Understanding Pain: The Emotional and Physical Puzzle

At Strive Performance and Mobility, we understand pain is complicated. There are entire professions dedicated to understanding it, treating it, and trying to prevent it. It is why the vast majority of healthcare even exists, and why TRILLIONS of dollars are spent on healthcare services each year in the U.S. We are all taught about pain from a young age: If you get injured, then it will hurt. And if you’re in pain, then there must be an injury… right? 

Not so fast! This outdated way of thinking about pain still lingers on today as “common knowledge”, and yet there’s an entire piece of the pain puzzle most people aren’t aware of. Here are some thought provoking questions to consider before we dive deeper into this:

• Why can injuries that have had months or years to heal lead to chronic pain? 

• Why doesn’t everyone experience pain the same way, even for identical injuries? 

• Why do some people have a “high tolerance to pain” while others struggle to deal with minor injuries? 

So what gives?

The answer: The psychological aspect of pain. 

This is an incredibly complex topic that entire books are written about. Without getting into the weeds, there are a couple key concepts people should understand. 

1) Perception and interpretation: 

How you personally perceive pain can have a substantial impact on how it presents. Some people interpret pain as danger, leading to fear, anxiety, and stress. Others see it as a sign something needs to change, leading to a more active approach. How you interpret and respond to pain can either increase or decrease the pain. 

2) Attention and focus: 

If you are currently experiencing pain, staying active or engaging socially with others can decrease your pain as your attention is focused elsewhere. If you are sitting at home with nothing to keep you busy, focusing on that pain can amplify it tremendously. 

3) Memory and past experiences: 

This relates somewhat to the first point. If you have experienced significant pain in the past, this can impact your perception of pain. This is where chronic pain can stem from. If you associate a certain movement or activity with pain you previously experienced doing those same things, pain can present itself even without physical injury. 

4) Expectations and beliefs: 

Last but certainly not least is your expectations about improvement. If you don’t believe it will improve or that physical therapy will help, you are much less likely to see relief. Positive thoughts can actually lead to noticeably better outcomes!

One last piece of information I want to leave you with deals with stress. Your body doesn’t do a good job of differentiating between types of stress. Physical stress is different from emotional, financial, and job-related stress. This all falls under the same umbrella term of stress, which can accumulate quickly if not taken care of. This is also where chronic stress can stem from, as people may not physically be injured anymore but the body is incredibly stressed out from other factors that aren’t being addressed. 

If you are dealing with chronic pain, we are here to help. Physical therapists are experts in managing pain and can help empower you in times of need. We can help reduce the fear of movement and reinjury with an individualized rehabilitation program to get you moving better. 

You can schedule an evaluation with a Doctor of Physical Therapy here. Strive Performance offers excellent physical therapy services in West Ashley for anyone who is active and needs guidance with returning to full capacity!