How to Make Your Chronic Pain Go Away On Your Own

Ah, chronic pain. I love talking about this.

Just kidding. I don’t, really. I talk about it because I think it’s important to share my experience and awareness around this awful, awful thing. But I most certainly wouldn’t tell you that I derive pleasure from discussing chronic pain.

My distaste for it is one of the many reasons why I decided to take the treatment for my chronic pain into my own hands.

Trust me, I still talk to my doctor about my health. I am still currently taking medication and supplements to help with my daily pain levels. But I grew tired of feeling like a victim of my circumstances, and relying on someone else to fix how I feel. I wanted to at least try - that’s the thing: to try! - to get my pain levels under control with what I could do each day, little by little.

I figured I would share what I am doing because chronic pain is a HUGE issue nowadays, but I don’t think it has to be. I’m sure I will get backlash for this, but I really do believe that the increase of chronic pain across our society isn’t JUST because of increased dangers to our health, how we have evolved and the world we live in. It’s also because we have all collectively stopped taking care of ourselves (myself included, if you feel like I’m only calling you out.)

Why would our bodies NOT reject that and get angry about it?

I’ve only started taking this journey seriously in the last few months, but already I’ve noticed a difference. I hope that if you take similar steps to me, you will have results that will also make you feel better. And ultimately, help you live a better life.

Continue reading below to find out what I’ve been doing.

Easing Into Routine Exercise

If you research chronic pain, one the treatments that you read on basically every website is exercise. But one thing that so many people with chronic pain struggle with is that too much exercise only flares up the pain. I’ve experienced this myself. And the threshold for “too much” exercise is very low.

I’ve been frustrated by that for a long time, especially given that I adore the hefty workouts I used to do. And each time in the last couple years that I’ve tried to get back into exercise, I went too hard too soon and flared my pain levels up, inevitably making me want to not exercise at all.

Rather vicious cycle, innit?

The good news is that you CAN take exercise down to its bare bones, and very slowly work your way up from them. It takes a LOT of patience (seriously….so much patience) but I can tell you from experience that it makes you feel better!

I started taking my exercise routine more seriously at the start of the year, but I’m happy to say that for the most part, I’ve stuck to it. There’s some weeks that are better than others, of course, but I haven’t completely given up. It’s been going at a turtle’s pace, but I’ve learned that a turtle’s pace is better than a full stop.

I was just telling my boyfriend earlier today how happy I was that my cardio is getting better - I started the year going on treadmill at 2.5 speed, and now I am up to 3.4! With a touch of incline, too. Do you see what I mean about turtle’s pace? But hey, progress is progress. And I am very excited about it.

There is a lucky advantage for me that my boyfriend already knows a lot about exercise and is pretty fit, so he can help me tailor a program to my needs and build it up as time goes on. But I know that there are plenty of other programs out there that are designed for the same thing! You just have to dig, do your research and work through some trial and error.

There will inevitably be ups and downs. Some days I get done with my workout and I feel like I pushed myself a little harder than I probably should have. That is okay: it’s a HUGE learning experience, and trying is better than doing nothing at all.

I can confidently tell you that my general pain levels are way better even now than they were at the end of last year. (Read: I literally couldn’t walk the day before Thanksgiving and had to leave work. So cool!!)

I’m really excited to see how I continue to progress.

Upping My Water Intake

I don’t think I need to really explain why drinking more water for anyone is important, but I can say from experience that drinking more water is a big help for chronic pain.

Recently, I was tasked with increasing my water intake to 80 ounces a day (I KNOW, I know. it’s tough. And don’t ask, I’m paying attention to my electrolytes too lol.) This is to try and help my migraines, which I currently consider separate from the rest of my chronic pain. Whether that’s actually true or not remains to be seen, but for now I am also paying attention to how the up in water intake impacts the rest of my body.

As you likely know, inflammation plays a big role in how chronic pain shows up in people, and water plays a massive role in the decrease of inflammation in your body. Less inflammation = less pain. It’s a win-win, man!

