Understanding Pain

Pain is a normal part of everyday life. However, when pain becomes persistent or chronic, it begins to negatively impact other parts of our life. Often, pain is good because it serves as a warning signal in the presence of damage or a threat, but sometimes pain can become maladaptive and it no longer serves as a warning sign. Then, normal everyday activities that are non-threatening become painful. This creates a vicious cycle.

What is chronic pain?

Chronic pain is pain that is persistent, lasting more than 3 months. Sometimes chronic pain occurs without a typical tissue injury or sometimes it occurs despite normal tissue healing. This begs the question, Why Do I Hurt?

  • Pain does NOT equal tissue damage

  • Your brain decides when you feel pain. Pain occurs when the brain decides that the amount of credible evidence supporting threat is greater than the amount of credible evidence supporting safety. However, this is merely the brain's best guess based on the its inputs. And sometimes the brain is wrong - like an optical illusion.

  • This means that many things other than tissue (bone, tendon, muscle) can contribute to pain, such as:

    • circumstances surrounding your pain or injury

    • other life stressors

    • oversensitive nervous system

    • diet (including hydration)

    • sleep status/quality

So, What Do I Do About It?

  • Understanding pain is the first step

  • Identify strategies to manage your stress

  • Adopt a growth mindset

  • Ensure you are fueling your body with good nutrition

  • Take it one day at a time and gradually ease back into physical activity. Use the Activity Traffic Light below to guide you on your journey back to activity and identify when it's safe to move forward and when you should slow down.

  • To learn more, call 337-718-2913 to attend our interdisciplinary Chronic Pain Workshop!

The Role of Imaging in Pain and Injury Management

Imaging is often not necessary in early management of many musculoskeletal injuries, especially low back pain. Often, individuals without pain have significant MRI findings, while others have pain, but their imaging studies show nothing. Remember: MRIs are NOT pain scans. They simply show anatomy.

Your Physical Therapists are well-trained in when to order imaging to best manage your pain and/or injury.

Tame the Beast

  • Understand how to understand and rethink persistent pain

Lorimer Mosely TED Talk: Why Things Hurt

  • an entertaining look at pain and how the surrounding circumstances affect pain

Understanding Pain (in under 5 minutes!)

  • A quick rundown of how your body processes pain