• Question: what are the biggest misconceptions about pain?

    Asked by anon-203766 to Alexandra on 4 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Alexandra Quigley

      Alexandra Quigley answered on 4 Mar 2019:


      The big misunderstanding is that pain is a sign of damage. This is sometimes true, but not always.

      Pain is actually about the perceived need to protect. With acute pain (short-lived pain), restricting movement or use of the body area in pain can be useful, but with persistent pain it’s actually a really bad idea. Pain that is persistent is more a problem about faulty messaging and a sensitised system, and the more you avoid movement, the more ‘de-conditioned’ or ‘out of shape’ your body gets – you lose strength, stamina, flexibility, your get weaker, stiffer, which makes it harder to do things and makes you more prone to injury.

Comments