Pain that sticks around or keeps recurring is almost always a mindbody issue.
My physio couldn’t explain why my shoulder persisted for months after what was thought to be a minor injury. I did all the exercises diligently, but the pain only got worse. Then it started spreading into my neck and upper back. When it finally settled down, I got the same pain in the other shoulder for no apparent reason. Of course I tried to find explanations. “Maybe I slept on it wrong?” “Maybe I overdid it when I was gardening?” But now I understand that none of that makes sense from a functional perspective.
Chronic stress was keeping my muscles tight.
This was the piece of the puzzle I was missing. The constant ongoing stress in my life was keeping my muscles constantly tight. And my oversensitized nervous system was interpreting the feeling of tightness and translating it into pain.
Pain is an output of the brain, not an experience in your body.
Our brains create pain when they believe we are in danger. The pain is a signal for us to hide away somewhere and give ourselves time to heal.
These symptoms occurred during a very difficult time in my life, and my brain was trying to protect me by giving me pain to keep me ‘safe’. Once I understood this process and started to address my anxiety, internal stress, and began to allow myself to process my emotions, my pain started to fade.
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Quote from Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by Dr John Sarno.