Moving Beyond Chronic Pain
Acute pain develops quickly and does not usually last very long.
Chronic (non-cancer) pain lasts for more than 3 months, or in many cases, beyond normal healing time.
Acute pain in life is inevitable.
Chronic pain/suffering is not.
Acute pain is real. It is produced by the brain and is common with tissue damage.
Chronic pain is real too. It is also produced by the brain and can persist even though the tissue is no longer in danger. It is less about structural changes in the body and more about the sensitisation of the nervous system.
Acute pain usually ends - when the tissue heals.
Chronic pain can end too - when we retrain the brain and nervous system.
Science tells us that all the pain we experience, acute and chronic, is developed in our brains. This means that if the causes are in the brain, the solutions may be there, too.
No matter how long you have been in pain, 3 months or 30 years, our neurological pathways can be rewired, or our brains can be retrained. Because of this, chronic pain can go away, even after decades of suffering.
Chronic pain benefits from education & guidance, especially when both go hand in hand.
More knowledge about your pain can increase respect and compassion towards yourself and your body. Chronic pain sufferers find themselves regaining hope, and wherever there is hope, there is potential for healing.
Learning how your body responds to injury and movement can give you renewed confidence to gradually start moving again and return to activities you previously believed were no longer possible.
Retraining your pain system may seem overwhelming at first. A personalised step-by-step “plan of attack” can help eliminate feelings of overwhelm and increase your motivation to take action.
