Chronic pain often begins with something that seems small or manageable. Perhaps a backache you expect to clear up within a couple of weeks.
But then it lingers, and you try chiropractic care, massage, using a brace, talking to your doctor, yoga, or whatever else you can think of that might help. Eventually, you find yourself planning your life around your pain and thinking about it constantly. Nothing seems to help.
In those kinds of situations, getting help from an expert in pain management like Dr. Rostam Khoshsar or Dr. Adrian Darryll Sulindro at BioHealth Pain Management can mean getting your life back. Whether you have back pain, headaches, or some other form of chronic pain, it can affect your overall health.
Here are four of the ways chronic pain can impact your life.
Pain is, obviously, the main symptom of chronic pain. But, it’s usually not the only one. Regardless of the underlying cause of your pain, whether it’s arthritis, nerve damage, an injury, or something else, it’s likely that your muscles are tense. That’s your body trying to guard itself from more pain.
However, over time, that muscle tension begins to cause problems. You may experience stiffness, reduced mobility, and even decreased strength. And, in a vicious cycle, all of those things can lead to more pain.
You may find yourself avoiding physical activity, too, to reduce your pain or at least to prevent making it worse. Less physical activity leads to poorer cardiovascular health, decreased endurance, and weaker muscle tone.
When you’re in pain constantly and feel like you can’t do anything, you may well experience mental health challenges. People with chronic pain tend to have higher rates of anxiety, stress, and depression.
If you struggle to sleep well due to chronic pain, you may also find it difficult to concentrate or to focus on your normal daily activities and responsibilities. You may feel frustrated and isolated. All of those feelings can contribute to mental health struggles.
Chronic pain affects everyone around you. It can make you moody, cause you to withdraw from social activities, and avoid outings you’d otherwise enjoy. And all of that can make you feel even more isolated.
The isolation, in combination with emotional distress, often strains relationships. Those closest to you may not fully understand the scope of your condition from a physical and emotional perspective.
Even simple tasks can become Herculean when you have chronic pain. If you have severe, chronic shoulder pain, getting dressed in the morning is torture. A house with stairs can be tough to navigate with chronic knee pain.
Getting through your normal routine with chronic pain requires focus, energy, and motivation that can be impossible to keep up day after day. That can lead to missed work or poor performance at work. In turn, you may suffer financial instability and increased stress, intensifying both your physical pain and emotional distress.
Effective pain management can significantly improve your quality of life. The team at BioHealth Pain Management offers personalized treatments and strategies tailored to your life and needs. We may suggest medications, physical therapy, or alternative therapies to reduce your pain and restore function.
If you feel your quality of life declining due to chronic pain, schedule an appointment at our Lawndale, Whittier, or Arcadia office and find out what your options are.
