, learned behaviors, and how all of this works together when it comes to the pain we experience in our bodies.
I am trying to give purpose to my pain so I will keep sharing research for those that want to read it. 
