Which Way Do You Turn?

​When you are in pain, such as back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, how do you decide how to get the help you need to get better? Perhaps you ask your friends, family or co-workers for their suggestions. Maybe you have a trusted health care professional (HPC) that you turn to for advice on medical issues. Maybe you just search for a practitioner in your area that seems to be the right fit for your particular problem. All of those options are reasonable approaches, and hopefully one of them will get you exactly what you need to resolve your issue, but what if they don't? What do you do then?

If you do what I did for many years, you'll go back to the same HCPs with the hope that they will have something new to try on the next visit. Conceivably, you may see an HCP of the same type, or perhaps a new type of practitioner for some different kind of therapy. Some of these professionals might have procedures, therapies, exercises or prescriptions that offer promise, and maybe even relief for a while, but eventually you'll find yourself in pain again. You'll have another extreme pain event where you find yourself lying in bed, unable to get out of bed, and go on with your normal life.

My experience over decades left me with the feeling that I would never be free of the crushing low-back pain that plagued me. Time, and repeated disappointment had taught me that this chronic pain I was feeling was permanent, and that there was no reason to hope I would be free of it.
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Thankfully, I was introduced to the concept that the pain was actually caused by my own tension, and at that moment I felt sure this was my problem, and it was. I developed a method to overcome my tension, and deal with the stress and negative emotions, which were the basis of my problems.
Over those decades, I would go to doctors, and other HCPs that specialized in back problems, because the pain I experienced was very severe, and I thought surely that I had a devastating physical problem. All of those HCPs were well meaning, competent, and I'm sure they did their best for me, but none of them understood that the essence of my issue. They all treated the wrong ​problem. It was a lack of oxygen to the muscles of the back (chronic hypoxia) caused by contraction of the tension. Tension seems like a simple problem that can be brushed aside, but in fact it can can have devastating effects on the body.
​What would I recommend to younger self years into my search for relief from chronic low-back pain?

• If something is not working after years of trying, you may be barking up the wrong tree.
• Experts aren't experts at something.
• Keep reading, and researching.
• Keep your mind open and seek a new path to healing.

PEACE

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