Pain, Worry, Stress, Poor Sleep, More Pain, Repeat.
Chronic pain, also known as Central Sensitization, is a complex pain issue that plagues tens of millions of Americans each year and costs our healthcare system billions of dollars annually through unnecessary MRIs, surgeries, and prescription painkillers. It is a hyper-sensitivity of the brain and nervous system to painful OR non-painful inputs.
ALL pain is processed through the brain, and may NOT be due to any actual tissue injury. Studies have repeatedly shown that people with MRI-confirmed disc bulges/herniations in the low back don’t even know that they have them. Conversely, someone with a normal MRI may be in excruciating pain all the time. Painful inputs such as a past injury that has lingered over several weeks/months/years can cause Central Sensitization, which can then make the brain hyper-sensitive to any other inputs, such as simply touching the area where the injury once occurred.
Research has indicated repeatedly that a person’s negative beliefs, worries, or concerns regarding why they may be in pain can make their pain more intense or longer-lasting. Catastrophizing is a constant worrying about the worst possible outcome and is very common in people with chronic pain. The pain leads to worry and stress, which leads to poor sleep hygiene, which leads to more pain through poor mental and physical recovery, and the cycle continues.
At Empower Physical Therapy, we help set your mind at ease by listening to the beliefs/worries/concerns you have about your pain, acknowledging them as your reality, and educating on the pain experience with terms and/or analogies that you can understand. Sometimes, simply having this conversation and helping a person understand WHY they’re in pain can have drastic positive effects on the severity of their pain by the next session. Having this conversation also helps the patient understand that pain in the future may not actually be due to tissue harm, but possibly due to other factors like stress, lack of sleep, poor nutrition, or outdated beliefs.
Current research confirms that these conversations combined with regular physical therapy treatments and exercise are the best standard of care for breaking the chronic pain cycle and having LONG-LASTING results!
If you’ve been in pain for several months or years and want to break the cycle, give us a call today so we can help you take control of your pain!
