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However, it gets frustrating when it becomes persistent and refuses to go away.

What is chronic pain?
Chronic pain persists or progresses for an extended period (usually three months or more), generally resulting from a previous injury or related to a health condition.

Back pain, neck pain, knee pain, nerve pain, arthritis, and sciatica are typical examples.
The body sometimes uses pain to inform you of something going wrong, alerting you to take the appropriate action to prevent further damage.

For instance, let's take touching a hot object; the pain felt naturally forces you to pull your hand away to avoid potential burns.

As such, you should not ignore pain (especially when chronic), as this may result in more tissue damage. Unfortunately, many people live with the pain or resort to painkillers and only become alarmed when it affects their movement and function.

Painkillers should be used temporarily for pain relief and not as a permanent solution.

When you have chronic pain, you are most likely to avoid specific movements that trigger the pain. Preventing movement of your joints can lead to muscle weakness and joint stiffness, worsening your symptoms.

How does physiotherapy help?
Your physiotherapist will be more interested in finding out the source of pain and not just the pain relief. For this reason, recommending painkillers or any medications that numb your pain will not be the focus of your treatment.

A treatment that focuses on the source of the pain will minimise the occurrence, severity or completely take the pain away.

Before treatment, your physiotherapist will conduct a thorough assessment to identify the source and cause of pain. A treatment plan specifically tailored to your problem and symptoms is then made based on your assessment results.

Your treatment may include interventions such as joint mobilisations, stretches, electrical stimulation, heat therapy, therapeutic exercises, postural changes or modifications and most importantly, advice on self-managing the situation.

These are not only helpful in dealing with the pain, but they also improve your general well-being.

Chronic pain can reduce your quality of life and affect how you perform daily activities or tasks at home and work. If not managed properly, it could worsen over time and negatively impact your functional ability.

You don't have to live with pain. Talk to a physiotherapist today if you have or know anyone with chronic pain.

physiotoday18@gmail.com