Why the waiting?

In the last few weeks I have had clients make appointments after suffering for months with issues of chronic pain.

In many cases I heard the same thing, “I did some research on the web and figured it was ‘x’. The site suggest I do ‘y’ but ‘x’ persisted. I then found another site that suggested I do ‘z’ but again ‘x’ persisted. So I finally decided to make an appointment to see you.”

Although I think it is wonderful for clients to take the initiative in determining what might be affecting them, there comes a point where it is likely a better idea to make an appointment with someone who has more hands on experience.

Living with chronic pain has many negative effects:

1. The longer you allow the chronic pain to persist in your body, the deeper rooted the underlying cause of the pain becomes in the body. This usually means that once you do decide to deal with the pain, it will take longer to work out the underlying presentation in the body.
2. As one lives with chronic pain in a specific area of the body, other structures/musculature will be used in a compensatory fashion leading the other presentations with the body that will cause pain. This further complicated the treatment and again extends the time it will require to get rid of the original complaint.
3. Chronic pain often leads to a reduction in physical activity causing musculature to become weaker with less use etc.

Generally speaking, if you are committed to trying to figure out what is happening in the body yourself, do not allow yourself to experience more then a week or two of consistent discomfort before making a call to a specialist of some type (massage therapist, physiotherapist, chiropractor, naturopath etc). You will normally find there are things that can be done in relatively short order to have you back in ship shape.