Pain, Chronic Pain, Fibromyalgia, and More… Gaining A Little Better Understanding Of Pain

Bear With Me For A Moment As I Explain A Few Basic Important Concepts To Better Understand Pain.

Let’s look at the big question…

What Is Pain?

Pain Is A Perception That Happens In Our Brains.

The feeling occurs in the brain. This is an important concept in order to understand pain because pain is not always felt where the problem is in our bodies.

Pain is used to describe an unpleasant sensation that occurs within a person that is often reported as an unpleasant experience in a particular part of the body.

Pain, in general, has two components.

1. The localization of pain.

Where is the pain in the body as interpreted by the brain.

This is a little tricky because some parts of the body do not have as accurate ‘mapping’ as other parts.

Where we feel pain may not be where there is a problem.

2. The unpleasant emotional component of pain.

This unpleasant sensation, the hurting, is due to activation of a different area of the brain.

We’re all wired a little differently, so we all experience pain differently.

We have different pain tolerances based on so many factors.

We have different ability to ‘turn off’ pain signals.

We previously talked about how we can turn off pain signals with certain movements and treatments.

Pain is individualized. It’s different in each of us because of our ‘wiring‘ and other factors.

The fact that one person feels more than the next with seemingly very similar type injuries or health problems for example does NOT mean that one person is weaker.

Many factors control how much pain we experience, even in people with the same or similar problems.

Acute Pain

Acute pain is recent onset pain.

This is generally the easiest type of pain to treat.

Still many factors may lead to longer recovery.

All attempts should be to prevent the development of chronic pain because chronic pain becomes a bigger problem.

Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is generally identified as pain that lasts 3 months or more.

In general, the longer it lasts the ‘stronger‘ the pain system gets.

This can make the pain disproportional to the local problem where the person feels the pain while also making it more likely the pain system in the area will be activated more easily with another trauma.

Often chronic pain might begin after a trauma like a car accident, a sports injury, or a work injury doesn’t heal properly. The most common injuries include the shoulders, neck, low back, and pelvis / ‘hips.’

The majority of chronic pain starts as a musculoskeletal injury.

This is why it’s important to get the right treatment to heal when injured.

Let’s just briefly talk about another type of pain, central pain, using Fibromyalgia as an example.

Fibromyalgia Pain

For example, many people with fibromyalgia have widespread pain that is not matched to the problem in the area where it is felt.

Fibromyalgia is a central, brain based pain syndrome.

Fibromyalgia sufferers often feel very severe levels of pain that their friends, family, and even many doctors don’t understand.

It’s because of this central phenomena that is happening within the fibromyalgia sufferer.

This post has been an attempt to start to explain the very complex problem of pain as simply as possible.

The Truth Is That If You Suffer From Pain In Texarkana, It’s Very Likely You Can Be Helped With The Right Approach.

Generally all types of pain can be helped, often we’re able to help improve or eliminate the pain without the use of medications at Hagebusch Chiropractic… in some cases, the solution is in combination with medical prescriptions.

Many times, the use of pain medications becomes unnecessary as the person gets better with the right Chiropractic Care.