Fear & Pain
When back pain strikes the immediate reaction is to freeze, stop breathing and at rapid speed contemplate every possible serious consequence to the injury.
Horrible thoughts start clouding the mind, from being permanently wheel chair bound, having a broken back or being left with excruciating pain that will NEVER go away. These thoughts, however common, if not overcome have been shown to be very powerful in preventing a successful recovery. This fear can lead to slow return to movement, over-contracting muscles to do simple tasks leading to fatigue, stiffness and increased pain. The truth is that the vast majority of back pain is NOT serious in nature (about 85%) and is just a sign from the body telling you that you’ve overused or poorly used the spine and its associated tissues.
Following these simple guidelines when faced with back pain can decrease your fear and speed up your recovery.
- Move: the days of taking bed rest for back pain have gone. Doing simple movements such as walking, swinging the arms and side bending can encourage lubrication of joints, warming of muscles and therefore increase in range of motion. It is hard to move too much but remember you can move too quickly, so take it slow.
- Heat/cold: its use can improve pain levels and is often more effective than pain medications for short term relief.
- Manual therapy: spinal mobilisation, muscle easing and stretching can help encourage the body into some positions not achievable by you alone due to spasm or pain. This also provides great reassurance that the body can still achieve these movements.
- Imaging? (x-rays, CT scans, MRI): because most back pain is not serious, not identifiable or diagnosable by imaging, it is mostly not helpful and unnecessary. Osteopaths are trained to pick up specific symptoms that may require further investigation.