Chronic Pain Symptoms and Effects

The goal to having back surgery was to increase my quality of life however this is how I was affected.

Chronic Pain can lead can and often is  debilitating.

Chronic pain usually lasts longer than six months. It can be mild or excruciating, episodic or continuous,  inconvenient or incapacitating.

With chronic pain, signals of pain remain active in the nervous system for weeks, months, or years. This can take both a physical and emotionally to a person when it’s gone on for so long.

Depression   -  due to lack of socialization, mobility, pain, weight gain, possible medication side effects and more.

Over-eating/weight gain – some self medicate with food and also gain weight because of their inability to exercise due to the pain.

Medication – if one chooses this they have many side affects, some which include weight gain and tiredness along with many more.

Motility – inability to move comfortably has decreased significantly.

Pain medications  - not always effective and many side effects

Alcoholism -  I was not affected by this but have seen people that are due to their chronic pain.

Relationships are affected – children, spouses (mates), friends

Sleep disturbances – awakening due to pain or inability to be comfortable due to pain.

Chronic pain can start with  trauma or an injury or there may be an ongoing cause of pain. Although, some have suffered chronic pain without having a  past injur

The emothions that you go through when you have chronic pain  can also  make the pain worse.

All of the following can work together to prevent your body from producing it’s own natural painkillers: anxiety, stress, depression, anger, and fatigue work together  in complex ways with chronic pain  in addition these feelings might increase the level of substances that increase  pain, causing a  cycle of pain for the person. Your body's basic defenses could be compromised: There is evidence that chronic pain can affect the immune system