Ready to Take Your Life Back? Physical Therapy Can Help You Live Comfortably
Find Relief for Those Persistent Pains
Chronic pain, as you may have discovered the hard way, can affect more than just your body. Conditions that limit your mobility and prevent you from participating in your favorite activities can leave you feeling helpless and not in control of your own life.
The constant barrage of pain can also contribute to serious mood disorders, such as depression and anxiety. If you aren’t living the life you want, you can fix that by changing how you approach your chronic pain. This is where physical therapy can help you!
Why should I choose physical therapy?
Simply taking action and attempting a new solution against your chronic pain can make you feel better by restoring your sense of control. You’ll feel even better when your physical therapy program begins to alleviate your pain and restore your mobility.
A caring physical therapist provides you with a variety of tools, beginning with a better understanding of the causes and effects of your pain. With physical therapy, you’ll have the drug-free pain management tools to help you live life comfortably.
There are many different ways that a physical therapist can help you relieve your pain. Strength training, flexibility exercises, massage, laser therapy, TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation), dry needling, heat or ice treatments, and acupuncture can all be used in conjunction to reduce pain and inflammation. A long-term physical therapy pain management plan may even include cognitive therapy methods if needed.
Our physical therapists can teach you how to change your relationship with pain, allowing you to devote more energy and enthusiasm to your exercises and other treatments. As your pain subsides, your mood will stabilize and your sleep quality will improve. Best of all, you’ll feel like you’re back in control of your life.
Are you dealing with any of these symptoms of chronic pain?
Chronic pain is a lingering source of distress by definition. Pain that goes on for months or years at a time can seriously impact your life, especially if it is limiting your ability to complete daily tasks.
As stated by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke,
“While acute pain is a normal sensation triggered in the nervous system to alert you to possible injury and the need to take care of yourself, chronic pain is different. Chronic pain persists. Pain signals keep firing in the nervous system for weeks, months, even years.
There may have been an initial mishap — sprained back, serious infection, or there may be an ongoing cause of pain — arthritis, cancer, ear infection, but some people suffer chronic pain in the absence of any past injury or evidence of body damage. Many chronic pain conditions affect older adults.
Common chronic pain complaints include headache, low back pain, cancer pain, arthritis pain, neurogenic pain (pain resulting from damage to the peripheral nerves or to the central nervous system itself), psychogenic pain (pain not due to past disease or injury or any visible sign of damage inside or outside the nervous system).
A person may have two or more co-existing chronic pain conditions. Such conditions can include chronic fatigue syndrome, endometriosis, fibromyalgia, inflammatory bowel disease, interstitial cystitis, temporomandibular joint dysfunction, and vulvodynia. It is not known whether these disorders share a common cause.”
As a result, you may experience any or all of the following symptoms:
- Mental health issues. There is a clear, well-established link between chronic pain and equally debilitating mood disorders. One study found that 77 percent of chronic pain sufferers also suffer from depression. Major, long-term depression can have its own negative effects on your health, from sleeplessness and fatigue to difficulty concentrating. The unpredictable or frightening aspects of chronic pain, from its impact on your medical bills to concerns over a serious illness, can also cause intense anxiety or aggravate a pre-existing anxiety disorder.
- Learned helplessness: Chronic pain can lead to a psychological response known as learned helplessness, especially when your chosen pain-fighting techniques aren’t getting results. Eventually, you stop even trying to combat the waves of pain and the limitations that they impose on you.
- Daily limitations: Your life was a lot more fun, varied, and involving before chronic pain came along. Now that you can no longer play your favorite sport, pursue a beloved hobby, play with your kids or work at your job, you feel understandably bored and frustrated.
Reclaim your life today!
Don’t let chronic pain dictate what you should do or how you should feel. Start reclaiming your life today!
To learn more about our pain-relieving techniques, please contact SMaRT Physical Therapy to consult with a physical therapist. You’ll be taking the first step toward a healthier and happier life!