My biggest breakthrough in my journey with persistent pain took place when I was taught by a physiotherapist to understand pain.  Before this I thought that all my pain related to my ‘damaged’ back and ‘damaged’ sciatic nerve root, and I had no idea that there were other factors in my experience of pain.  I knew no better than to seek medications that would resolve my pain, injections and surgery.  I didn’t understand that everything about me, what I did and how I felt impacted on my pain. 

Armed with my better understanding of pain in general I was able to start to understand MY pain. I was helped to start to notice what was making my pain better and worse, and helped to start to self-manage my pain.  Learning to self-manage my pain opened the door for me to stop taking medications, stop seeking ‘fixes’ to my pain, and start to live a better life with pain. 

I hope these resources will help you to understand better pain in general.   A very important first step to understanding and managing YOUR pain.