Is your brain causing your symptoms?

This quick assessment helps you figure out if your pain or symptoms are being driven by your brain's danger signals — not by a problem in your body.

Important: Make sure a doctor has ruled out anything serious first. If you have something like chest pain, see a doctor before taking this assessment.

If you have more than one symptom, go through these questions separately for each one.

We'll look at three things: how your symptoms started, how they behave, and what sets them off.

How it started Behavior Triggers Results

Did it start without an injury?

Did your pain or symptom begin without an actual physical injury — no fall, no accident, no hit to the body?

With a real injury, pain hits right away and is sharp. As your body heals, the pain gets better. If your pain is getting worse instead of better, or has lasted much longer than it should, your brain and fear may be playing a role.
How it started Behavior Triggers Results

Were you stressed or emotional?

Were you going through a lot of stress or strong emotions before your symptoms started?

Things like: losing someone you love, money worries, trouble at work or in a relationship, caring for a sick family member, a scary medical test, getting sick, or just a lot of fear or anxiety. Any of these can put your brain on high alert and cause it to create pain as a false alarm.
How it started Behavior Triggers Results

How do your symptoms act?

Pain from a real body injury wouldn't act in these ways. Check each one that is true for you.

Checked: 0 of 14
How it started Behavior Triggers Results

What makes them worse?

Check each one that is true for you.

Checked: 0 of 8
How it started Behavior Triggers Results
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How It
Started
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How They
Behave
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What Makes
Them Worse

Even just one "yes" is a sign that your brain's danger system is creating your pain or symptoms. You don't need to check many boxes.

Even a single "yes" means your body is likely not the problem — your brain is sending a false alarm. And that's actually great news.

Your pain is real. Your symptoms are real. You're not making it up. But they're being created by your brain, not by damage in your body. This means your brain can learn to turn them off.

Self Assessment Tool