Acute Versus Chronic Pain: What's The Difference?

Today's post from hillaryrobyn.com (see link below) looks at the differences between acute and chronic pain and how they can affect your daily lives. Many people are not sure what sort of pain they have but luckily, if the pain goes away after a while, the brain has the ability to forget what it was like. If that pain persists, so that they have to learn to live with an unending daily cycle of pain, then the picture is very different. The outside world tends to see pain as pain and not be able to discern a difference but however unpleasant acute pain can be, it's nothing in comparison to chronic relentless pain that you are forced to learn to live with. This article addresses the issue and hopefully clears up the doubts in people's minds. It sounds depressing but if you have acute pain, you have hope because you know it will go away eventually. Chronic pain, as with neuropathy for instance, is a bit like having a life sentence and requires a mind set adjustment that for many people is extremely difficult and certainly life-changing.

Chronic vs Acute: Similar But Not The Same
hillaryrobyn 11/30/2017

Since my journey with pain started a few years ago, I’ve heard a lot of opinions about the subject. I’ve touched on this issue before, but today I’d like to go a bit further in depth about it.

Although they seem similar, chronic illness/pain is much, much different from acute illness/pain.

Acute Pain

In medical terminology, acute means an injury or illness that comes on quickly but lasts temporarily. For instance, if you break your arm, your pain is probably going to be terrible, but it won’t last. If you wake up one morning with cold symptoms, you might have an acute upper respiratory infection. It’s going to suck, but it’ll pass. 

Chronic Pain

The term chronic is applied to any health issue that will last longer than three months. For instance, high blood pressure and diabetes are generally chronic. Autoimmune disorders and diseases like MS are chronic and generally progressive in nature, meaning they’ll continue to worsen over time. 

The Difference

Acute and chronic pain affect everyone differently. Acute pain or illness is no fun, that’s for sure, but it’s so much better than chronic pain or illness because it goes away. Anyone can handle a few days or even a week or more of an illness, but dealing with it for years and possibly the rest of your life is a different matter entirely.

For example, most people have woken up with a crick in their neck after sleeping wrong at some point in their life. And it sucks. The discomfort is under the surface and you can’t turn your neck without sharp pain. You take over the counter medications but nothing seems to touch it. For a couple of days you’re just miserable. But then, you wake up and it’s worked itself out and you’re back to normal.

Imagine, though, if that last bit never happened. That you never wake up “normal” again. That day in, day out you’ve got this crick in your neck that won’t go away and that won’t subside no matter how much ibuprofen or Tylenol or Aleve you take. It’s absolutely exhausting.

Then, on top of that, add in the pain that radiates from your neck. Many chronic neck problems cause issues with the nerves that run through the rest of the body. When a nerve is impinged in the neck, it causes problems all throughout the body. Depending on the location of the problem, you can have pain down one or both extremities and/or up into the head. And it’s constant. The location and type of pain may vary, but it doesn’t stop.

Depending upon the cause of the pain, there may or may not be a way to fix it. You might be able to have a surgical procedure, but there’s no guarantee that will work. As a matter of fact, it’s likely to make things worse. You can try alternative treatments like essential oils and chiropractic adjustments, but those will either do nothing or help momentarily. You can buy new pillows, you can change your bed, you can use ice or heat, but all of those things are just temporary solutions to a chronic problem.

This doesn’t just apply to pain, either. There is a difference between being tired because you stayed up all night and being fatigued because you’re sick. To know the difference, think about how you feel after a night’s sleep. If you go to bed exhausted and wake up refreshed, that’s not fatigue. If you’re sleepy but functional, that’s not fatigue.

Fatigue is the constant feeling that you’re walking through molasses. Your brain may want to do things but your body will not comply under any circumstances. Fatigue doesn’t go away with rest or sleep. It’s not a comfortable sleepy feeling, it’s an uncomfortable exhausted feeling. You feel as if all of the earth’s gravity has found you and is pushing you to the ground. 

Final Thoughts

Basically what I am trying to say here is that there is no comparison between acute medical issues and chronic. If you’ve only ever had acute pain, you cannot know what a person with chronic pain is dealing with. Just the same, if you’ve only ever been tired, you can’t know what a person with fatigue is dealing with.

If you’ve had pain that was helped by over the counter medications, that’s wonderful! If you’ve overexerted yourself and it only took one night of sleep (or even a couple) to get better, awesome! But just imagine that the pain never stopped and the tiredness never lifted.

If you’re talking to someone and they mention that they have a chronic health issue, try to empathize with them instead of drawing solely from your experiences. They are not weak because they need pain medications and you don’t. They’re not broken because they need anti-depressants and you don’t. They’re human, just like you. The difference is that they are dealing with a lifetime of sickness and you aren’t.

https://hillaryrobyn.com/2017/11/30/chronic-vs-acute-similar-but-not-the-same/