Blog: Don’t Let Pain Control Your Life

Did You Know Physical Therapy Could Help You Finally Find Relief for Your Chronic Pain?

As you may have already learned the hard way, chronic pain can hurt more than just your body. Conditions that limit your mobility and prevent you from pursuing your favorite activities can make you feel a gut-wrenching loss of control over your own life.

The sheer endless onslaught of pain can also promote serious mood disorders such as depression and anxiety. If you’re not living the life you want, you can change that life by changing your approach to your chronic pain problem.

That’s where physical therapy can come to your rescue.

Passive and active therapies to help relieve your chronic pain

Once our physical therapist has isolated the underlying cause of your chronic joint pain, we can prescribe techniques to help you start feeling – and moving – more like your old self.

Physical therapy for joint pain may start with passive exercises, in which we move the afflicted joint for you to increase its pain-free range of motion.

Exercises that reduce the amount of weight on the joints can also be extremely helpful. For instance, we may recommend swimming or water walking as a means of exercising the hips and knees without also forcing them to bear your full weight.

Other types of exercises can also help you overcome your joint pain while improving joint function. Strengthening exercises help by reinforcing the muscles and connective tissues that serve the joint. Corrective exercises and neuromuscular re-education can help you maintain a straighter, more symmetrical posture.

Last but not least, physical therapy offers a variety of helpful modalities beyond exercise. We may treat your joint pain with heat, ice, and manual therapies such as massage, just to name a few.

Take control with physical therapy

Simply taking action and trying a new weapon on your chronic pain can make you feel better by giving you back your feeling of control.

You’ll feel even better once your physical therapy program starts to tame your pain and restore your mobility. A caring physical therapist provides you with all kinds of tools, beginning with a better understanding of your pain’s causes and effects. You’ll receive valuable education on how you can use physical therapy for a lifetime of drug-free pain management.

Then there’s the physical therapy itself. Strength training, flexibility exercises, massage, laser therapy, TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation), dry needling, heat or ice treatments, and acupuncture can all work together to reduce your pain and inflammation.

A long-term physical therapy pain management plan can even include techniques to “rewire” your brain. We can show you how to alter your relationship with your pain, enabling you to pursue your exercises and other treatments with more energy and enthusiasm.

As your pain recedes, your mood stabilizes and your sleep quality improves. Best of all, you will feel like you’re calling the shots for your life once again.

Did you know chronic pain could have these limitations on your life?

Chronic pain is a lingering source of distress by definition. Pain that goes on for months or years at a time can wreck your life, especially if you know that irreversible damage lies at the root of the pain.

As a result, you may experience any or all of the following torments:

Depression and anxiety. 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.
Lifestyle 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.

Physical therapy over surgery for chronic pain

According to Harvard Health Publishing,

“Trying physical therapy before opting for surgery may be the better choice. You may be able to spare yourself the expense, pain, and recovery time of surgery, says physical therapist Karen Weber, clinical supervisor at Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Outpatient Centers in Braintree and Quincy, Mass.

There is growing evidence supporting that idea. In the past few years, studies have indicated that physical therapy is just as effective as surgery for relieving pain and restoring function for people with arthritis in their knees or backs.”

Schedule a consultation with your physical therapist

Don’t let chronic pain tell you what to do or how to feel. Reclaim command over your life, starting today.

Contact Mayfield PT to learn more about our pain-busting methods. You’ll be taking the first step toward a happier existence!