6 Common Challenges We See with Chronic Pain

Though I had been experiencing low back pain on-and-off for decades, it wasn’t until I started researching pain in order to help my Pilates clients that I actually began to understand the basic mechanisms behind painful sensations. In particular, while I assumed that ongoing pain symptoms meant I was reinjuring or irritating my disc herniation over and over again, pain education taught me that acute pain becomes chronic for many people long after the tissues have actually healed. The oft-repeated “hurt doesn’t equal harm” saying was definitely a mind-opener for me. Research has shown that combining pain education with movement interventions, like physical therapy, can significantly improve pain and disability outcomes.