Chronic Pain
What Chronic Pain Means
You may be surprised to know that around 20% of the population complain of what we define as chronic or persisting pain at any one time.
Chronic pain is defined in various ways but typically someone would have pain on most days over a period of three months at least, and often very much longer.
People vary greatly in their reaction to chronic pain, with some avoiding most activities and lying down much of the day and others coping well in a restricted way with their normal everyday lives.
Physiotherapists work regularly in pain management for people with long-term pain problems, and teach pacing as one of the core skills to manage pain over time. You can get the Secrets of Pacing now.
Chronic pain is quite different to acute pain, so let's look at the same questions we asked about acute pain and see if the answers differ.
Chronic Pain
Chronic Pain Is Longstanding
It starts at some time, with an acute pain, but does not settle down and go away, leaving the sufferer with a long-term problem. If we go through the same process as we went through with acute pain this will illustrate the difference.
What Is Chronic Pain Telling Us?
Pain is pain, and always real to us. We can't have an imaginary pain, and psychological pain does not make sense in this situation. Whatever the cause of the pain, it feels like tissue damage, the same as acute pain. But is it really the same?
In many kinds of chronic pain, there is no evidence of ongoing damage to explain why the pain remains. This seems to be an example of a useless pain, a pain without a function, an example of hurt does not equal harm. If the pain had a survival function then when we took action, something useful would happen, like us getting better. If this does not happen, then the pain can be said to have no real purpose.
What Do We Do Then?
It's the same as for acute pain, only less satisfactory. People with chronic pain search for treatments, take medications, try all kinds of therapies and undergo investigations, all to little effect. The pain tells them to take action and promises it will be better once they have done so, but the pain does not subside and go away.
What happens next?
The problem remains no matter what the person does in an attempt to relieve it, so this pain has no real use in the world. This kind of pain means that there is no underlying damage to explain the hurt.
Chronic Pain Compared To Acute Pain
We have looked at the differences between acute and chronic pain and found them to be quite different. Acute pain is vital to our survival in the world and chronic pain is an unwelcome and useless burden for the sufferer. It is very important to understand what kind of pain we have as this will affect all our decisions to do with our pain and our lives.
If you have chronic pain and interpret it in the acute pain way there will be a conflict in your head as the two things can never fit well.
Let's take what we know about acute pain.
- We usually know what the injury was which caused the pain
- We know what structure is damaged and causing the pain now
- We know how to treat it and have a high expectation that it will improve with that treatment
- We know roughly how long the injury will last, when we will be able to get back to our activities
- We expect to get back to normal as we were before the injury.
If you compare all the things we know about acute pain with what we know about chronic pain, you can see the problem.
- We often do not know what is causing the ongoing pain
- We don't know to treat it
- We don't know how long it will last or whether we will ever get better
All the things we know about acute pain are not true when we come to chronic pain. Can you see the problem? Trying to apply the usual thoughts about pain only works if we have an acute pain. When it comes to chronic pain the acute pain model of thinking is inappropriate and leads to confusion, bewilderment and frustration.
The Uncertainty Of Managing Chronic Pain
The approach to chronic pain is not very satisfactory. So many things about chronic pain are not clear and it is important to be honest and say there are uncertainties. If you have chronic pain then you need to think about it in a way which gets closer to what is really going on.
The cause of chronic pain is uncertain, the treatment is unclear and not very effective, medication is variably useful, the timescale unknown, mood-related consequences are common and the future is uncertain. That sounds bad but there is light at the end of the tunnel.
However, there is much that a chronic pain sufferer can do to help themselves and pain management is an active field for research and treatment. Pacing is one of the core strategies.
How Would You Like To Control Your Pain And Reclaim Your Life?
Get the “Secrets of Pacing” today!
How will you feel when you can do the things you want to again? When you have regained control over your own body and can plan your life the way you decide? The “Secrets of Pacing” can show you how!