What Is Chronic Pain Syndrome? Understanding Persistent Pain Beyond Tissue Injury and Simple Fixes
If you’ve been experiencing ongoing pain, with or without a clear explanation of what might be causing it, it can feel both isolating and exhausting.
In your search for an answer, you might find many different explanations:
Muscle weakness or imbalances that need correcting
Muscle tightness that means you need to stretch more
Inflammation in your tissues or throughout your body
Poor posture
If you’ve tried various treatments like chiropractic adjustments, massage, acupuncture, physical therapy to no avail, you might be feeling confused and doubting the process.
You might find yourself asking “why is this pain still here?”
You could even be asking Google “what is chronic pain syndrome?”
In an active community like Bend, OR, it’s common for people to push through pain for longer than they might otherwise, hoping it will eventually resolve on its own.
While chronic pain syndrome does affect about 1 in 4 individuals in the United States (reference - ATNS), it’s important to know that it does not mark the end of your active lifestyle. With the right kind of support, many folks are able to return to hiking, skiing, biking, and staying as active as they want year-round, and have the tools to help when symptoms do flare up.
What is chronic pain syndrome?
Chronic pain syndrome can occur following an injury or can come on out-of-the-blue without a clearly identifiable cause.
Most tissues (muscles, ligaments, and bone) heal within a 6-12 week time frame and acute pain from an injury typically resolves within a few weeks. When pain that persists for more than 3 months, it’s classified as chronic pain.
Chronic pain syndrome not only includes persistent pain, but can also include psychosocial factors such as:
Anxiety
Depression
Fatigue
Social isolation
Irritability
Insomnia
These experiences don’t mean your pain is imagined or “all in your head”. They reflect how chronic pain can feel consuming and affect the whole system, not just the body tissues.
One of the challenges with chronic pain syndrome is that there aren’t always easy or clear explanations for why pain continues. That doesn’t mean your pain is not real.
Pain is an alarm system in your body, a signal from your nervous system that something needs to change.
The confusing part is that this alarm doesn’t always signify tissue injury. Sometimes, the dial on the alarm gets turned up, leading to a more sensitive system, more frequent pain, and pain with activities that were previously not a problem.
The good news is that if your system can turn up the dial on your pain alarm, there are treatments, such as movement guidance, pacing, education, and nervous system support, that can help turn that dial back down, giving your system more space for movement and activity before it signals danger.
You’re not broken. There is an opportunity to create a less sensitive alarm system.
How chronic pain syndrome develops
For some folks experiencing chronic pain, the underlying cause is related to their nervous system.
When your nervous system is not overloaded it’s more flexible and you have a greater capacity to handle the wide range of experiences, from your sympathetic (fight, flight, freeze, fawn) to parasympathetic (rest,digest, heal) states.
However, repeated injury, ongoing pain, work and life stress, transitions, and/or illness, can all be perceived by your nervous system as threats to safety.
Over time, this can lead to increased sensitivity and a narrowing of your tolerance for activity and everyday stressors.
In short, you might find that things which previously did not cause pain now do.
As this happens, it’s common to develop more fear around movement. Over time, you may narrow how much activity you do, or stop doing activities that bring you joy altogether.
Common signs of chronic pain syndrome
Here are a few signs that your pain might fall into the category of chronic pain syndrome:
Pain that persists or spreads
Symptoms that fluctuate day to day
Pain that increases with stress or fatigue
Guarding, tension, or disconnection from your body
Activity avoidance or cycles of over-pushing
As always, if you are experiencing pain or dysfunction, it’s in your best interest to consult with your healthcare provider for an individual and nuanced discussion of your symptoms and diagnosis.
Why traditional approaches don’t always help chronic pain
Traditional healthcare approaches to pain can leave you wanting.
Perhaps you’ve been told there’s “nothing wrong.”
Maybe you’ve felt temporary relief of symptoms from treatment, but it doesn’t seem last.
Or, perhaps you’ve been given an exercise program that felt too generic or too aggressive leading to increased pain.
These approaches aren’t wrong, but they can miss an important piece of the puzzle when it comes to treating chronic pain.
A different approach to chronic pain treatment
When it comes to chronic pain treatment, many patients benefit from shifting away from urgency and the goal of “fixing” pain, toward a holistic physical therapy approach that supports and works with the nervous system.
Because every person, nervous system, and body is different, treatment is individualized.
It often starts by exploring your capacity and activity tolerance, along with what you want to be doing that brings meaning, purpose, and joy to your life.
If your goal is to get back out on the trails, we’ll look at how to rebuild confidence in movement, provide tools to support your nervous system, and gradually increase activity levels in a way that feels safe and sustainable.
You might even notice a shift from, “I need to get rid of this pain” to “What is this pain trying to tell me?”
How chronic pain treatment supports recovery
Chronic pain treatment in physical therapy expands the lens from a narrow focus on a “tissue issue” to whole-person care.
Chronic pain treatment encompasses:
Gentle, thoughtfully progressed movement
Education about pain
Nervous system support through breathwork and mobility practices
Activity pacing and an intentional return to activity
Collaborative goal setting and treatment planning
Respect for your lived experience
Rather than treatment being done to you, we work together to co-create your sessions, with safety, consent, and choice being front and center.
What healing can look like (even if pain is still present)
With chronic pain syndrome, success might not look like living pain-free.
Instead, it might look like having more good days than bad, less fear around movement, increased trust in your body, and greater curiosity and compassion toward your body and your symptoms.
Progress is rarely linear. The ups and downs along the way offer valuable information about how your body responds to activity, recovery, and stress, allowing you to make adjustments and meet your body where it is. Nothing has gone wrong. It’s all data that helps inform how you move forward.
When to seek support for chronic pain syndrome
Some indications it might be time to pursue treatment for chronic pain include:
Pain lasting longer than 3 months
Feeling stuck or discouraged
Wanting to stay active without flaring symptoms
Where to find physical therapy in Bend, OR for chronic pain treatment
Chronic pain syndrome is more common than many people realize and it’s treatable.
If you’re in or near Bend, Oregon and curious about physical therapy for chronic pain treatment, working with a provider who understands chronic pain can be an important part of feeling more supported in your body.
You can get started by learning more about physical therapy for chronic pain treatment in Bend, OR or by getting in touch with me.
If you have questions, I’d love to connect, hear how chronic pain is affecting your lifestyle and well-being, answer your questions, and explore how I can help.
You can schedule a free consultation here.
Disclaimer: this post is intended for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. If you are experiencing pain, it is always in your best interest to consult with your medical doctor and/or your physical therapist.
