For the last 20+ years I’ve been working primarily with women who suffer with lower back pain. For the last five years I’ve dedicated my time to reaching as many women as possible across Australia to help change their approach to managing their pain.
The health message that most women hear about their pain is not helpful. In fact, it’s not even accurate. It’s dictated by an old narrative, one that only looks at the results of scans whilst underestimating the impact of mental health on pain.
A significant reason why we are experiencing a national back pain crisis and so many Australian women are using prescription medication to control their pain is due to our current mental health crisis. Our brains can not tell the difference between physical pain and emotional pain and if you happen to have a sensitive lower back and you add some emotional turbulence to your life, it’s a recipe for disaster.
The impact of back pain on our community is at crisis level. It costs the Australian Government $4.2 billion per year and is the number one cause of 'years lived with disability’ worldwide. Women in their 30s, 40s and 50s are suffering greatly due to the complexity of their lives - high stress jobs, demands of home life combined with anxiety/depression and poor sleeping.
Here is the health message that I want women with back pain to hear -
You’re not broken. Your back tissues are just hypersensitive, not damaged.
If you are stressed, your pain will be worse.
If you suffer with anxiety, your pain will be worse.
You don’t have back pain because your core is weak.
You don’t have back pain because your posture is bad.
Injections, surgery and strong medications are usually unhelpful.
You need to exercise your mind and body to improve your pain.
It is time women truly understood how their mind and body interact to amplify their pain and then what to do about it! Less medication, scanning and costly treatment and more gentle movement, deep breathing, mindfulness training and strengthening.
If you have ongoing back pain and you've already tried 20 different therapies without positive results, it might be time to see how reprocessing your pain pathways, through brain activities, can improve your pain and quality of life.
