3 Reasons Why Your Pain Is Flaring Up

Pain flare ups…

We talk about them A LOT at our physio clinic in Stewarton. As frustrating as they are, pain flare ups are part of the process when it comes to recovering from long term pain or injury. If you don’t have a flare up at some point in the journey, then you could argue that you’re not doing it right!

We do understand that pain flare ups are very distressing. As much as we like to think that reassuring people that they are normal is enough, we know that this doesn’t help every time. What can help though, is knowing some potential reasons as to why your symptoms have flared up. We’ve listed 3 of the most common below:

  1. You’ve put the injured area, or pain location through more load than what it is willing to tolerate at this moment in time. Everything has a tolerance, that if exceeded, can lead to a flare in symptoms. Look back at what you’ve done in the previous days, have you done your exercises more than normal? Walked more? Done an activity thats not normal?

  2. Sleep deprivation - we know that pain can disrupt sleep. This can lead to a vicious cycle as sleep deprivation makes us more sensitive to pain, the more sensitive we are to pain, the more pain we experience during simple daily tasks. If you’ve noticed your sleep quality deteriorating, and symptoms becoming worse, then this is likely to be a big contributor.

  3. Stress management - not managing the stress of daily life appropriately, makes our nervous system more sensitive. This increased sensitivity can lead to movements of positions that are already painful, feeling more painful than normal.

These are usually the top 3 things we ask about if someone is experiencing a flare up. We find that it always helps to have someone to talk to during a pain flare up, so we generally advise reaching out to your Physiotherapist. If pain flare ups are starting to disrupt your daily life, and you haven’t sought help, then we encourage you to reach out to our team today to start taking control of you symptoms.

Call 01563262123 or email info@aristosphysiotherapy.co.uk to chat with a member of our team.

Ryan Barr