When acute pain occurs it is often in response to a trauma or event that has occurred to the body.
You might have cut yourself, sprained an ankle or strained your back; and an alarm bell has gone in the Nervous System to tell us that damage has occurred.
This information is helpful because it is telling us that we are momentarily in danger and we need to change something.
We might want to drop the knife, stop walking or stop lifting that heavy box as quickly as possible to prevent more harm.
Then the body goes through it’s stages of healing and the time it will take depends on the injury or trauma that has been experienced.
The sensations of pain should fade. But sometimes pain persists and becomes Chronic.
Pain is now being created in “anticipation” of more harm occurring.
And it is this Protective Sensitivity that can cause problems to go on and on for years, even decades.
- You might now experience Knee Pain every time you run or play football.
- You might get a bad Back every time you consider clearing out the garage.
- You might even start to pick up issues in other areas of the body more easily. Or find yourself feeling a bit more tired or lethargic, a bit less inclined to get out and train or go for a walk.
The Protective Sensitivity is now behaving a bit like a faulty burglar alarm.
Imagine your house has been burgled and your alarm goes off but all of your belongings have been taken. As you recover and you refurnish your home, your alarm sensors are now a bit over sensitive and the alarm keeps going off every time you walk around. It’s become over sensitive because it definitely doesn’t want you to get burgled again.
Of course, this can’t happen with a burglar alarm. But it can with your body.
This is one theory of what happens with Chronic Pain. Your body’s threshold for dealing with threats starts to lower and you learn behaviours of checking for problems.
It can start to dominate your life.
At Adfitness Body Mechanic our strategy for Chronic Pain & Reoccurring Injury is to address this on all fronts.
- We identify & address Movement Issues
- Regress Movement to a level that feels safe to you
- Ensure the body has the metabolic capacity to facilitate change
- Reduce Ascending Sensory Information
- Educate you about what is happening, what we are doing and why
- Create Behaviour Changes that allow you to feel safe at the task you wish to get back to
The goal is to treat the whole package in a way that makes you feel understood, supported and confident to get back to your way of life.
If you would like to discuss any issues you may be having or would like to learn more about the way I work, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
https://www.adfitness.biz/contact-us/?stage=Stage