Managing lower back pain
Four million Australians are estimated to be living with lower back pain and understanding how to take care of your pain can sometimes be unclear, but there is support available.
An introduction to physical pain
23 April 2020
The way we perceive pain and treat pain has changed over time. Historically, pain was treated with a biomedical approach. This involved physical assessments, or scans and imaging to identify the cause of pain. The cause was then removed or repaired but if this wasn’t possible, it was treated palliatively with prescribed medication.
It was also previously believed that all pain was equal, that everyone with the same condition would experience the same level of pain. We know now, that is not the case and that pain is complex and multidimensional.
What does this mean? It means that our perception of pain can be influenced by internal and external factors, psychological, biological and social factors. Our brain processes all the information specific to you and interprets situations to be threatening or non-threatening and that results in the feeling pain (or no pain). This is why some professional athletes are able to finish a game with a broken limb or a parent can run into a burning house to save their child and also why one person may have back pain when another doesn’t, even though they both have degenerated spines on their x-rays.
The use of medications, passive treatments or fear-avoidance behaviours (eg. not bending over in the fear of pain) may relive pain quickly but it masks the underlying cause rather than actively treating the issue. The way we manage our injuries, stress, emotions etc. can impact whether our acute pain resolves or whether it lingers beyond expected healing becoming chronic pain. Chronic pain often refers to pain that has been there for more than three months.
Deep breathing and mindfulness exercises and physical therapy are often used to treat pain. Pain should not be something you have to live with and with the help of trusted psychologists and exercise physiologists challenging how you think, feel and behave, you can learn long lasting skills to manage your pain.
Mates4Mates provide appointments with psychologists and exercise physiologist to eligible veterans, current serving personnel, and their families. For more information, phone 1300 4 MATES. A GP referral is required.
Written by Nami, Mates4Mates Exercise Physiologist
