Pain does not always equal injury

Did you know that pain does not always equal tissue damage? Read that again, when you have a pain, it doesn’t always mean you have hurt yourself. Most people really struggle to believe this concept. Shifting the mindset from pain = damage can be life changing.

Our body has an amazing capacity to heal itself.

• Muscles heal in 3-6 weeks

• Bones in 6-8 weeks

• Ligaments, tendons and discs 12-18 months

Pain outside of these normal healing times is likely not caused by damage to your tissues. It is likely caused by your pain system becoming hypersensitive, or malfunctioning. Similar to a smoke alarm going off when there is no fire. Smoke alarms are designed to be over sensitive, as a result they can go off when there is no fire, just burnt toast. Another cause of this type of non-specific pain or chronic pain is low resilience to stress. If you think of a cup as your capacity to tolerate stress. Each time you pour a little stress into the cup it fills up. If you continue to poor stressors into the cup to the point where it overflows, the overflow is pain.

Some of the stressors that contribute to and increase your pain system hypersensitivity are:

• Work stress

• Family stress

• Lack of social connections

• Believing you’ll never get better

• Obsessing over your pain

Some healthy behaviours that can help to turn down your pain system:

• Exercise

• Healthy diet

• Time spent outdoors

• Good quality sleep

• Relaxing and having fun

Watch this video to learn more: “Understanding pain in less than 5 minutes, and what to do about it!”