Millions are plagued by chronic pain. Find out more about why and discover medical and modern wellness therapies to help.

Learn about pain mechanisms in the body, get the professional help you so desperately need, start exercising and moving the body, then let go of the pain, forget and un-learn it and start enjoying life again!

The first sign of muscle ache gets often ignored or rationalized away. The cause for body aches, persistent tension and even chronic pain might be an accident, a torn muscle, inflamed joints, nerve entrapment or even disc damage.
The nerve cells in the affected regions are sending out signals to the brain and here they are registered as pain sensation. The longer nerve cells transmit pain signals to the brain, the more active the nerve cells become and continue to send signals.
Two things happen overtime:

1.    The threshold to experience pain becomes lower and eventually not much stimulus is needed for a painful sensation.

2.     Even after the body is healed and the injury or tension objectively doesn't exist anymore, pain might still be experienced. A pain memory develops!
Psychological components such as stress, fear and depression might further feed into this vicious pain cycle.
Additionally, most people with chronic pain develop a fear of movement and are overly conscious of that stiff knee or shoulder. They try to protect those areas and walk around with rigid and stiff movements. Unfortunately this causes further rigidity and stiffness and then causes more pain and anxiety. Depression arises and the person resigns from the joys of moving the body. Often there is a sense of giving up.

How do you deal with chronic pain?
Seek medical help from a specialist
If you have disc, knee, shoulder or hip problems, make sure to see an osteopathic doctor and get proper tests and treatments and most importantly: get physical therapy prescribed to help you regain mobility and build up strength in those areas of your body.
Search for help with a Psychotherapist
If the pain and inability to move the body properly really affects your joy of living and causes depression, you might need to see a psychotherapist to address emotions like fear, depression and anxiety.
See a doctor for pain management therapy
There are specialty doctors for pain management. Often a Neurologist treats pain related issues, because nerves might be entrapped and therefore cause pain. The Neurologist might also manipulate the connections between the nerve cells responsible for pain signals to be disrupted. If you are in constant pain, sooner or later that is all you will focus on. So get help as early as possible.

Acupuncture might be helpful in certain situations. Before you get treated by an acupuncturist though, ask whether he/she will be able to help you.
One of the goals in any of the treatments is to prevent pain memory to develop as early on as possible.
As much as I am personally opposed to taking pain medications, they might have their place and value, in order to give the body a vacation from the pain. Those type of medications are typically quite potent and need to be prescribed and carefully monitored by a medical doctor.
In addition to pain treatment in the body and the psyche, pain management will also include body movement training like gymnastics, Tai Chi, dancing, Feldenkrais, Nordic Walking and Massage Therapy. These activities will help to relax those painful tensions. The movement of the body and the joys of successes and progress might be responsible for certain Opioides, such as endorphins to be released, and pain reducing nerve fibers to be activated. Both interrupt the flood of impulses which constantly feeds the pain memory to function.

So put an end to being overly careful. Take charge of your body, get active and get the professional help you need, schedule regular therapeutic massages at a day spa near you, exercise under guidance, build up your strength and start trusting the body to recover and be able to enjoy movement without pain again.

At one point you might be able to just forget about the pain and move on!