Living Pain Free
Living pain free. This might be a wish you have, as pain is one of the main symptoms across many conditions. People can live with pain throughout their whole life and others will avoid many activities to avoid pain itself. Unfortunately, pain is one thing that you can’t be completely free of throughout life. Research shows back pain is on the rise.
If we break down what pain is, it is an output of the nervous system. A message sent from the brain through the spine and out into the nerves to the area of the body that it is felt in. Baring this in mind, we have a choice how to interpret the pain that you experience. Many think pain is a sign of damage, which in some cases it is but not always. If we always interpret pain as damage, then we will always avoid and protect the area to prevent further harm.
This may be useful in the short term but avoidance and over protection will lead to secondary issues, such as immobility, weakness, joint stiffness, prolonged pain and the inability to carry out your normal daily responsibilities. This easily spirals and you can end up living a very limited lifestyle.
If you can view pain as a yellow warning sign rather than a red stop sign you can navigate your way through it without experiencing all those things mentions above. This isn’t easy without support and that is why working with a physiotherapist can help you understand your pain more effectively.
Let’s take an ankle sprain as an example. This injury can be very painful, and it is likely that there has been some damage to the ligaments, even if it is minor. Pain is present to warn us not to continue running on it or pushing it too much, making the injury worse. If you gradually put weight through the ankle in the coming days, you will then be able to start walking on it soon after, during which time the pain will start to settle even though the damage will not have healed yet. On the flip side, If you didn’t attempt to put weight on the foot until the pain fully settled you may be waiting a long time. In which time the calf muscle will shrink, the ankle will become stiff and even small ankle movements will be too painful to do. You might feel like this is what is going on right now with your injury.
What I am trying to point out is that pain should be a guide of how much or how far you push yourself but not a reason to stop completely. It can be scary to push into pain but if you do not work through it bit by bit, day by day you will end up going backwards.
Don’t let pain stop you in your tracks. Let’s help you to get back to living well again.
Thank you for reading.
Dave Adkins
Chartered Physiotherapist
