How Your Daily Life is Affected by Back Pain

Maybe you can relate to this story about how back pain affects your daily life. It’s been a busy morning, getting things together to drop the kids off at school, rushing to make sure they have a good breakfast, maybe even eating a balanced breakfast yourself. Everyone’s ready to get out the door, and you finish tying your shoes and stand up- only to stop short because of a sharp pain in your back. 

You take a breath and keep moving, getting the kids into the car, buckling yourself in, and as you proceed with your commute, that sharp moment of pain becomes a dull, throbbing ache that persists through your drive and into the office. 

 You make it through the day, maybe by constantly stretching and repositioning yourself, maybe by taking pain pills. By the time you get home and start dinner, you’re exhausted and pretty stressed out. 

 If you’re lucky you can keep it together enough to avoid snapping at your kids or spouse. Maybe you take a hot shower and find some relief, and you go to bed.

 Only to wake up to that same throbbing ache the next morning.

Is your daily  life affected by back pain?

Some 80-90% of us will experience back pain in our lives. Maybe it’s just a short spell, but usually it comes and goes, as pain often does, because pain is simply a message for change, between your body and your brain.

For all of the statistics about daily back pain affecting people, I think it’s really important to consider what you’re missing out on. How is this pain affecting you in your daily life?  

Maybe you have to skip your weekly adult league volleyball game. This might be one of your favorite activities, not to mention a major social event for your busy weeks. Maybe you skip your morning nature walks for a while, and you start to notice minor stressors bothering you more than normal.

Here’s a link to get our Guide to Getting Rid of Low Back Pain, if you’re ready to get rid of your persistent low back pain.

How does daily back pain affect you?

When you are thinking about getting rid of your back pain, are you considering how much this back pain has affected your daily life? The fact of the matter is, your daily life is always implicated in your back pain.

While studies often show that posture and muscle imbalances “don’t cause” back pain, we always find connections to them in our exams of people who show up with back pain.

We know, for instance, that frequent repetitions of small movements cause repetitive strain injuries. Well, what is posture if not the tiny movements required to keep you in a certain position?

And muscle imbalances are likely the end result of our brain/body using the positions it’s most familiar with, and adapting to get better at them.

Remember that not all adaptations are good for us. Shortened hip flexors (which are often connected with back pain), are the end result of the body adapting to sitting in a chair too often.

One patient’s encounter with daily back pain.

We had a patient come in the other day, we’ll call him Dan. He’s a tax professional, and last year during tax season his back got so tight that one morning when he was getting ready for work he felt a pop, and had to sit down because the pain in his lower back was too intense for him to hold himself up. 

 He was unable to do very much for the next few days, and over the next week he was barely able to “stretch” himself back into daily function. 

 He knew that the problem wasn’t fixed though, so this year he made an appointment with Dr. Brandon ahead of tax season, and he’s on track to be able to make it through the most stressful time of his year with no pain.

Possible effects of daily back pain

Many people report having a hard time getting up in the morning when they’re experiencing back pain. They feel stiff and tight, and sometimes they experience numbness or even weakness. 

 The latter are more extreme examples, but the point is the fact that it’s more prevalent in the morning.

 This is due to the fact that, in the night, our joint capsules all get a bit more full of synovial fluid. Movement of the joints flushes them out and gets them to a more normal size. As we move in the morning, we start to loosen up, and sometimes our pain starts to ease a bit. 

 All of this is to say that sometimes, when you’re experiencing a flare up of back pain, you want to move with intention in the morning, because even simple tasks like making the bed or putting on socks can trigger your pain.

 When you start your day with a flare up of low back pain, how do you think the rest of the day is going to go?

Here again is that link to our FREE guide

Daily back pain and productivity

Many people are concerned about how their back pain affects their productivity at work, and that’s very valid. My concern for you is how you are functioning as a person, however. Not as a  source of labor. 

When you come into our office with back pain, Dr. Brandon is going to ask you how this pain is affecting your life. If the concern you state is related to your job, even if you are the business owner, he’s going to ask you to dig much deeper. 

Here’s why: your pain is closely related to the stress you’re experiencing in life. If your primary concern doesn’t have anything to do with your passions, your interests, the things you love, then perhaps part of the problem is that you desperately need interests like that.

You are a whole person. You have a family, you have friends, you probably have some hobbies. These need to be prioritized more in everyone’s life. And if they are, job related stress will probably diminish on its own. 

Managing your daily back pain at work

That said, you do need to be intentional about how you spend your days at work. Standing desks have been growing in popularity in recent years, and they do provide a lot of needed variety. 

Standing is tiring too though, and comes with its own set of problems. I personally love sitting on the ground. I have a low desk, a comfortable mat, and a cushion. You’re going to get major movement diversity this way, because it’s very challenging to stay comfortable for more than 10 minutes in any position.

BONUS! 3 Exercises you can use for your daily back pain

Back pain in your daily leisure time

Probably one of the main things that will be neglected when you’re in pain, is your leisure time. The activities that you love to do still require effort, and sometimes they can be painful as well. This can be pretty depressing, being unable to perform your favorite activities. 

Activities like hiking and landscaping both require significant physical endurance. Gardening is an activity that requires constant bending, squatting, kneeling, and other challenging positions. Trails are often uneven and rough, making them challenging to traverse.

 Just a little soreness in the back can lead to unpleasantness with any of these activities, even making it so you don’t want to do them.

This really causes a cascade effect on your health.

