What is chronic pain?
Pain is considered chronic when it lasts longer than three to six months, or longer than expected after an injury or trauma. Having this type of pain can be incredibly distressing, and can negatively affect your mood and health. The goal when treating chronic pain is often to make sure it doesn't control your life and how you do things.
Chronic pain occurs when your nerves are too sensitive and send signals to your brain, even when there's no injury or after an injury has already healed. Because of this, chronic pain can become part of a cycle that's hard to break. The pain makes it hard to be active, which can then make you more tired. This tiredness can then affect your sleep and make you feel stressed, angry, anxious, or sad. And these emotions can make it even harder to get moving, keeping the cycle going.
