It's important to try to stay in work even if you're in pain. Research shows that people become less active and more depressed when they don't work. Being at work may distract you from the pain and might not make it worse.
If you're injured on the job and can't work, you should be able to file for workers' compensation benefits. A successful claim will replace two-thirds of your wages plus pay for medical care and rehabilitation. If you lost the use of a part of your body, you might get payment, depending on which body part is injured.
Chronic pain can limit a person's mobility and strength, making it difficult for them to sit, stand, and lift objects in the workplace. Repetitive activities, such as typing, may be especially challenging for those with nonstop pain.
Regardless of its source, chronic pain can disrupt nearly all aspects of someone's life – beyond physical pain, it can impede their ability to work and participate in social and other activities like they used to, impact their relationships and cause feelings of isolation, frustration and anxiety.
When it intensifies to level 8, pain makes even holding a conversation extremely difficult and your physical activity is severely impaired. Pain is said to be at level 9 when it is excruciating, prevents you speaking and may even make you moan or cry out. Level 10 pain is unbearable.
Severe pain is defined as pain that interferes with some or all of the activities of daily living. May cause bed confinement or chair rest because of the severity. Typically doesn't go away, and treatment needs to be continuous for days, weeks, months, or years.
A stubborn and complex condition to treat, when chronic pain persists, it can lead to fatigue and depression. FATIGUE: Chronic pain makes it hard to get restorative sleep and the lack of sleep can have sufferers wake up in increased pain.
Common symptoms of chronic pain include mild to very bad pain that does not go away as expected after an illness or injury. It may be shooting, burning, aching, or electrical. You may also feel sore, tight, or stiff in the affected area.
There are many causes of chronic pain. It may have started from an illness or injury, from which you may have long since recovered from, but pain remained. Or there may be an ongoing cause of pain, such as arthritis or cancer. Many people suffer chronic pain in the absence of any past injury or evidence of illness.
Pain therefore increases heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate. If these physiological responses are prolonged, especially in a person with poor physiological reserves, it can lead to ischaemic damage (Wei et al, 2014).
The most powerful pain relievers are opioids. They are very effective, but they can sometimes have serious side effects. There is also a risk of addiction. Because of the risks, you must use them only under a doctor's supervision.
Researchers have developed a type of treatment called pain reprocessing therapy (PRT) to help the brain “unlearn” this kind of pain. PRT teaches people to perceive pain signals sent to the brain as less threatening.
It Can Lead to Other Health Problems When nerve pain is ignored, it throws your entire body off. The system our body used to signal and acknowledge pain begins to break down, which can lead to other health problems. You may begin to feel more fatigued and experience weakening of your muscles.
It can be constant or intermittent. For example, headaches can be considered chronic pain when they continue over many months or years – even if the pain isn't always present. Chronic pain is often due to a health condition, like arthritis, fibromyalgia, or a spine condition.
