If it hurts, you know you have pain. This might seem obvious, but I just want to be clear. It’s important to clarify that your pain is real and unique to you. But, for one in five people, pain will continue for most days – and has been that way for over three months. This is chronic pain.
Chronic pain symptoms can leave you feeling tired or grumpy with your family and friends. It can affect your work and ability to do basic day-to-day tasks. Often, you withdraw from social events. When you feel like this, it’s difficult to stay motivated and connect with the world. It’s like you’ve become a different version of yourself. This process is often gradual and can be difficult to name what exactly started it.
I have mentioned already that one in five people live with chronic pain. Pain that has been there on most days for over three months. Despite it being commonplace, many people accept their aches and pains as part of everyday life–and are not getting any treatment for them (besides medication which treats the symptoms)
Interestingly, there are links between anxiety and depression in those experiencing chronic pain. In fact, 44.6% of people will have symptoms of anxiety and depression when living with long-term / chronic pain. I think this isn’t surprising when you consider how the ongoing nature of pain will wear you down if left unmanaged.
It’s important to identify the problem first and find out if you have ‘persistent pain’, which we might also call chronic or long-term pain. It’s important to get yourself checked out and then then consider the possibilities of how to manage your pain. I would expect that, by the time you are reading this, you have visited your doctor and have been received a diagnosis for your chronic pain.
I will talk about managing this type of pain in a future post. But, for now I’d like you to consider whether you think you have persistent pain, the ways it has affected you and how you manage it.
