Are You Causing Your Own Pain?

Oct 22
10:03

2010

Gary England

Gary England

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When our joints or muscles ache, our first reaction may be that we worked too hard at some physical task and “it will go away”. Later when it hasn’t, we may visit the doctor to identify the cause of our pain. Unfortunately the doctor has many patients to treat and doesn’t always have the time and patience to discover the underlying problem of which the pain may be only a symptom. The doctor can help us to understand where the pain is and what hurts but many times it is up to us to figure out what is really causing the problem.

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We may not realize that some of the things we do,Are You Causing Your Own Pain? Articles often inadvertently, can cause our pain. Sometimes we need to thoroughly examine our behavior to identify habits or other actions that could be the culprit. This may even require us to stand beside ourselves, like an outside observer, and critically examine our activities looking for some incriminating action or habit. It could be something innocuous or even something we do subconsciously. Once we have that moment of recognition, we can quickly come to an understanding of the underlying problem and resolve it.

I say this from experience, having endured several episodes of “unexplained” joint pain that turned out to be something I was doing to me. I had elbow pain that wouldn’t go away; the joint hurt but only enough to be annoying. Finally the “aha” moment hit me when I realized that while sleeping on my side I would place my upper arm out straight in front of me and rest it on the mattress like a flying buttress. It was the constant pressure on the arm during the night that made my joint ache. Once I trained myself to sleep differently the pain magically disappeared.

I also had another experience where my knees ached. Again I had that “aha” moment when I awoke during the night and discovered the problem. For some reason I had started lying on my back in bed with my legs crossed. If I fell asleep and did not turn on my side, I would subconsciously tighten the leg muscles to keep my legs together. The long periods of muscle clenching put pressure on the knees until they ached. Mystery solved.

When we have pain in our joints, there may be a chronic condition that should be treated by a doctor. But sometimes, if we think about it, the pain is only a symptom of a habit or activity that we do to ourselves that is the real cause.

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