Can TRE help with chronic pain?

Chronic pain is a complex condition with millions of people worldwide suffering from long-term pain, often with no obvious cause and no known cure. There are several different ways to treat or manage chronic pain, including TRE, which can be used to help alleviate or manage the symptoms of chronic pain and leave sufferers feeling better, more energised and more empowered.

Chronic pain affects millions of people worldwide. Recent research suggests that in the UK alone, around a quarter of all adults are living with chronic pain.

Are you one of them? It’s staggering and distressing to think that so many of us are suffering every day, but what exactly is chronic pain? And is there anything that can be done about it?

What is chronic pain?

Chronic pain is typically defined as longstanding pain that lasts for more than three months.

Chronic pain may be constant or it might come and go and it can happen anywhere in the body. The pain might be localised to a specific area or felt all over in different parts of the body.

Chronic pain may be dull or sharp. Like other types of pain, it can be experienced in many ways and will differ from person to person. It can be felt as an aching, throbbing, burning, shooting, stinging or stabbing sensation, or people may feel as though they are being squeezed or crushed.

There are some common causes of chronic pain, such as:

• Poor posture

• Too much lifting/carrying of heavy things

• A traumatic injury

• Too much stress, tensing up while trying to hold it all together

• Certain medical conditions, e.g. arthritis, cancer, fibromyalgia, endometriosis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) ...

• Pain from old, improperly healed wounds, breaks, sprains or strains

• No obvious physical cause

Yes, you read that right, sometimes there is no discernible cause – I have worked with many clients whose doctor checked them from top to bottom and concluded that “all is well”, which is a great result, as nothing really serious is wrong, but they were still in pain.

Our brain and spinal nerves form our central nervous system, and these communicate with one another constantly, sending important messages about what’s currently going on in our body.

When we’re unwell, injured or recovering from surgery, our nerves may send messages to our brain letting it know that we’re feeling pain in a certain area of our body. This is a normal and expected part of healing and recovery for many illnesses and injuries.

However, sometimes, our nerves may send out confused signals or our brain may misinterpret the signals, making us feel pain without any obvious cause.

How is chronic pain different to other types of pain?

The opposite of chronic pain is acute pain. This type of pain is usually easily explained - our big toe hurts because we stubbed it on a piece of furniture or our throat is sore because it’s inflamed.

Acute pain is expected and although it is unpleasant and can be disruptive, upsetting and frustrating, it has a clear cause and a remedy.

This kind of pain can usually be treated with natural remedies such as heat or cold packs or over-the-counter painkillers, and it will resolve within a fairly predictable time frame of days, weeks or possibly months, depending on the severity of the condition.

Chronic pain is vastly different.

There isn’t always an obvious cause and the medications prescribed for acute pain frequently don’t work for chronic pain.

With seemingly no cause, no treatment and no set recovery period, it’s easy to see why people living with chronic pain can experience depression, anxiety, fatigue, uncertainty about the future and feelings of hopelessness and frustration.

How is chronic pain treated?

As chronic pain cannot be cured, as such, the focus is often on managing the pain rather than treating it, and helping a person to live with their pain, rather than trying to make the pain itself go away.

Pain management is usually a multi-disciplinary approach with people from many different healthcare and related professions working together to try and devise a package of care that will help.

This might include medicines, such as anti-inflammatories, prescription pain relief and antidepressants, alongside physical therapy and psychological support.

Sometimes, people living with chronic pain may also be offered surgery or may turn to alternative therapies, such as acupuncture and hypnosis.

However, it can take many months - and even years - for people to get to this point, as chronic pain is often misunderstood and misdiagnosed, meaning they often suffer in the meantime with no diagnosis or treatment plan.

Self-Help for chronic pain

People diagnosed with chronic pain are often encouraged to utilise self-help techniques to help manage and deal with their long-term pain and the associated symptoms.

This might include:

• Regular exercise, as much as their condition allows

• Pacing daily activities to avoid overexertion

• Meditation and mindfulness

• Relaxation
  

Can TRE help?

Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) can be an innate and natural way of ridding the body of stored tension and trauma and helping the nervous system to regulate itself, which makes it ideal for those living with chronic pain.

TRE can:

• Reduce the stress and anxiety experienced by people with chronic pain

• Improve sleep

• Make you feel more relaxed and/or energised

• Improve mental health

• Improve pain (or even get rid of it altogether!)

If you’re living with chronic pain, one of the major benefits of TRE is that it puts you back in control. Living with chronic pain can make you feel helpless and despondent, particularly if you’re facing long waiting lists to receive a diagnosis or treatment.

With TRE, you can take matters into your own hands, which can improve your mental health and make you feel more empowered.

As always, I'm not promising anything at all, I am telling you from my own and my clients' experiences – and although some conditions can't be cured, I've worked with many clients who have noticed a big improvement in their pain levels.

Are you ready to find the light at the end of the tunnel?

Once you’ve mastered the techniques of TRE, you can use it whenever you like to help you manage your chronic pain symptoms alongside any other treatments that help you.

Because TRE is such a powerful tool, I'd always recommend learning it properly and safely.

As a certified TRE provider, I teach you TRE in a way that is safe and comfortable, giving you the confidence to trust your own body as you learn how to use the modality.

If you’re living with chronic pain and looking for alternative ways to manage your symptoms, and you’d like to learn more or get started with TRE, get in touch today.

Alternatively, you can book a free, no-obligation discovery call, allowing you to meet me and ask any burning questions before deciding whether you'd like to start your TRE journey with me.

I’d love to help you discover the power of TRE – and most importantly how amazing your body is.

You deserve to feel so much better.

Natural. Innate. TREmendous.