Get rid of chronic pain.

Many treatments, no healing.

Since the start of my practice in 2013, I have welcomed a lot of people in my practice who have had chronic pain complaints for quite some time. This differs from a number of months up to 10 or 20 years (!!) lasting pain complaints. They all wanted only one thing; get rid of their chronic pain.
Often they had already tried many different treatment methods such as physiotherapy, manual therapy, chiropractic, exercise or posture therapy, massage, pain clinic, injections, surgery etc etc. Maybe you can also already tick off a lot of this list?

The body has a gigantic self-healing capacity and repairs damaged tissue after an acute injury, in most cases in six weeks. Just look at a bone fracture, for example, generally it heals by 6 weeks in most cases.
How come all these people who walked into my practice for the first time, and in general when we look at the 1.5 billion people in the entire world (yes you are not alone in this) who walk around with chronic pain, that they keep walking around with pain so much longer?

So if the physical structure of the body has healed by 6 weeks and there is still pain after 6 weeks, then we could say that there is no longer a direct link between the physical structure and the pain. After all, there is no more damage of the structure, this has been repaired.

Then why do so many people not get rid of their pain after those 6 weeks?

Why people don’t see the real solution for their chronic pain.

Of course, in addition to the chronic pain after acute injuries, we also have diagnoses such as herniated disc, wear (osteoarthritis), incorrect posture, deviation in the position of the spine, fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel syndrome, RSI etc.
But can you be 100% sure that this diagnosis is really what causes the pain, or is this just an assumption (of the practitioners and specialists)? Is the human body really as weak as you are told or is your body super strong and could there be another explanation for the pain you are experiencing?
I think the latter is the case with many people. But no one sees this because they are focused on the diagnosis (and its solutions) which I mentioned in the first three lines of this paragraph.

And in my opinion, that’s why people don’t see the real solution. That’s why people have such difficulty to get rid of their chronic pain. They are looking in the wrong direction. They are too focused on that one diagnosis that the specialist gave them so they no longer see that it could be something else. But this specialist is a specialist in that specific field, so of course he/she will not give you a diagnosis outside that field. Because he/she often has no knowledge within another field. Does that mean that there is no possibility that there is another cause outside his field?

Other possible causes

Many people initially seek help in regular care to get rid of chronic pain. And this is also important because ofcourse a number of things must first be excluded.
However, the disadvantage of regular care is often that a complaint is looked at very unilaterally. But there is no physical damage anymore…because it is repaired by approximately 6 weeks. So why is only being looked at that then?? Shouldn’t we look at why pain is still being generated from the nervous system??
And there is also no 100% evidence that a herniated disc, wear or other above mentioned is the actual cause of the pain (if you find this evidence I would like to see it appear in my mailbox -> please note; an abnormality seen on an MRI is NOT proof that this actually causes the pain, this is only an assumption). So why stick to this belief if for so long already it has not helped you to get rid of your chronic pain? And are there people on this planet who have the same diagnosis as you and who are not in pain? That’s crazy to say the least, right?

And that’s where it goes wrong in my opinion. Holding on to assumptions of one diagnosis and therefore no longer looking at other possible causes. But this diagnosis of the cause is very important! This diagnosis determines which choices YOU make in the field of treatment. And what choices you make in daily life with regard to moving your body. And this also determines what the rest of your life will look like and whether you will ever become pain-free! To me it seems quite important to look at this diagnosis with a critical eye and also to be open to other possible diagnoses.

In my opinion, therefore, something must change in the treatment field. Pain should be looked at more holistically in order to really be able to get rid of chronic pain permanently. There are so many factors to consider, all of which need to be addressed and not just one. It doesn’t make sense to focus on just one thing.

I hope I have been able to inspire you to think about the diagnose(is) that you have received so far or about your pain complaint in general and to look at it more critically and more open-minded. Do you for a 100% believe the diagnosis you have received? Let me know in the comments below!

Karlien