Water also provides lubrication and ease of movement to your joints, so they are not being ground to a pulp inside your body simply just by moving.

I don’t know about you, but so much of my pain stems from general tightness and overall muscle fatigue, and water helps with that, too! Water gives muscles the ability to stretch better, move around without getting jarred and stay flexible. All three of those things help immediately with chronic pain.

Last but definitely not least, water is what your blood needs to move nutrients around your whole body. Nutrients are ultimately what your body needs to manage pain levels. I have found that many people with chronic pain take supplements and vitamins (which is great) but if you aren’t supplying your body with the water it needs to move those vitamins to where they need to go, you’re doing yourself a disservice. It’s important to supply the materials, but also supply the means for transportation. Not to mention that blood flow is what your body needs to heal, so when it’s not moving around like sludge in there, it’s doing its job better.

Prioritizing Mobility

I think mobility gets brushed to the side a little bit when it comes to chronic pain, and exercise in general. Maybe it’s just that it gets combined into exercise as an afterthought/assumption, but thinking of it as a separate entity that needs love and attention has become extremely helpful.

Each morning, I wake up and the first thing I do is (surprise) grab a glass of water and do some stretching. I don’t often stick to a specific routine - it’s more that I listen to what my body is saying it needs. What areas are extra tight or sore? What needs some some love? Some days there is more stretching than others! But I have noticed that my body already feels significantly better after stretching, and that feeling lasts all day.

A huge bonus I didn’t even plan for but am loving is that over time, the more I stretch the less stiff I feel right when I wake up. Usually, when I get up to my alarm and walk to the bathroom, I feel like a freakin’ stick figure. An old lady stick figure. But that’s been happening less and less since I started stretching each morning.

I also have been trying to prioritize little exercises I can do at the end of my workouts that are specific to correcting posture and stabilizing my core. There are two main exercises I am focusing on right now: bird-dogs and dead bugs. (My boyfriend and I refer to them as “bird bugs” LOL.) Check out this article to see how they are done.

Those two exercises are big on core strength, shoulder stability, and posture correction: three things that I currently do not have. Ultimately these simple exercises feel like they are making a massive impact on my overall health.

My posture is another big thing I’m focusing on (me literally correcting my posture as I type this lol) since that impacts SO much of how your back and shoulder muscles operate, and those affect what basically everything else feels like.

I have found that it’s not always about lifting weight or getting your heart rate up (those are important and necessary!) but ALSO stabilizing your body and giving it the mobility it needs to function at its best.

Growing More Aware of How My Body Holds Tension

This is something I am still getting better at, and I have to constantly readjust how I’m holding my muscles throughout the day. But I have found that simple tension plays a massive role in my chronic pain, and just becoming more aware of it is really helpful.

When you take literally two seconds to pay more attention to how tight and balled up your muscles feel, your immediate instinct will be to release the tension. Tension release = pain relief.

Now, I’m not remotely saying that taking a moment to release tension is going to magically make chronic pain go away. I don’t believe that is true. But I do believe that over time, forming that habit will do you favors in the long run.

I sit at a desk all day for work and oftentimes feel very stressed, and I have learned just HOW much I hold that stress in my body (especially my traps. My traps love stress.) Each time I find myself becoming aware of that, I have found it’s easier to readjust and let some of that go. It’s all about building the habit around the release, rather than expecting it to make a big change right away. I think it slowly reminds your muscles that you are trying to keep that tension out of them, and then eventually they also understand that they can stay relaxed.

Relaxed muscles have an easier time with like….everything. And that helps keep pain levels at bay.

Waking Up at The Same Time

I will admit that this one is all my own theory, but I do believe in it!

Very recently I’ve decided to start waking up at the same time every day to give my body a little bit more structure. My sleep has been on a fucked schedule for quite a while so I am slowly trying to fix that.

I’ve done a lot of research on the benefits of waking up at the same each day. It seems like such a great base for your body to wake up and feel more refreshed, have an easier time starting the day and know how to regulate itself overnight.

