“Your imaging looks normal.” Or the complete opposite, “Your spine is very arthritic and degenerative”. I especially don't enjoy this one as it can evoke fear and worry.
“You'll just have to live with it.”
“Try to avoid activities that hurt.”
The truth is that chronic pain is much more complex than an injury that simply hasn't healed. Research has shown that pain is influenced by many factors, including but not limited to, movement, sleep, nutrition, stress, emotions, and our nervous system. While pain is always real, it doesn't always mean that damage is occurring every time you experience the pain.
What Is Chronic Pain
Pain normally serves an important purpose to alert our body to a threat. Immediately after an injury, it acts as an alarm system to protect our healing tissues that have undergone some damage. However, when pain persists beyond the normal healing time—typically longer than three months—the nervous system can become more sensitive.
Think of it like a smoke detector in your home. The smoke detector is designed to warn you if your house is on fire. What if it became so sensitive that it went off every time you made toast or took a hot shower? The detector is intending to alert you to a threat, but it's giving false alarms.
This is how our nervous system can adapt with chronic pain. It becomes efficient at producing pain signals even when the tissues have largely healed and there is no current threat to the wellbeing of the body and tissues.
This doesn't mean the pain is imagined, as I am sure some of you have heard before. It means the nervous system has become more protective than necessary.
With the right approach it can become less sensitive over time. This is not an immediate change. It will take work, you will have setbacks, it will not be easy. It will require you to change your habits.
This is where I hope to help you. Stay tuned for next week’s blog, where I will delve into how Physical Therapy can help reduce chronic pain, soothe an overactive nervous system, and empower you to move with more confidence!
