Chronic pain
What it usually is
I have suffered with Chronic pain. Chronic pain is pain that has stuck around for longer than about three months, usually long after the original injury has healed. Pain is a BRAIN process. Your pain IS real. Your brain learned to protect you when you were hurt, and sometimes it doesn't get the memo that the tissues have healed.
What it often feels like
Pain that moves around, flares for no clear reason, or spreads to places that were never injured. Being tired, not sleeping well, and feeling like nobody believes you. I know how it feels to be fine one moment and absolutely unable to move the next.
What we look at
First, we make sure your body has healed as well as it can and that nothing serious has been missed. Then the whole picture: your body, your sleep, your stress, your worries, and the things you have stopped doing because of pain. This is what we mean by the biopsychosocial model, which is a mouthful that just means body, mind and life all count.
What usually helps
Understanding pain is the foundation, because learning how pain works can change how it feels. We can forget something on purpose. Then we practise: exercise and pacing, so movement stops feeling dangerous, a little at a time. Mindfulness, gratitude and stress management, because a calmer brain is a quieter alarm system. Mindfulness is actually a fairly easy principle to understand, but its effects are complex, and in practice, it is harder to do than it sounds. Hands-on tools like adjusting, soft tissue and neurodynamics still have a place, as a way to help you move, not as the whole plan.
What you can do at home
Pace: find what you can do on a bad day, and do that on a good day too. Guard your sleep. Spend a few minutes a day paying attention to your breathing, and when your mind wanders, just come back. Write down three good things before bed, even on the hard days.
When it's not a chiro problem
New symptoms need a fresh look: fever, unexplained weight loss, new weakness or numbness, or pain that is suddenly very different. Chronic pain is heavy, and if it is getting on top of you, your family doctor and a counsellor belong on your team too. If you are having thoughts of hurting yourself, call or text 9-8-8 any time, or call 911. Please know that I am on your team.
Tools we often use for this
- Understanding modern pain science
- Exercise
- Pacing
- Mindfulness
- Gratitude
- Stress management
- Sleep
- Neurodynamics
- Adjusting
- Soft tissue
Related reading
- Build Mindful Practices into Your Routine With These Simple Steps
Mindfulness enriches every aspect of daily life by bringing a deeper awareness to our actions and thoughts. Not only does it improve our ability to remain calm and cool in the face of immediate stress, but it also allows us to build resilience for future stressors. Whether you want to start your day off with meditation or boost your concentration, there are plenty of ways you can become more mindful. In this article, courtesy of ChiroMEDIX, we’ll talk about a few simple techniques you can try.
- It Hurts So Much! Is There Hope?
The single biggest reason patients come to see a chiropractor is because something hurts. I am a chiropractor in Chilliwack, British Columbia and I deal with a lot of people who are experiencing pain. Let me share my experience with pain.
- The Benefits of Chiropractic Care
For the majority of people, the benefit of Chiropractic care is decreased pain. However, these results depend upon multiple factors:
- Rewiring Your Brain to Reset Chronic Pain
Chronic pain is complicated for many reasons, but ultimately, it’s all in your head. Before you throw your hands up in frustration, let me explain. Our brain is our computer; it is where all information gets sent, processed, and understood. Understanding that pain is an experience that happens entirely in your brain can actually be helpful in dealing with it. I will do my best to help you get your head around pain.
- Mindfulness Changed My Life and It Can Change Yours Too
In March 2020 I had the world knocked out from under me. One day I had a busy day of patients and the next day I didn’t have a practice at all. I had to let my staff go, and I didn’t have a job. I was stressed about the future and worried about what was coming next. I felt powerless, an emotion that is not common for me, especially in my professional world.
- How We Approach Chronic Pain
Research over the last 10-15 years has significantly changed how health practitioners view chronic pain. Mechanisms have been discovered to validate symptoms previously seen as purely psychological. These mechanisms help explain why pain lingers for months, even years, despite previously injured tissues having had enough time to heal.
- 4 Sleep Lessons to Help You Sleep Better
All too often I find myself wishing I could be the one who was snoring away within moments of my head hitting the pillow. I am not as lucky as my wife in that respect. Sometimes it seems like she is asleep before her head hits the pillow.