Why Do We Get Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain is such a tricky thing, right? It’s not just about a past injury or a condition—it’s like your nervous system gets stuck in a loop, constantly sending pain signals even when there’s no real threat. So why does this happen? And more importantly, what can we do about it?
Why Do We Get Chronic Pain?
- Old Injuries That Don’t Let Go – Sometimes, an injury heals, but the nerves keep misfiring. It's like an alarm that won’t turn off.
- Nervous System Sensitization – Your brain and spinal cord can actually get better at feeling pain, which is the worst kind of skill to develop.
- Inflammation & Autoimmune Issues – Conditions like arthritis or fibromyalgia keep your body in a state of distress.
- Emotional & Mental Factors – Stress, trauma, and anxiety can amplify pain, turning it up like a volume knob.
- Lifestyle Issues – Poor posture, lack of movement, or even diet can contribute.
What Can We Do About It?
✔️ Move, But Smartly – Gentle exercises like swimming, yoga, or even just walking can break the pain cycle.
✔️ Calm the Nervous System – Meditation, deep breathing, and mindfulness can help dial down the overactive pain response.
✔️ Nutrition Matters – Anti-inflammatory foods (think turmeric, omega-3s, leafy greens) can help keep pain in check.
✔️ Physical Therapy & Alternative Treatments – Acupuncture, massage, and even nerve stimulation can make a huge difference.
✔️ Medication & Medical Help – Sometimes, meds (from painkillers to antidepressants) or treatments like nerve blocks are needed.
✔️ Address the Emotional Side – Therapy, journaling, or even just venting to a friend can help reduce stress-induced pain.
Long Term:
Is chronic pain always chronic pain? A wierd question right?
But . . what if the pain is not chronic but continuous instead. What if there is a cause that keeps happening that could be stopped or fixed? Maybe it is a re-injury, or a new injury? Maybe it is something that needs addressing, those are always things that run through our minds and that often get overlooked or ignored and put under the umbrella term of 'chronic pain'. So take time to examine your own pain. Keep a 'Pain Diary'. Jot down how you are feeling, what your pain score is, what you have done, did something cause you more pain, or less?
Now over to you!
- When does your pain feel worse? After certain activities? Certain emotions?
- Have you noticed any foods that make it better or worse?
- What’s one small change you could try today to see if it helps?
Pain is complex, but understanding it is the first step to managing it. What’s been your experience with chronic pain? Have you found anything that helps?
Written as part of the Disability Support Community Articles. More can be found here
If you have a condition or 'Awareness Campaign' that you feel we should recognise please message either myself @MistyMagic (teens and adults) or @AffyAvo (adults)
@MistyMagic I think you've done an amazing job of putting some complex subjects into one post!
For me, I find not overdoing things is best. My feet easily get inflammed. I try to pace myself plus limit impact via surfaces (when in my control) and footwear. I also stretch and massage.
Certain foods trigger other inflammatory issues, but I've never really noticed diet affecting the pain that tends to stick the most.
@MistyMagic this is an amazing post!
to answer the questions
- When does your pain feel worse? After certain activities? Certain emotions?
my pain is mainly in my joints so it gets worse with more movement of those areas and I can definitely feel more pain when I'm having a lot of stress or anxiety.
- Have you noticed any foods that make it better or worse?
I'm not sure i've noticed any foods make it better, but some of my issues relate to blood volume and also can cause gi problems, I've found foods high in dairy draw more blood to my abdomen and make symptoms worse, though it varies a lot day to day how everything impacts me.
- What’s one small change you could try today to see if it helps?
One small thing I could change today to try and help is move a little more, obviously being careful about movements to not hurt certain joints but move to draw blood away from certain areas and alleviate pain and inflammation
@MistyMagic
- When does your pain feel worse? After certain activities? Certain emotions?
for us with all the different health issues. the pain get worst when we walk and bend over too. we live in pain 24/7 but them two things really make the pain worst. but we still walk and at times have to bend over to get things off like floor.
- Have you noticed any foods that make it better or worse?
fried foods really make our pain bad, also soda does so we try not to drink it much.
founds that help us are teas but not black tea, ginger really helps too, nuts and seeds help too. dark chocolate can help but has to be true dark chocolate we get the ones with the less amount of sugar naturally in them. we use olive oil as that helps pain for us. fish is also something that helps our pain.
- What’s one small change you could try today to see if it helps?
we read that drinking green tea and white tea can help pain. there a list of ones that can help a lot with pain. hope this allowed we going to put web-link here as could be helpful to others. we learned a lot about teas as we really like tea. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/anti-inflammatory-tea
so we trying to drink more tea and less of things that have sugar in them. we also drinking more water as that to can be helpful for us.