Lets Talk about chronic Pain

There are two types of pain patterns, acute and chronic. Both can resolve, and both can linger causing long term discomfort.

Acute pain happens suddenly, often from a trauma such as an injury, think car accident, a fall, or even a sudden traumatic life event. Acute pain can often be resolved just as quickly as it came, and the person moves on. No longer feeling pain, having health restored.  Healing it’s a magical thing! 

For other people this injury might never fully resolve, and become recurring otherwise known as chronic pain. Think about, someone after a car accident, and their back was just “never the same”. This sudden event that impacted the body, which was supposed to heal and “go away”… just never did. And now they or you live with the discomfort it brings everyday.

Our bodies are amazing at adapting, finding the path of least resistance to perform the demands and tasks we ask of it everyday. This overall is one of the many things that make our bodies these amazing living organisms. However, sometimes, these adaptations cause pain patterns to occur.

Let’s take someone involved in a car accident. Evolutionary wise, our body does not really know how to deal with impacts at such high speeds. Take someone who was hit from behind in a car, while their car was stopped, propelling them forward while also being held back by their seat belt. That impact causes what we term “whiplash” the forceful back and forth movement of the neck.

With this forward and back momentum often times the neck muscles split. It is exactly like it sounds, they hold firm and still to protect your spine, spinal cord and brain. Ideally after the car accident, the body is supposed to know you are safe and release these muscle splints and your neck muscles release and health is restored. Sometimes though, these muscles stay tight, even after muscle relaxers, or some physical therapy. It just seems like no matter what you do, the neck muscles will not relax. If your muscles are not relaxing, it is because they still feel it is not safe to. Our bodies often times can be very straight forward. PS, without the seat belt in this accident, the person could have also hit their head or sternum leading to greater injury. So please always wear a seat belt!

I really recommend after a car accident, once cleared by your doctor, to get a massage. If you can, receive massage on a regular bases to help muscles relax and restore to health. On top of massage I also recommend getting a craniosacral therapy session to help your central nervous system release the trauma of the accident. If the brain is saying your muscles can’t relax because it is not safe, then those muscles will continue to restrict, even after being released manually. These therapeutic acts can greatly increase your ability to restore your health and wellness after a sudden trauma.

The hope with acute pain is that it is addressed and released before it turns chronic. Once a pain is chronic it is part of your body's pattern, and the longer it is there, the more your body is organizing around it.

Chronic pain, can start one of two ways, the first mentioned above is through an acute occurrence. The second way chronic pain can occur is slowly and over time from what we call over use and or misuse of our muscles, body, and or posture. Clients often come to me and express pain in their wrist and thumb from mouse work on the computer. This is an example of over use. Over utilizing the abduction and adduction movements of the wrist in the frontal plane. Putting pressure on the radioulnar joints of the wrist. An example of  misuse of our bodies is forward head syndrome. This occurs when someone reaches their head forward, over their vertical midline, so often that the body adopts this postural alignment. Things that cause this position are computer use, driving, looking at your phone or tablet. This is a postural adaptation to our modern work and devices. And in this way people are misusing their neck muscles causing deviation. Leading to a forward head position, that often creates chronic pain in their neck and shoulders.

So for someone sitting and working on the computer, this might entail a forward head position and arms reaching out for an extended period of time, some peoples work days are from 8 to 12 hours long. An incorrect computer posture that leads to a person reaching there neck forward, over their mid-line, puts strain on the neck, shoulders and upper back trying to hold up the head. Which gets heavier for your body the further out in front it is. The sitting position can tighten the hips and push the pelvis forward into an anterior tilt. The body wanting to support you, will do everything it can to hold these positions for you, but this support might end up causing great pain. Our bodies are not supposed to be in these positions for an extended amount of time.

Often times people relate these chronic pain occurrences to just being older. Not prolonged sitting, or head positions. By the time someone who works a sedentary (sitting for long amount of time and not moving) job, hits the age of 30, they have been mostly sitting for 25 year. Eight hours a day from the start of school straight through to the job. This is not counting all the hours we drive! Or watch TV… As hunter gathers we would have been moving most of the day. Our bodies are meant to be in motion. However, society is not built for motion it is built for tasks. So when these chronic pains develop at older ages it is often joked about, “you know you’re old when your back pain is just from existing”... lol…. What we are not looking at are these aspects of “existing” and the demands that it puts on our bodies that might be making pain show up.

Whether someone’s chronic pain is from an acute cause that never fully released or a slow build up from years of demand and strain, the results are the same; living with everyday pain. According to the CDC 20.4% of Americans reported having chronic pain everyday or most days. And 7.4% reported having chronic pain so bad everyday or most days that it impacted their daily lives and ability to perform tasks. (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db390.htm).

If this sample survey taken by the CDC reflects the whole population of the United States that means close to 60 million people are living with daily or most days chronic pain conditions. Personally I would suggest that this number is probably under-represented by a lot of people who have a repetitive strain pattern but don’t identify them as “Chronic Pain”.  Or have pain that is not daily but weekly or even a monthly flare ups that impact the quality of their lives. Sometimes it might even feel like wack a mole. Where first the low back hurt, then that got better but the right shoulder started to flare. Then that resolved and the left hip started to feel tight. Our bodies are one, and these different flare ups could all be related to the same strain patter as a result of the same stressors.

So what can you do for chronic pain… get moving! Strengthen the muscles that are being stretched, stretch the muscles that are being over used. Try to bring balance back to the body. Always start small, and if you can slowly. Start a body awareness practice to bring in greater perception of what is happening in your own body. Start tracking what makes your body feel worse, but also what makes your body feel better. My body awareness training sessions are centered around the idea of releasing old patterns and creating new ones. The reason I created this training is to support our bodies to do more! And to do it pain free.

If you sit for long periods for work, and your work environment allows, stand more, while you talk on the phone, or even while you do computer work. Sitting or standing make sure your computer is eye level. Amazon sells computer stands that adjust at reasonable prices. There is also always a book or the box approach too. Make sure your arms are tucked in, like t-rex arms, and supported by your back and shoulders, not out in space. Same for your head, it should be back, over your shoulders, chin slightly tucked. If you find yourself reaching forward with your head, pull back and take a deep breath. Get a bigger screen, better glasses or just enlarge the text if needed for visual clarity. Never compromise your body, always take the time to properly adjust.

Get a massage to help you release strain and bring in more movement to the muscles so that when you go to train and stretch you have greater progress and ease. Massage and movement also helps you bring in more pleasure, which once you have chronic pain, pain might be all you feel. It is so important, especially for those in pain, to find joy and pleasure in their bodies. Maybe this is when you are taking a hot shower, it just feels so good on your skin. Or moving to a song that you love.

Healing is never a straight line, there will be ups and downs. But the more tools you have to support your self in your pain journey the better!