Pain is a topic of extreme personal interest for me. Traditionally in medicine our view of pain was linked to damage. This is something that we now know to be completely untrue. Pain is an extremely complicated concept but our modern view is that pain is an inherently protective response.
Pain can be accurately described as an alarm system in response to perceived threat. This means anything that your body thinks may be dangerous to your well-being can trigger your pain alarm; this can be related to physical change but it definitely doesn't have to be.
Initially following an injury or a physical trigger your body's internal alarm system becomes hyper-sensitive - "SOUND THE ALARM!" "EVERYONE PAY ATTENTION."
Muscles can become weaker / tighter
Movement can become uncomfortable
You can feel apprehensive / fearful of movement.
You may even move differently - you may limp, hold yourself stiff etc.
These responses are all very normal and are all protective in origin.
Then the body starts to heal if necessary and theoretically as you heal, your alarm system calms back down again. But in reality we can often stay sensitive / protective when this is no longer necessary. So although initially protective, pain has the potential to become quite an unhelpful response.
This is very common. As a general rule of thumb, pain that is felt for longer than 6 months after an injury is no longer likely to be linked to structural change, but is more likely to be linked to your protective alarm system staying hyper-sensitive out of habit.
This is a very simplified view. (It's written by me so it must be!) There's still so much we don't fully understand. But the concept of hyper-sensitivity fills me with optimism for people who suffer with ongoing pain. If your body has learned to become over sensitive - it can learn to become less sensitive again.
Link this to the concept of adaptability discussed in my previous blog. If you want to become less sensitive - you must ask your body to become less sensitive!
This isn't as simple as addressing something as specific as strength - do strengthening exercises and your strength will improve. With pain it's a bit more complex, but it's just as achievable.
So many of the people I meet who are in pain have at one time or another considered that this may be as good as it gets for them. They 'learn' to live with pain and accept is as normal. This thought process is something I love to challenge! Your body can change if you ask it to!
Movement is a powerful influence on pain - if you can get your body moving, even at a low intensity, but without spiking your pain & on a regular basis, you can teach your nervous system to become less sensitive.
Pain is also linked to context and emotions. How we rationalise or interpret our symptoms can hugely influence our progress. If we interpret pain as damaging we will inevitably move less, become weaker, de-conditioned and potentially even more sensitive.
HOWEVER
If you can rationalise your pain as over-sensitive and not linked to structural damage, you can feel confident getting going again!
Overcoming pain is very personal. There is no FIX! If you feel the need to ask for help or guidance this should be collaborative with you being the most important piece of the puzzle. Find a clinician who you trust and work together to make things easier in the future.
As always, ask if you have questions.