Yes, you lifted that box and got a twinge in your back. You did too much jogging too soon and your back is killing you now. That makes sense. But what about those times when you just turn wrong and pain shoots up and down your spine? Or when you’re in pain from that constant crick in your neck? Or that limp you get sometimes? Or the arm pain you wake up with every morning?
Typically what happens to us is that we do things that trigger a pain. We think we just did something to cause the pain, but we didn’t. The pain has been lying resident in our bodies since something that happened long ago. Listen to John’s story.
When John came in, complaining of a pain in his back and neck, he said he hadn’t done anything to cause it, it just happened. After we began to talk, John remembered a really slight bump that happened to him in his car on an icy road in Chicago one winter. Nothing happened to his car but yes, he recalled being jolted. Not much. But it happened.
It turned out that John’s “nothing-much-happened” was the event from which grew his daily and constant pain. It didn’t seem like much then, just a slight headache, and he didn’t even consider doing anything about it. But his body did. It moved around, trying to find a position where it didn’t hurt so much. And that compensation lead to another pain, followed by another compensation, and so on.
Now, John wasn’t aware of any of his body’s compensations. The first time he even thought about his neck and back pain was right before he walked in. He thought it started yesterday and that it could probably be fixed today, or surely by tomorrow. But really, that pain started a long time ago and his body and spine had adjusted themselves over time so that his “normal” posture was out of whack and suddenly the pain could no longer be accommodated for. And he hurt. Bad.
That’s where Structural Therapy can take over, helping you and your body and your spine readjust itself to a pain-free posture much like it should have been for all that time.
We can’t go undo the decisions you made — or didn’t make — or the things that happened to your body back when today’s pain got its start. But we can help you fix your own posture and return it to the shape it ought to be in. And then, show you ways to keep your posture from reverting and you from following your old habits that caused you to scream in pain and walk in our door one day saying, “Help me! I hurt!”
But, you gotta wanna. The longer you wait, the longer you will be in pain. It’s your choice.
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