“I went to bed feeling fine! But when I woke up, I could barely lift my head off the pillow – my neck hurt so much!”

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“I was just relaxing …on the couch after a long day.  But when it was time to get up and go to bed, I could barely straighten up – it hurt so much!”

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“I just reached for a pencil!” or… “I was picking up an empty box!” or maybe “I was just backing out of my driveway…”

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If any of this sounds familiar to you, then you know what “everyday pain” is and you’ve probably had your share of it.

What It IS:

Even though the word “everyday” sounds routine and unremarkable, this kind of pain can be plenty severe, overwhelming and confusing!  It often seems like it came from nowhere because there’s no obvious accident, injury or disease that can be blamed. Everyday pain tends to strike while you’re doing everyday things; going about your daily life doing things you’ve done pain-free a million times before.

This is exactly why it can be so frustrating and stressful!

“Shouldn’t be a big deal.” … “It’s a ‘normal’ part of aging.” … “Everyone has this – right?”

It’s really easy to miss the warning signs. Most of us learn that we’re supposed to ignore and push through it.

But ignoring and dismissing any pain – big or small, doesn’t actually make it go away. You just end up forcing yourself to “adapt”…. until your body can’t adapt anymore. There is always a limit to how much the body can tolerate no matter how tough you are.

Knowing what that limit is, is the hard part. And after spending a lifetime tuning out pain like this, who can blame you?

What It Is NOT:

Make no mistake, everyday pain is not the same as true chronic pain.  True chronic pain is generally the result of a disease process or health condition that has no complete cure.  

However, a lot of pain is considered “chronic” just because it has been going on for a long time. But if there’s not necessarily any underlying chronic condition – is the pain really chronic? Most of us think of chronic as not curable or unending. This might be the biggest mistake.

It might just be familiar pain and has been coming and going for years.

Pain like this might actually be everyday pain that just never got the attention it needed.  And even though it’s chronic by definition (has been around longer than 3 months), it’s not hopeless or endless. You don’t have to just sit down and take it.

Everyday pain that never gets appropriately addressed during the early stages can turn chronic in duration. But if there’s no other underlying condition, that means the pain does not have to remain chronic.  It can get better!

Is the Chronic Pain Epidemic actually a Pain-Denial Epidemic?

The first time we have pain, there is a window of opportunity that many of us miss out on. That’s because, of the way most of us learned to handle earliest signs of pain (and any kind of pain). We were either told to “walk it off”, focus on making it stop, or deny it altogether.

We have an epidemic of pain-suppression and pain-denial.

Think of all the praise we readily heap onto athletes and performers for pushing through and persevering. We applaud triumphing over pain and injury. It’s for the sake of the game or the performance or any perceived “more noble cause”.  The show must go on.

High-level athletic perseverance is truly admirable and inspiring, but why do we hold ourselves up to that same standard?

Words Matter

Think about the language we use for dealing with pain and all illness. It includes words like “fighting”, “battling”, “beating”, “winning”. All those words imply that if we don’t prevail, then pain wins.  When there’s a winner there has to be a loser. Of course we can’t let pain “win” because who wants to be the “loser”?!

But how does this attitude really serve us?   Pushing through and ignoring pain only works until that “last straw” forces us to stop in our tracks. When we physically can’t do it anymore, then we are finally forced – under duress – to investigate how we got here…. ultimately immobilized by pain that started out with mild and reasonable warning signs that were just missed.

It’s not your fault.  You’re part of a larger culture of glorified pain-deniers.  Unfortunately, the more you push it aside, the more you lose the connection with and understanding of what was going on when the pain first got triggered. 

How are you supposed to cope with something you don’t understand and have no connection to?!

Do You Have Everyday Pain?

Ask yourself: Do you have true chronic pain – related to a disease process or dysfunction for which there is no cure? OR are you actually just dealing with everyday pain that has no identifiable cause? Maybe it is a familiar pain that takes you out several times a year – getting worse each time. It has become chronic in duration and persistence. This is just as distressing. But if that’s the case, your pain might have a solution – there might be the possibility of relief for you…

Stop Everyday Pain® is here to help you find that solution and take back your life. Start here by checking out a FREE chapter of The Everyday Pain Guide.

Let’s Be Clear About “Chronic Pain”

As defined by the IASP task force and generally well established, “chronic” pain is “pain that lasts or recurs for more than 3 months”. 

There’s one problem with this definition. The chronic pain classified in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD10), only includes pain secondary to other known conditions. These conditions include: cancer, surgery, trauma, lesion or disease of the nerves, headaches, orofacial/dental conditions, underlying condition of internal organs, and persistent inflammation associated with musculoskeletal disease.

Primary chronic pain – which is not due to another cause, is very unclear. The understanding of chronic pain that is “primary” remains scant. Although the World Health Organization (WHO) is in the process of changing the definition of chronic pain to include the term “disease”. This is with the intention of allowing for better prioritized healthcare and research.

The definition of “chronic pain” encapsulates anything and everything based on timeline of duration of 3 months or longer. But don’t assume that simply because of duration, a pain becomes inevitable or without resolution.  And this is the problem with the word “chronic”.

The term “everyday pain” was coined in response to this confusion.  We believe it’s a hopeful, workable, and empowering alternative.

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While you wait for Volume 2 Fix the Fire Damage, find over 100 photos, illustrations and diagrams inside the first volume to help you with the “what” and the “why” behind your pain: