Any pain lasting more than 3 months is considered chronic. With chronic pain, comes many complications – poor sleep, irritability, fatigue, poor concentration, and often a feeling that nothing can be done. The higher the level of pain, the more stress on the body and mind. The pain causes stress and the stress affects the alarm center of the brain.

If the alarm is overworked, it breaks down. It no longer is able to correctly pick up messages. Even the smallest amount of pain/discomfort can set it off. The higher your alarm, the less likely you can manage a self-management program the usual way. 

Please go to this link, Persistent Stress Disorder of Chronic Pain, and take the score. 

Chronic pain can improve, sometimes even go away, but healing can be slow in the beginning and difficult. The longer you persevere, the more likely your pain will improve. Sometimes believing something will work when it takes a long time to see results is even harder.

Pain switches on the brain’s alarm system – the limbic system. The limbic system causes changes in your body that increases pain. The way forward is to send information to the alarm system that you are not in danger. This will help lower inflammation and change the nervous system. Eventually.

Step 2 is the most important step. Master it, and you will lower inflammation and activate the parasympathetic nervous system which restores the body and muscles to calm.

The body needs to move. A body stuck in pain hurts with movement. Start with gentle stretches for short periods at a time – a few minutes every hour until the Fascia becomes less stuck.

Have a look at this link, if you have been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia.

If you have back pain almost all day long, do the fascia stretch written in blue above the sloppy push exercise. When the pain is less, then you can gently move to sloppy push ups until all you need to do are ten repetitions in the morning and ten at night.

If you only have pain standing or lying down or stretching back, then try these exercises: Pattern 2 Back Pain

Or you could try Recovery Poses.

Understanding pain is not always possible – scientists are still struggling to truly understand why some people have more pain than others – but there are videos here that can help – learning about fascia, the nervous system, the limbic system and inflammation can help.

Before you can start your discovery of the reasons behind chronic pain, the brain has to heal. This guide is a start to your healing journey. Guide to Pain.