WHAT IS CHRONIC PAIN?

Chronic pain means that the pain has remained after the acute phase has healed, or should have healed. A chronic pain condition means that instead of the body sending a message to the brain about injury, message on its own and sending it to the body. Once pain messages are generated and sent to the body, the pain itself begins to change the nervous system, hormonal system, in fact, every system in the body. Furthermore, in a chronic pain condition the same nerves that carry the physical pain message also carry the psychic pain messages of anger, depression, anxiety. For treatment to be effective both psychic and physical must be addressed.

It is common for people to experience both chronic pain and acute pain at the same time. Conditions such as arthritis, autoimmune disease, and back injuries are all examples of both acute and chronic pain in one person. Many doctors only treat the acute pain, which is the easiest to treat, and leave the chronic pain. This is dangerous and contraproductive because it is the chronic pain that causes the changes in the body.

When pain has changed your life, the only way to survive is to make lifestyle changes that can fight that pain. By learning all you can, making permanent changes with those therapies that you find that do help and keeping the best attitude possible one can still win the battle over pain.

Remember, chronic pain is not just pain that lasts too long. It is a separate condition that is complicated, has a mind of its own and wants to destroy you. Fight back, your life is at stake.

Support Groups are part of that fighting back. They share information, clue you to new advances, give you the benefit of their experience and coping solutions that have worked for them. But more importantly, they UNDERSTAND, understand as no one else can. The rest of the world loses patience, some brief sympathy, but then you are expected to "put it behind you", "tough it out", "get on with life". Only those who share the experience can know the insidious sapping of strength and will-power.