As part of a series discussing back pain, we’ll be following the story of John.
Meet John
“John” finds that he feels especially stiff in the morning, and that he loosens up during the daytime. By the time he clocks off from work at 6pm, he’s got a backache. He can’t wait to sit down and rest.
Unfortunately for John, he’s got back pain. Which brings up an important question.
What is back pain?
More importantly, what is pain?
A Brief Explanation
There are many types of pain that people experience in a lifetime. We get a headache after a stressful meeting. Our back spasms carrying the newborn bub. We lose a loved one. These are ALL painful experiences. Some of these examples come from bodily harm, and some from emotional harm, however all of these examples would be described as painful.
Pain is an experience we feel when something is either injured, OR at risk of injury - it’s our body’s way of telling us about threat to us, and where it might be.
If we look at the examples mentioned above;
A stressful meeting doesn’t physically change affect the structures of our head or neck, however we can experience pain (as a headache) from the mental stresses involved.
Picking up the newborn certainly required effort on the body, however it doesn’t necessarily cause damage (i.e. muscular or spinal) to our body, however we can experience significant pain.
Losing a loved one doesn’t cause any physical harm to us, however the grief and emotional trauma we feel can be felt in many ways, such as pain.
So back the story of John - what does this mean for him? Whether it's stresses at home or heavy duties at work, it means that his back pain can be affected by a whole number of things - All these things can make his back pain better, or worse.
For more helpful information, feel free to watch the following YouTube video linked - How does your brain respond to pain? - Karen D. Davis. The videos really helps people to break down how many factors can affect our pain, particularly when it comes to "chronic" or "persistent" pain.
If you're got ongoing aches and pains that you would like help with, make sure to contact us on (03) 5872 2221 and we'll be happy to make a time where one of our friendly physios will chat to you to discuss what you can do to solve the problem for good! 😊
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