Chronic pain is pain (or persistent unpleasant sensations in the body) that has lasted beyond the normal course of healing - approximately 3 months - or pain that occurs and lasts with no known cause. Pain can become chronic after an injury has healed, after a condition has been treated, or it can develop without any inciting incident.

Pain is a unique and individual experience that can vary widely from person to person. Each person’s experience of pain is influenced by multiple factors such as biology, psychology, spiritual factors, social factors and emotional factors.

Because pain is invisible, people experiencing chronic pain may have difficulty explaining their pain experience to others, and the extent of their pain may not be believed by others which can make seeking support difficult. Chronic pain can have major impacts on a person's physical, mental and emotional health as well as financial security, social life, sense of self and ability to partake in everyday activities.

There are many resources for help with chronic pain. In BC, Pain BC is a useful place to begin.

How do we make sense of chronic pain?

Our brain constantly receives signals from the nerves in our body and it process them. This communication is below our awareness and includes a wide variety of information from temperature to immune function to sensory input such as injury. When there’s an injury, the brain generates pain as a message to get us to pay attention and address the injury preventing further damage. For this reason, pain is very important. Sometimes, however, the brain can learn to misinterpret the signals it’s receiving from the body and it can begin to misinterpret safe signals as if they’re dangerous. The pain is very real, but it’s not an accurate indication of what is happening in the body. We know that tissue damage typically heals in approximately 3 months time, so when pain persists beyond that window, we can turn our attention to how the brain is responding to pain.

There are a variety of approaches to dealing with chronic pain. My training in Pain Reprocessing Coaching (PRT) informs my outlook and the tools I use. More information about PRT can be found here.