Understanding Central Sensitization: Heightened Pain Perception
- Monica Williams - Frequency Specific Microcurrent Therapy
- Oct 7, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Dec 9, 2025
What Is Central Sensitization?
Central Sensitization is a condition where the nervous system becomes stuck in a heightened state of pain responsiveness. The brain and spinal cord—the central nervous system—amplify pain signals, creating persistent, widespread pain even in the absence of ongoing injury. Everyday sensations like touch, sound, or gentle movement can feel overwhelming. This is not “in your head”—it is a very real neuro-immune phenomenon, and it underpins many hard-to-treat conditions including:
Fibromyalgia
Chronic fatigue syndrome
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)
PTSD-related physical symptoms
Migraine
Chronic pelvic, jaw, neck, or back pain
What Causes Central Sensitization?
Central Sensitization develops when the nervous system loses its ability to regulate pain and sensory input. This can be triggered or worsened by various factors:
1. Trauma and Injury
Injuries—especially head trauma, whiplash, or spinal injuries—can activate inflammation in the nervous system. They irritate key structures like the thalamus (your sensory relay center) and spinal cord. This leads to increased pain sensitivity and altered processing.
2. Surgeries and Medical Procedures
Any surgery—particularly those involving the spine, abdomen, or reproductive organs—can trigger long-term changes in how the nervous system interprets signals. Scar tissue, nerve irritation, or inflammation can lead to persistent pain well beyond the surgical recovery window.
3. Medications and Withdrawals
Opiates, benzodiazepines, antidepressants, and anticonvulsants can desensitize or dysregulate the brain’s pain and stress circuits.
Withdrawal from these drugs—especially after long-term use—can unmask or worsen central sensitization symptoms, leaving individuals hypersensitive and overwhelmed.
4. Emotional Stress and PTSD
Long-term stress, trauma, or abuse activates the limbic system, leading to a hypervigilant state. Over time, the brain’s threat detection system becomes stuck in “danger mode,” worsening pain, anxiety, and fatigue.
5. Vagus Nerve Suppression
The vagus nerve plays a vital role in calming the nervous system, regulating digestion, controlling inflammation, and facilitating rest and healing. When the vagus is suppressed (due to trauma, infection, surgery, or chronic stress), inflammation increases, neurotransmitters become dysregulated, and central sensitization worsens.
6. Menopause
Menopause can be a powerful trigger for central sensitization, especially in women with a history of trauma, stress, or chronic health issues. As estrogen and progesterone decline—often unpredictably—protective anti-inflammatory effects are lost. This makes the nervous system more vulnerable to overactivation. Sleep disturbances, mood swings, and fatigue are common. For some, menopause also brings sudden-onset chronic pain, increased sensitivity to touch or sound, digestive issues, brain fog, and emotional reactivity. These symptoms may be misattributed to “just hormones,” when in fact they reflect a nervous system stuck in a persistent state of threat response.
Hormonal changes also disrupt neurotransmitters like serotonin and GABA, weaken vagal tone, and impair gut function—key systems involved in calming pain and stress signals. Without these stabilizing influences, the thalamus (which filters sensory input) and limbic system (which processes emotion) become overactive. This creates a feedback loop of inflammation, anxiety, and pain. For many women, menopause doesn’t just mark the end of a reproductive phase—it can also be the moment when the body reveals the long-hidden effects of stress, trauma, or unresolved inflammation through the lens of central sensitization.
What Does Central Sensitization Feel Like?
You Might Be Dealing with Central Sensitization If You Have:
Pain that seems excessive for the issue
Pain that spreads over time, unrelated to injury
Pain that persists for months or years, despite treatment
Hypersensitivity to sounds, smells, light, or touch
Fatigue that sleep doesn’t fix
Brain fog or difficulty concentrating
Anxiety, depression, or emotional reactivity that is intense
IBS or unpredictable gut reactions
Sleep that feels broken, even after 8+ hours
“Flare-ups” after stress, certain foods, infections, or exertion
Central sensitization often mimics multiple conditions—but the common thread is a nervous system that’s overactive, inflamed, and unable to shut off.
