Understanding Chronic Pain is the First Step Toward Feeling Better

Have you had headaches, stomach pain, back pain, or any other pains that have stuck around for at least 3 months? You, my friend, have chronic pain.

What is Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is a term used to describe any pain that we experience for at least 3 months. It's a broad category that includes pains across the board, like headache, migraine, back pain, muscle pain, stomach pain, joint pain, leg/arm pain, and the list goes on. Around 20% of adults and up to 30% of children and teens are experiencing chronic pain right now.

Why do I have Chronic Pain?

1) Sometimes chronic pain develops after an injury/illness/medical procedure.

Example: you were supposed to be fully covered from a surgery months ago but you're continuing to experience terrible pain.

2) Sometimes chronic pain is related to a medical condition:

Examples: ehlers-danlos, cancer-related pain, IBS, crohn's, concussion

3) Many times, there is no specific reason that we start to experience chronic pain

Example: some part of your body begins to start hurting seemingly out of nowhere and it won't stop

Here's a look at the most common causes of chronic pain among children:

How does Pain Work?

Have you ever woken up at 2am to the sound of a car alarm going off endlessly. Is anyone actually trying to break in to that car--of course not. The car alarm wiring must be buggy and oversensitive. Or, have you ever had a smoke detector go off in your home randomly? There's clearly no fire but your alarm goes off until you climb up on a chair and turn it off. Maybe the alarm is overly sensitive or running low on batteries. Moral of the story: sometimes alarms go off when we don't need them to.

Enter chronic pain. Pain is an alarm system in our bodies. The intention of pain is actually meant to be a really helpful. If I fall and hurt my ankle, pain helps me know that something is clearly wrong. It alerts me to the fact that I need to get medical help and I should stay off of it so that I don't further injure myself. Thanks pain!

However, for some people (researchers are working hard to better understand neurobiological vulnerabilities), once the pain alarm system gets triggered, it doesn't like to turn off. In fact, the longer we experience pain, the more our pain system is activated, and the more pain we have. Cue the endless cycle.

What do I do now?

The good news is that by reading this post you have already taken an important step to feeling better. The research shows that simply learning about the science of pain already begins the process of reprogramming our pain response system.

There are a lot of good treatments to help children and adults with chronic pain. The best approach is usually through a collaboration with your doctors. Reach out to Bluebird Child & Family Psychology at info@bluebirdcfp.com to connect with a chronic pain specialist today. We can help you take the science-proven steps to feel better.