Living with the chronic pain Many people would have heard of this adage but not all of them would have understood its full significance. For many, pain is something which is associated with an injury and once the injury heals the pain goes away. In terms of chronic pain, the situation is far from the truth. It is a condition where more of the pain continues unabated even after the injury goes away. They can stretch for long durations and in some cases even last for months. It can affect any part of the body and is usually associated with muscle damage. The pain can severely curtail your daily movements and activities. Chronic pain, in many cases can lead to other medical conditions like depression and feeling of helplessness.
How can it be diagnosed?
In most of the cases, the chronic pain can be determined by the physician only with the help of the patient. There is no fool-proof way of identifying such a condition and the doctors usually channel their focus on the areas where the pain continues to occur. A pain can termed as a chronic one if the symptoms does not go away even after 12 weeks. Some of the common types of chronic pain can include headache, post-surgical pain, post-trauma pain, lower back pain and nerve pains. Arthritis pain can also be categorized as chronic pains as they usually last for longer periods of time.
What are the risk factors?
The major causes apart from injury can be due to years of poor posture, improper lifting of heavy objects, wearing heels, aging of the spine and traumatic injury. In some cases a disease can be an underlying factor for such chronic pain.
How can it be treated?
There is no one stop method for treating chronic pain. In many cases the treatment has to be specifically tailored to meet the person’s need. First, the reason for the pain is identified. Then the treatment plan is charted out to first take care of the underling condition and then focuses on the actual pain. The treatment plan will also involve a combination of other therapies such as physiotherapy, acupuncture, yoga, and meditation. Doctors also recommend counseling sessions to help out people to carry on their daily activities with the reduced pain. Also, in many cases a chronic pain can never be completely cured. It can be minimized to an extent so that the person is able to carry on his/her duties. Apart from the treatment make sure that you adhere to the lifestyle changes and the changes in your diet.