PAIN CARE

When we think of pain we generally assume there should be some damage or a clear cause for it. For instance, we bump our big toe or cut ourselves, and we feel pain until we’re better. And yet many of us also know how it is to experience relentless aches such as back and neck pain with apparently no single or clear cause. We know that modern sedentary lifestyles at our desks, ‘poor’ posture and high stress can play a role in this but still, these issues remain baffling and hard to manage.

First, we need to understand why we feel pain. Pain is a very sophisticated survival mechanism (aka. protective mechanism) and is how your brain (aka. nervous system) makes you aware that there may be a dangerous situation for your health and thus you need to protect yourself. In fact, when we feel pain, we assume that something’s damaged or wrong with our body: that’s normal, right and usually good for your health.

It can be helpful to think of pain as an ‘alarm system’. The alarm (i.e. pain) is set off by your brain when it thinks it needs to protect you. In order for this to happen, the brain carries out a careful judgement based on a variety of signals deemed as ‘dangerous’. For example, damage in the body, prolonged tension in muscles, stress levels, overall health, current emotions and moods, a triggering situation, resurfacing traumatic memories and so on. If these signals are enough to reach a certain threshold, the alarm is set off and will continue ringing until the ‘danger’ has passed and safety is restored. This video illustrates this concept well.



What is chronic pain?

So, bodily damage is not an essential condition for it to be pain. When have a chronic pain such as back and neck pain, we may feel muscle tightness and weakness and our posture may not be great, but these are only a part of the ‘bigger picture’ explaining why we’re in pain. Indeed, the science of pain teaches us that chronic pain - pain that’s present for more than 3 months - isn’t just an issue of the body (i.e. joints, muscles, bones etc) but a more complex issue also involving our stress system, psychology, emotions, lifestyle and more. That’s what makes your back and neck pain so hard to manage.

Returning to the analogy of the alarm system, you can think of chronic pain as a hyperactivity of your alarm system, where the alarm sets off even in the absence of real physical danger. In other words, the alarm’s threshold is lowered, and it will set-off (causing pain) even with activities that shouldn’t normally hurt. That’s why, for instance, sitting at a desk, lifting small weights or even just lying down can hurt. Moreover, when the alarm is so sensitive, even challenging emotions and stressful situations can be enough to trigger it.


Strategies to help this:

  • Adopt a variety of postures throughout your work day

  • Use a standing desk

  • Take as many movement breaks as you can throughout the day

  • Practice daily mindfulness to manage stress, negative moods and emotions

  • Separate home and work spaces

  • Understand what factors make you more sensitive to pain and try to minimise their impact

  • Get a treatment to deal with the inevitable tensions and restrictions of sedentary lifestyle and to better understand, and manage, your pain

At OM, we are dedicated to and experienced in treating all types of pain, from acute injuries to persistent chronic pain. With our expertise and patient-centred approach, we helped many patients understand and manage their pain and supported them in regaining better quality of life. If you’re unsure where to start your pain relief journey, get in touch with us or book in with one of our osteopaths and we will guide you from there.