The Chronic Back Pain Recovery Cycle
The Chronic Back Pain Recovery Cycle describes how the mind and body can work together to free a person from chronic back pain. The solution begins by understanding that most chronic back pain actually isn't caused by damage to the structures of the back, but rather is due to the effects of muscle tension, stress, and inactivity. After receiving a medical evaluation, and learning why it is safe to resume normal activity, the fear and distress that accompanies chronic back pain begins to diminish.
Feeling some confidence, it is now possible to increase physical activity, step by step. Once you see for yourself that this does not, in the long run, significantly increase your pain, you are well on the way to recovery. You begin to relax further, move more normally, and develop the confidence needed to resume more and more activities. This leads to improved mood, less tension, and less pain.
If along the way, you discover that there are other important sources of emotional stress in your life, the Back Sense program offers ways to work constructively with these so that they don't continue to contribute to the pain.
Eventually, after regaining all normal activities and developing strength, flexibility, and endurance; you can live a normal life and no longer think of yourself as someone with a "bad back."
The Recovery Cycle Diagram