Here again is that link to our FREE guide

Mental health and daily back pain

In today’s world, our leisure time is probably one of the best strategies we have for maintaining positive mental health. If you can’t do the activities you love because of daily back pain, you could get pretty down about it.

Depression and anxiety are two conditions or symptoms that can be affected by this decline in meaningful activity. Mental and emotional factors are often overlooked when considering causes of pain, but they are frequently connected, and can affect your whole body health in massive ways, down to a hormonal level.

 Your leisure time is so important that we try to find out right away what activities you’ve been missing in your life, and we try to figure out how to get you back into them. This could help your overall health enough to make the next steps just a bit easier.

We often try to get you to scale your activities, that is, do less of them, rather than stop them entirely.  

Long-lasting, or chronic, daily back pain can take a real toll on your emotional health.

Stress and the pain response are closely tied in our brains. Our pain can be heightened by a bigger stress response.

Additionally, when you’re constantly stressed out, you’re in a state of fight-or-flight, which makes it impossible to get the rest needed to recover.

This is an example of why many of the workers we see in our office don’t seem to get better quickly. Working long hours leads to increased stress, which leads to decreased rest and healing. Then the physical condition feeds the stress response, and they’re in a cycle that perpetuates the pain and the stress response.

Mindfulness to manage back pain

This is why we often use mindfulness as a strategy to manage your pain. It also has far-reaching mental health benefits, so it’s usually a high impact treatment.

 Depression and anxiety are both closely tied to daily back pain as well. You can be depressed about your pain, or about how it’s affecting your life. You can be anxious about whether or not you’ll ever get better. 

 Both of these mindsets perpetuate the pain response, keeping you in the cycle mentioned above. Both of these conditions can actually intensify your pain experience as well. And your daily back pain can exacerbate these conditions.

Getting to the root cause of your daily back pain

We use a system called the Movement Method in our office, and it really helps get to the root cause of your daily back pain. We’ve discovered that it’s really not that complex to manage back pain, but it is difficult because it requires consistent changes to harmful habits.

Through our conversations with you, and our movement assessment, we can get a good idea of what you are doing that is keeping you in pain. We can see how your habitual postures have caused your body to change. And we can see what you CAN do, in order to build on that in a positive way.

You are different from every other person who has suffered from back pain, even if you have a condition that most people will get in their lives. Your life situation is unique, so the solutions we find with you will be slightly different than the next person.

The exercises may even look the same as the next person, but they will certainly be individualized to you specifically. Details about how each movement feels, through each part of the process, are important to us over the course of a care plan. The awareness is very valuable to you as you move into a place of independence and resilience.

Intentional habits and daily back pain

Of course, you will be the one responsible for your health overall. What we do in the office will speed things along, and it will ensure that you’re not wasting your time doing ineffective or harmful things.

 You need to do intentional work most days, or even every day, in order to make real change in your life, and in your condition. There are many different exercise that accomplish similar or the same results. You don’t need to do all of them, just one that works. You do need to make sure to progress the movement though, as your body typically adapts quickly to small rehab movements. 

 In addition to the everyday “stretching” movements that tend to help you in your daily back pain, there are habitual changes that can be made. This is also important, because it’s often habitual positions or movements that get you into painful encounters.

Here is your link to our FREE guide

Habitual postures causing your daily back pain

If you have low back pain, and you exist in modern society, there’s a good chance excessive chair-sitting is a factor in your daily back pain. That’s a habitual position that you can change by sitting on the floor at certain times, or even standing at other times. 

 Again, awareness becomes a big piece of the puzzle here, as your brain prefers autopilot. You come into the house after a long day of work, you see the couch, and that comfort is inviting. Your brain seeks comfort in the short-term, even if it causes long-term problems. So you need to be aware that you makes choices before even thinking about them, but those choices might be harmful to your health if chosen over and over for years.

Of course, you will be the one responsible for your health overall. What we do in the office will speed things along, and it will ensure that you’re not wasting your time doing ineffective or harmful things.

You need to do intentional work most days, or even every day, in order to make real change in your life, and in your condition. There are many different exercise that accomplish similar or the same results. You don’t need to do all of them, just one that works. You do need to make sure to progress the movement though, as your body typically adapts quickly to small rehab movements. 

In addition to the everyday “stretching” movements that tend to help you in your daily back pain, there are habitual changes that can be made. This is also important, because it’s often habitual positions or movements that get you into painful encounters.

Diet and stress management in your daily back pain

There are also many factors in the experience of pain that are not physical. Sleep, stress, and nutrition all play a role in your pain. If you are not managing these well, you will probably experience higher levels of pain. 

Eating a moderate diet that includes fruits and vegetables, and a minimal amount of processed foods, can cut down on the systemic inflammation in your body. Getting adequate sleep can balance your hormones and neurotransmitters. Coping with your stress in a healthy way can go a long way in managing your daily back pain.

Relying on your community to help you with daily back pain

One final consideration that’s often overlooked is community. Do you have a group of people who care about you? Do you have a network of friends and support people? Do you have anyone to talk to about your problems?

 The effects of community in the pain experience cannot be overstated. Having people to talk to is critical, and it can be especially helpful if they have similar issues to you, or have in the past. This plays off the relevance of mental health in physical pain. If your mental and emotional health is solid, you’ll be more resilient and able to manage physical pain. 

 It can also be helpful to hear about what’s helping your friends in their own self-care. Learning new techniques in a healthy way can be very supportive to your daily back pain.

 We encourage you to reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns about your own daily back pain experience. We can’t get too specific, but if you’re in a headspace for it, general information can be very helpful as well. We can set you on the right path on your self-care journey.