Chronic Pain

Pain, while unpleasant, is a key survival tool. The flash of pain felt when touching a hot flame for instance signals us to move our hand in a hurry, and to learn to avoid the same mistake in the future. Pain can also act to let us know when we are injured, when we need to rest, and when we need to seek treatment.

The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage”. This definition supports current understandings of pain, in which biomedical, social, psychological, emotional and spiritual factors can all have an influence on the experience of pain.

However, while an acute experience of pain is temporary and subsides as the injury or trauma heals, in some cases pain may persist long after the usual time of healing or develop without any apparent injury or illness. This is known as chronic pain and persists for longer than the usual healing time. Sufferers experience varying levels of intensity and frequency of discomfort, location and type of pain felt. There are a number of recognised chronic pain conditions including;

• Arthritis
• Chronic lower back pain
• Cancer pain
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome 
• Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
• Restless Leg Syndrome
• Myofascial pain
• Fibromyalgia
• Phantom Limb Pain
• Chronic headaches/migraines
• Lupus

There are many more conditions which cause experience of chronic pain – either as a side effect of specific unavoidable treatments, such as chemotherapy; or as a result of physical disabilities which cause compensation through the rest of the body, like Polio.  Pain is often a disregarded side effect, seen as unavoidable and as something that can only be tolerated. However, there are many ways to alleviate Chronic Pain, and methods which you can use to ease specific painful areas or ‘reset’ the nervous system so the hypersensitivity to pain is lessened.