Managing Chronic Pain: How Physiotherapy Can Help
Chronic pain can be incredibly isolating, as Tammy found out. When she was in her mid-30s, she lifted a piece of heavy furniture while moving and strained her back. And then the pain never went away. It was nearly three years before she tried physiotherapy for chronic pain–and finally started to find relief.
Although Tammy could trace her pain to a specific injury, that injury didn’t explain why the pain persisted. A strained back muscle will usually resolve within a few months. In Tammy’s case, her pain lingered long after the injury should have healed. It also spread; some days, it felt like her entire body was hurting.
She struggled to find care. Without an obvious source of her pain, there was no clear course of action. Tammy relied on over-the-counter pain medications, but they didn’t always help, and she found herself withdrawing from friends and family–both because the pain kept her house-bound and because many of her loved ones didn’t understand why she couldn’t just “get over it.”
But then a friend suggested she try physiotherapy. Not only was Tammy’s therapist compassionate about her experience of pain, but he was able to develop a customized program blending manual therapy, gentle exercise, and lifestyle strategies to help her find relief.
Physiotherapy for chronic pain changed Tammy’s life. Although she still struggles with occasional flare-ups, she’s more equipped to manage them and feels as if she was able to get her life back.
Keep reading to learn more about chronic pain, how it differs from typical pain, and how physiotherapy can help. Or, if you’re currently struggling with chronic pain, you can reach out to the physiotherapists at PhysioPlus Health Group to get personalized information.
Understanding Pain: Acute vs. Chronic
Pain is our body’s way of telling us that something’s wrong. Most of us associate it with injury: for example, if you accidentally cut yourself, you’ll experience pain around the wound site until it heals.
But pain is more complicated than that. The pain you experience when you cut yourself or stub your toe is an example of acute pain. Acute pain, by definition, is the first few weeks of healing. Any pain that lingers for longer than three months, which is enough time for most injuries to heal, is considered chronic.
Consider Tammy’s story again. When she initially strained her back, she expected to experience some back pain. After all, she had injured the tissue, and it needed time to heal–which, on average, takes about 4-6 weeks. A severe back injury might take longer, perhaps a couple of months, but would still resolve eventually.
Chronic pain is different. It’s defined as any pain that lasts more than three months, and, as in Tammy’s case, it doesn’t necessarily indicate an underlying injury or condition. Instead, your brain continues to send pain messages to your body even though nothing is technically wrong.
Essentially, your brain goes on high alert, which can also put your nervous system on high alert. The result? A tendency for your body to interpret any sensations as pain, which in turn leads to you feeling as if you’re in constant pain.
That said, some conditions can cause ongoing pain, such as osteoarthritis. But in those situations, the underlying cause is clear, meaning there is a set course of action for management. In true chronic pain, that simply isn’t the case.
Physiotherapy Techniques for Managing Chronic Pain
Physiotherapists have a deep understanding of the body’s musculoskeletal system. We can evaluate your strength, posture, mobility, walking patterns, and more, and we know how to use this information to develop a program that will improve your overall quality of life.
To accomplish this, we’ll pull from several techniques that address specific areas contributing to your pain. We customize every one of our programs to our patients, drawing from the following approaches:
- Patient Education: One of the first things we’ll do is help you understand your chronic pain: why it happens, and what strategies you can use to manage it. We can show you movement modifications and relaxation techniques that will allow you to work toward returning to your day-to-day activities.
- Manual Therapy: This technique is actually a group of techniques: gentle, hands-on approaches to mobilizing and manipulating your joints and soft tissue (muscles, fascia, tendons, and ligaments). They can help reduce pain, improve mobility, and promote blood circulation.
- Biomechanics Instruction: We’ll help you understand how your body moves and can show you how to move it more efficiently, helping minimize your pain experience. You may be unconsciously holding certain postures or engaging in improper walking patterns that contribute to your pain–we’ll help correct them.
- Therapeutic Exercise: It may sound counterintuitive, but prolonged rest can worsen chronic pain. We’ll help you develop a gentle, progressive exercise program that will help you gradually improve strength, coordination, and overall movement.
We realize that the idea of exercise is intimidating for someone with chronic pain. We will always begin at your ability level, increasing the intensity only as you improve. We can also help you find exercises your body may be more willing to tolerate, such as gentle stretches.
Get Started with Physiotherapy for Chronic Pain
You deserve to live a full, active life–to see friends and participate in your favorite activities without suffering. Physiotherapy for chronic pain is one way to achieve that goal.
The team at PhysioPlus Health Group takes a compassionate, holistic approach to physiotherapy and pain management. We see you as a person, not just a set of symptoms, and we can help you find the solutions that work for you.
If you live in Toronto, ON and struggle to find someone to help you manage your pain, request an initial consultation with us today.