I’m a Survivor.

by Craig Keaton

It’s been said that “pain is just information” (Dr. Eric Cobb). It’s your body’s way of telling you that something has gone wrong, is going wrong, or even that something could go wrong.

Look at it this way: if you put your arm on a hot stove, your body quickly tells you to take it off so as to not risk further burning and damaging your arm. That hot, burning pain was great information. However it’s not always that straightforward…

For example, you can have pain in your arm, but the problem is not actually your arm; the arm pain is just the most effective way for your body to get your attention.  I’m sure you’ve heard about people having intense pain in their left arm prior to a heart attack.  And women often experience back pain, headaches, or neck pain during their menstrual cycles.   But it’s not actually a back or neck problem – it’s just the body’s way of slowing a woman down for a few days to get her to pay attention to her physiology.  Ladies, please know that a healthy female body, inside and out, experiences relatively no pain during “that time of the month”.

Back pain is one of the most common forms of pain among adult Americans.  But the source of this pain can be surprising.  One of the longest-running studies on back pain uncovered that the only significant factor leading to increased back pain was job dissatisfaction.   What does this mean?  In order to control pain, we must precisely understand all the information we are given.  The pain information helps us understand what has, is, or might go wrong.

We are survival-based organisms; therefore living is the body’s #1 priority. The body will do whatever it needs to do in order to sustain life for as long as possible. This means that anything the body perceives as threatening can be experienced as pain “information.”  A broken bone, worn cartilage, overworked joints, a bad pair of shoes, poor digestion, a stressed-out liver, unhealthy diet, or even a toxic relationship can all be manifested as pain. If we do not listen to the first bit of pain information that the body gives us, then it will scream a lot louder, for longer, and with many different voices. In other words, if you do not take the appropriate action to take care of the existing threat, your body will produce more intense,  longer-lasting, or chronic pain in multiple areas in order to get you to address the real problem.

If you’re having any form of physical pain, we at The Movement Dallas can help you.  We will work with you to discover the real source of your pain and then figure out how to eliminate it.  It can be easier than you think.

-ck