National Pain Week
National Pain Week is Australia’s annual awareness event for chronic pain. National Pain Week takes place in the last week of July each year and aims to support and provide awareness to the 3.6 million Australian’s living with chronic pain.
This week Griffith Inclusive Futures: Reimagining Disability, together with The Hopkins Centre has teamed up with Dr Nicholas Aitcheson, Rehabilitation and Pain Specialist, at Metro South Pain Rehabilitation Centre to raise awareness, further explain acute and chronic pain, how the body feels pain, current treatment options and lifestyle solutions.
Keep an eye out each day this week, as we share information, tips and tricks that can help you can create a new life path with pain and why you should do it.
Acute pain vs chronic pain
Picture a child with a band-aid vs a person with pills and injections and ongoing pain.
Our upbringing often tells us that pain is associated with body damage and that we need to rest and get other people’s help to fix it. This works for acute pain, but in chronic pain we need to take control of our own lives, actively work on changing our bodies and minds and find new ways of existing, instead of trying to return to a life that we miss and are nostalgic about.
Relying on rest leads to deconditioning, isolation and weakness. Relying on other people can lead to dynamics of disempowerment. Similarly, relying on medications and surgery leads to reliance on interventions that promise only temporary relief and can have serious side effects.
Check with your health professional that you are safe to proceed (most people with chronic pain are sore but stable and are safe to move). Then gently and progressively start to actively create a new life for yourself.
The graphic below shows the difference between Acute and Chronic pain.
Chronic pain is like a malfunctioning, overly sensitive alarm system.
In acute pain our alarm system is working well. If there is body damage or the potential for damage, then we feel it and do something about it.
In chronic pain the alarm system reacts too strongly with only very small input. It is like a smoke alarm going off when you are cooking toast or a car alarm going off when it rains. The alarm does not accurately represent the threat to the body. Often in chronic pain, the body is stable and safe, but the alarm system is still going.
The brain drives the pain
Pain is felt in the brain. What we are starting to understand is that our mood and the way we think about pain affects the strength of the pain signal that reaches our brain. If we are really worried about the meaning of the pain, then the pain tends to be worse. If you can successfully change your thinking around pain, then you can “decrease the volume” on the pain signal by affecting the pain signal transmission in the spinal cord and brain.
Here are some thoughts that may be unhelpful and some ways to address them:
My body is broken. It wouldn’t be so painful unless there was something seriously wrong.
Pain can exist without damage. Amount of pain does not reflect amount of damage. Think “sore but safe”, “hurt not harm”
This pain means I’m never going to be able to do anything I enjoy again.
Think of the things you can enjoy now even with your current condition. Enjoy those things and gently find ways to expand the things you enjoy.
My back is so sore that I’ll probably be in a wheelchair soon.
Pain is often not indicative of damage, especially not the kind of nerve damage that leads to paralysis.
I might not be able to work for much longer because of this pain and then I won’t be able to support myself or my family.
These are reasonable thoughts to have, however worrying about them can make pain worse. Trying to address unhelpful, repetitive thoughts can help with your pain.
I need to protect my body. That’s why I keep my muscles so tense.
Muscle tension in itself usually leads to worsening of chronic pain. Gentle relaxation and movement is much more beneficial.
Low mood, anxiety, excessive worry, poor sleep all increase pain as well, so dealing with these tends to improve pain.
Movement as a way to teach the brain
Sometimes our brain is unable to realise that our body is not broken and it needs the body to lead the way.
Slowly progressing activity with a relaxed and attentive attitude can help the brain to learn how the body is able to move in relaxed and less guarded ways. Tai chi, Feldenkrais, gentle yoga and qigong are all movement practices that can help in this way. Pacing yourself and slowly increasing your activity (rather than trying to go too hard too soon) can help with this approach.
Find out more by reading the Pain Revolution fact sheets:
https://www.painrevolution.org/factsheets
For more information, contact:
Dr Nicholas Aitcheson
Rehabilitation and Pain Specialist
Metro South Pain Rehabilitation Centre
Nicholas.aitcheson@health.qld.gov.au
Thank you for your contribution!
Help us reach out to more people in the community
Share this with family and friends