Mainstream Treatments: Where They Help—and Fall Short
1. Medications
Antidepressants (e.g., amitriptyline, duloxetine)
Anticonvulsants (e.g., pregabalin, gabapentin)
Benzodiazepines: Sometimes used for sleep, muscle tension, or anxiety—but risk dependence.
Ketamine: In severe or resistant cases, IV ketamine can briefly reset pain pathways via NMDA receptor blocking.
Limitations: These are symptomatic treatments. They rarely correct the root cause and often come with side effects or the risk of worsening the problem when stopped abruptly. Drugs should always be screened for side effects and never used lightly.
2. Therapies
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and trauma-informed approaches help reframe perception of pain.
Mindfulness, graded movement, and gentle exercise support nervous system recovery.
Somatic and vagus-activating techniques are becoming more mainstream.
Limitation: Progress is often slow, and relief may be partial without addressing the neuroinflammatory core.
FSM: The Inside Path to Calm the Sensitized Nervous System
Frequency Specific Microcurrent (FSM) is a groundbreaking therapy that uses gentle, low-level electrical currents—measured in millionths of an amp—to deliver targeted frequencies to specific tissues and conditions.
How FSM Helps with Central Sensitization:
1. FSM Reduces Neuro-inflammation
FSM at 40 Hz (reduce inflammation) paired with 10 Hz (spinal cord) and the peripheral nerves has been shown to:
Lower inflammatory chemicals linked to central pain ( IL-1, IL-6, TNF-alpha, and substance P).
Increase neurochemicals that ease pain and calm the CNS ( beta-endorphins and anti-inflammatory cortisol)
2. Resets the Thalamus and Brain Circuits
FSM frequencies gently work on the pain perception centres of the brain (thalamus, midbrain, amygdala, and sensory motor cortex) directly calm overactive pathways and improve sensory filtering—crucial for those overwhelmed by sound, light, or touch.
3. Restores Vagal Function
Protocols to increase the action of the vagus nerve (turn down inflamation, regulate the immune system, calm stress) help to reengage the repair phase (parasympathetic nervous system) and ease the cell danger response (CDR) . This enhances rest, repair, digestion, calm and mood balance, a welcome relief.
4. Supports Withdrawal and Recovery
FSM can be used to reduce symptoms of withdrawal from pain medications, soothing the nervous system, and reverse sensitisation caused by past medications, injury, trauma, and stress.
5. Treats Gut Inflammation and Neurotransmitter Deficits
FSM supports intestinal barrier function, to reduce histamine overload (MCAS) and IMPROVE absorption of nutrients needed to make much needed neurochemicals like serotonin, dopamine, and GABA.
What to Expect from FSM in the Treatment of Central Sensitization
Feature | What You Can Expect |
Session Experience | Gentle currents applied via wet towels or adhesive pads—relaxing and painless |
First Treatment | Many experience a rapid drop in pain (up to 80–90%) in the first 60–90 minutes |
Course of Care | 6–10 sessions often produce lasting improvements; home units may be used for ongoing support |
Side Effects | Rare and mild—some feel tired or mildly detoxed after the first few treatments |
Improvements | Reduced pain, clearer thinking, better sleep, calmer mood, and renewed energy often occur within weeks |
Many mainstream treatments can re-traumatise someone experiencing Central Sensitization. It is exhausting to function with in a state of constant pain, and resources are understandably low for any further interventions in many cases.
FSM is gentle to receive. It is a nurturing experience that supports the body's own energy and recovery system. You won't feel the frequencies as they are subsensory; most people tend to feel s a welcome calming floatiness as the frequencies begin to work, easing and regulating the central nervous system and peripheral nerves. FSM is a safe and restorative treatment that continues to work long after the initial treatment series has been received.
Final Words: From Surviving to Thriving
If nothing explains your widespread, ongoing pain, you may be living with central sensitization. You are not broken. Your nervous system has simply been pushed beyond its limit and is struggling to regulate. FSM offers a way to bring it back into balance without further strain.
By addressing pain at the causative level and supporting the body's own healing systems, FSM empowers a return to central regulation, where peace, clarity, and resilience in body and mind are founded. As sleep quality starts to return, you know your body is healing, and the internal restorative systems are being supported and reset. Your body is amazing, sometimes it just needs a little help to reset and reboot. FSM is a rare resource that can support this deep level of healing.
