Imagine you’re strolling through the streets of New York City. You’re enjoying the hustle and bustle, the tantalizing smells from food carts and the magnificent architecture. Your senses are overwhelmed with sounds, colors and smells. Approaching a crosswalk, you see you’ve got less than 99 eight seconds to cross the street. The quick decision arises: run across or stop and wait?
To keep your good pace, you decide to jog across the street with six seconds remaining. Halfway across the street, your foot lands in a pothole, rolling your ankle and dropping you to the pavement. With three seconds left, you try to stand up but the pain makes you double over. At this point, opposing traffic now has a green light.
Suddenly, you hear the blare of a horn. Looking up, you see a speeding bus careening toward you. You jump up and sprint across the street to safety, narrowly missed by the oncoming bus. Adrenaline rushing and relief setting in, you realize your ankle feels surprisingly strong - but with each step you take down the sidewalk, the ankle pain returns.
Yet again, the context drives the situation. When you were unaware of the bus barrelling toward you, your brain registered the ankle pain as a dangerous injury that must be addressed. However, when you caught sight of the oncoming bus, your ankle became much less important; the greatest threat was, in that moment, the speeding bus. In a split-second decision, your brain focused all resources on getting you to safety as quickly as possible.
The context of a scenario plays an integral role in the degree and intensity of pain experienced. In this story, the brain decreased the perceived threat of ankle pain due to an even greater threat. Remember, the brain can both increase and decrease the amount of pain you experience based solely on context and expectations versus any tissue damage you may have with an injury.
To further understand this concept, let's see which injury you choose as "more serious"
Elbow pain in a pitcher vs Elbow pain in a retired 60-year-old male
A strained hamstring in a track athlete vs an inactive Mom of 2
Knee pain in a college student vs knee pain in an older woman who has previously torn her ACL
Lower back pain in a corporate America desk jockey vs a CrossFit athlete who has a competition in 7 days
The key to understanding this idea is that we can create and experience more or less pain based on the "importance" of the area to the person. Obviously nobody wants to be in pain, but if we as Chiropractors broke our hands or wrists, we'd be freaking out compared to most who's life don't depend on their hands.
This understanding is crucial to save yourself from losing sleep or stressing out over an idea that may or may not be as serious as it seems. That's why we tell everyone, the first visit is the most important. Our goals are to provide peace of mind and understanding to ensure you know there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
This is also why the free Discovery visit we offer is important. This allows the patient and us to learn more about each other and what the injury means to them. Pain and injury is different for every single person. We need a deeper understanding of why the pain is affecting someone out of just feeling pain.
If you or somebody you know could benefit from a free Discovery visit at our Tampa or Pinellas Park location, please use the link attached to input your information! We are here to do nothing else other than help and provide guidance. If we can't help you, we'll do our best to find someone who can!
