Your Strategy Guide to Back Pain
by Dr. Jesse Riley
The Road Map
Low back pain, or back pain of any kind for that matter, can be a very scary experience. When we have pain that is debilitating or lingering for many days, weeks, or months – it takes a lot within us to carry on with normal tasks and responsibilities. And being in the greater Denver, Colorado area – we all have some level of activity or hobby we have to get back to.
When low back pain becomes limiting enough, this interferes with your identity as well. Many of us take on roles like partner, caretaker, and many others depending on our social circle. This limiting behavior takes away from everyday activities and functions that make us feel more like ourselves which has its own effects on our psyche.
You should be aware that low back pain, as scary and personal it seems to you now, is actually something that many people experience in their life.
- 80% of people have experienced low back pain or back pain at some point in their lives
- 50% of people say they have had back pain in the past year
- 85% of therapists actually experience back pain as well
Hopefully, these stats help settle the nerves a bit more in knowing, you’re not alone. In fact, you’re amongst good company and you will get better and recover with a good plan and some proper education.
Keys to Recovery
What Hurts? What Feels Okay? What Does That Mean?
We often overcomplicate pain to a point where we feel hopeless and just “stand still”. Pain can be outsmarted by you if we just slow down and listen to what our body and mind are telling us. When in acute pain, we get anxious and therefore time is sped up so we have a natural tendency to miss the signs our body is telling us. When in chronic pain, our anxiety turns to more hopelessness and we inevitably stop paying attention all together. Stick to these three as a general foundation to get things back on track. It all sounds easy in theory but we MUST commit to slowing things down and using our scientific theory of trial and error. The last part you read correctly. There will be some error involved as we can’t expect you to get this right initially but with gaining more clues, we get closer and closer to our solution.