Pain is a tricky little thing. It is annoying, irritating and ___(fill in the blank). It can alter your mood, impact your perceptions, and effect what you do. It is quite the beast of nature.
The problem with pain is that it is connected to the brain. It is not just something that sits in your knee or shoulder. The body senses pain and the brain interprets it. Sometimes the brain looks for it. Other times the brain ignores it. We would make the generalization that based on your personality and experiences you your brain will fall in one of these categories.
Are you a "looker" or an "ignorer". Neither is really good to be honest but if we had to choose one that is worse it is the LOOKER. Why?
The LOOKER is looking for the pain. Tuning in to it. Giving it power.
The LOOKER struggles with the idea of pain.
The LOOKER thinks that pain is bad and does everything to keep it away.
The reality is pain is not bad, it is actually a GOOD thing.
(what did they just say? Good?)
Yep we said it...Pain can be GOOD.
Pain is your body's signal to tell you something is wrong.
"Hey dude...don't do that!"
"I can't lift that much weight yet...ouch! "
"My hamstrings are hurting...why are you running so far...we have not done this in a 5 years. Stop!"
Okay we are being facetious but seriously...PAIN is our warning sign. If we ignore it, it will turn into something worse. If we tune in we can figure out why the body does not like a movement.
When we have pain with certain movements or positions we can make corrections to not aggravate something the body does not like. We can do things the body does like and still keep moving.
But what we don't want to do is go LOOKING for the pain. Why?
Pain is a connection from the body to the brain and back. If we go looking for the pain we make that connection stronger. It is like building a strong muscle with repeated work. We don't want the pain connection to be strong. We want it to fade and go away as we build strength in the body.
So the moral of the story is DON'T GO LOOKING FOR YOUR PAIN!
This is one of our mottos at PTSP and it has helped so many of our patients rehabilitate successfully. If you are a LOOKER find ways to replace your fear with faith. Faith that your body will heal. Faith that pain is not the enemy. Faith that you are going to get back to all the things you love to do.
You got this.
We got you.
It is time to STOP LOOKING FOR THE PAIN.
Yours in strength,
Dr. Brown & Dr. P