Is Chronic Pain a Disability
Bumps and bruises happen, and no matter how much pain you’re in you can usually resolve yourself to it all with the understanding that it is only temporary. That’s true for everything from a sprained ankle to a bruised tailbone or even something more serious like a dislocated shoulder. The human body has a wonderful ability to heal and when you’re young especially the pain goes away fairly quickly most of the time. But for some people of all ages they’re experiencing pain that is not going away and it’s taking a toll on their quality of life. If you have chronic pain, you may want to know is chronic pain a disability.
The general guideline for this is that if you have been in pain and it is stemming from the same cause for more than 3 months then you are considered to have chronic pain. For anyone who is new to experiencing this it may be helpful to have an understanding of what’s going on exactly. When an injury heals normally the pain signals that are sent to your brain from the site of the trauma or degeneration eventually subside. For a person with chronic pain these signals don’t subside even though the injury has healed as functionally as possible.
There can be any number of sources for chronic pain, even including psychogenic pain where pain is resulting from stimulus that has nothing to do with the body at all. The most unfortunate scenario for people will be when then have chronic pain resulting from a major surgery that was required for them. It is in these instances when chronic pain is usually the most debilitating and may also take away a person’s ability to do the work they used to be able to do. This is when the person will start considering chronic pain disability and whether or not there is anything that can be done for them.
So is chronic pain a disability? It certainly can be, but whether or not a person can receive state or provincial assistance because of their ongoing pain will depend on where they live. It usually is possible, and primarily if the person is unable to work to support themselves because the chronic pain makes it impossible for them to do that.
Nerve Connections
Most of the time when a person has this type of pain that continues on and doesn’t become much less severe it is because that an initial injury has lead to the nerves leading to and from that spot of the body becoming damaged. This can qualify it is as neurogenic pain, but the reason the pain is lasting and doesn’t diminish may not be related to nerves or any specific injury or damaging event at all. Asking is chronic pain a disability is a legitimate question, and the best example of this with chronic pain without any injury is fibromyalgia.
The pain that people with this condition suffer from is never ending too, and it occurs on its own without any triggering event happening to the person. Whether that’s an injury of something else. The pain of fibromyalgia can definitely be debilitating to the point that they’ll want to know about chronic pain disability. Fortunately there are medications like Piroxicam that can provide them with relief from their chronic pain and for many people using these medications is what allows them to have more of a normal life outside of asking is chronic pain a disability.
Other examples of when chronic pain is occurring without resulting from injury or trauma may be:
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Endometriosis
- Interstitial cystitis
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- TMJ (temporomandibular joint dysfunction)
Additional Risk Factors and Treatment Options
Another point of consideration around is chronic pain a disability is an unfortunate one, and that’s with the fact that it tends to affect women more often than men. You may also experience it worse if your region on pain is anywhere below your hips and you are significantly overweight or obese. And if your chronic pain is resulting from fibromyalgia then one of the things you need to do is make sure you sleep well as often as possible. There are studies that have shown this reduces the severity of the condition for many people.
Painkiller medications are nearly always a godsend for people who have chronic pain, but if you are one of them you may want to know about pain relief therapy alternatives that can be used for enhanced pain relief. Nerve block injections is one of them, where the injection prevents nerves from sending the pain signals to your brain. Some people have found that acupuncture helps with chronic pain too, and there is also electrical stimulation treatment for chronic pain.
Is chronic pain a disability? It is considering it continues long term and affects people very profoundly.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The above information is intended to increase awareness of health information and does not suggest treatment or diagnosis. This information is not a substitute for individual medical attention and should not be construed to indicate that use of the drug is safe, appropriate, or effective for you. See your health care professional for medical advice and treatment.
