“Oh, nothing is wrong with your body, it’s only in your mind. Don’t keep on complaining about pain all the time!”
Have you heard such sentences? Or have you used such sentences?
Whether it’s headache, backache, or body ache, it is difficult to express how intense the pain is. And it is equally difficult for an opposite person to understand what the person is going through.
Constant/nagging pain affects the mind. It can hamper daily routine. It can also impact their social life and simultaneously increases the risk of diseases like depression, anxiety etc.
Let’s understand a bit more about pain.
We experience pain from minor injuries such as a cut, bleeding, or even a broken bone. As the time progresses, body starts healing. Pain starts reducing simultaneously and at some point, pain totally goes away.
But even if after taking proper medication and treatment, if pain persists for more than 3 months, it’s called chronic pain. In some individuals it flares up from time to time while in others the pain is constant and felt throughout the day. Persistent neck pain, backache, arthritis or joint pain, body ache, or pain due to a tumor, etc. are examples of chronic pain.
What can we do to make it better?
1) Movement: In pain, we avoid movement. Our mind plays a major role behind this. We believe that we are unable to move due to intense pain. We also fear pain will increase with movement, which is not true in all situations. In fact, reduced movement will make body stiff and can delay recovery.
Movement/exercise is essential in recovery from chronic pain. First step is to start exercise or to start moving body slowly. Even walking for 10 minutes can benefit you in a great way. Duration, intensity can be decided as per your current condition and exercising regularly will help you recover out of chronic pain for sure. If pain is intense, help of physiotherapist can be taken.
2) Breathing: When in pain, our breathing becomes rapid and shallow. Remember to take slow and deep breaths during the day. Breathing slowly & deeply while exercising has shown good results. It will help with better blood circulation, and you will be able to do intense exercises with ease. Add activities like breathing exercises, meditation, yoga in your daily routine.
3) Music: Play songs while exercising. Motivating words and fast tunes will work like an energy booster. You will enjoy your exercise routine. In addition, it will help you exercise for a longer time and show faster results.
4) Diet: Emphasis on consuming anti-inflammatory diet. Oats, brown rice, barley, quinoa, buckwheat, whole wheat, all kind of lentils & legumes especially sprouts, beans, walnut, almond, sunflower & flaxseeds, dark colored fruits, tomato, spinach, capsicum, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, cucumber, and all kinds of green vegetables can be eaten in abundance.
Green tea, herbal tea also has anti-inflammatory properties. Dark chocolate having 70% or more cocoa can be consumed.
5) Avoid inflammatory diet: Junk, fried & processed food, food made with refined flour i.e.white bread, cereals, pasta, cake, pastries etc are inflammatory food. Avoid anti-inflammatory food at all costs. Similarly, sugar also increases inflammation. For recovery from chronic pain, consumption of sugar should be minimal.
To recover from chronic pain, biggest help one gets from their own mind. It is important to keep a firm mind. Beginning at a slow pace is ok but remember to make it better every day. And when we talk about recovery from chronic pain, treat is like a marathon and not a sprint.
Thank you.