Granted, half of this battle is going to sleep at the same time each night, and I personally am a long way off from that lol. But again, starting somewhere is better than not starting at all and feeling bad about yourself!

I think waking up at the same time every morning gives my body a better understanding of when it will start seeing water intake after a drought overnight, when it will be stretching muscles, and maybe most importantly, when to lift out of REM sleep so I don’t wake up feeling groggy and like death.

The more awake and generally alive I feel at the start of the day makes me feel 10x better as it goes on, because I’m not hunched over trying to keep my eyes open (see above: muscle tension) and I’m not relying on energy drinks that do nothing for how I feel physically in the long run. (See below: trying to eliminate artificial sugars.)

My Next Steps

Go to Bed at The Same Time Every Night

Like I said above, this is the other key half of getting my sleep schedule fixed. I am very fortunate in that I have the ability to fall asleep in literally two seconds almost every single time, so that isn’t a big issue when it comes to my overall sleep.

Truth be told, I am my own worst enemy in this department. I love to stay up late in general, but I also am working on so many projects outside of my day job (this blog! My YouTube! My new business!) that it’s hard for me to get it all done without losing a bit of sleep here and there.

This isn’t something I intend to keep up for the rest of my life. I know that I can’t. My body does not like getting 5-6 hours of sleep every night. I thrive on nine hours. But to be honest, my mental health is a little bit more important to me right now, and that means I spend more time working on projects I feel passionate about and fulfilled by. (Don’t tell me about how important sleep is for mental health. I will tell you “I KNOW” and “…don’t mention it please.”)

I know that when I do start fixing this other half of my sleep schedule, though, I am gonna be ballin’. Imagine how happy my body will be when I am getting NINE WHOLE HOURS of sleep every night! It’s not even gonna know what hit it.

Lots of zzzz’s is what hit it.

Eliminate Unnecessary Sugars

Read this article that very simply explains how sugar impacts chronic pain.

TL;DR: SUGAR IS AWFUL FOR IT.

Sugar triggers stress and insulin hormones, which then trigger inflammation. And all three of those things in normal levels in normal response to things are good for your body. They are necessary. But if you’re like me, and most of your diet includes excess sugar, then those things are only wreaking havoc on a body that is already in fight or flight mode.

No wonder I feel like shit all the time, huh?

I honestly don’t know if I will ever be a person that will never ever have sugar. Listen, I love a good pastry and sometimes candy is just WHAT I NEED at the end of the long day.

But I also literally ate jelly beans and peanut butter m&m’s for lunch today, so….the sugar is not exactly in moderation.

I know that working on my sugar intake is a SHIT TON of work, because it can stem from so many emotional triggers, not to mention the withdrawal your body can have from sugar that makes it tough to power through. Let’s not forget the fact that buying foods loaded with artificial sugar is generally cheaper than the healthier options, and if you’re like me, you are poor. 🙂

It is something I feel strongly about, though, in the long run. I believe that getting rid of excess sugar, more than literally anything else on this list, will be the biggest factor to my feeling better overall.

That will be a journey for a later time. For now, I am just trying to maybe eat an actual sandwich here and there.

Chronic Pain Does Not Have to Be Forever

Look, chronic pain has been a part of my life for 11+ years. Given that I am only 25 years old at the time of writing this, that is…sad. But I try to not get held up by how frustrating that part of my life has been. Some days that is much easier said than done, but taking my treatment into my own hands continues to make it easier.

I don’t want to feel like a victim to my own health. I completely understand that sometimes, that does happen and you’re at the mercy of the universe and the doctors that may be on your side. That’s if you’re lucky. But I have so much in my control and at my disposal, I didn’t want to feel chastised by my own health issues any longer.

If you’re like me, you have the capability to take your issues with chronic pain into your own hands, and at least give yourself a fighting chance before taking a loss.

You can do it. I believe in you.

Have you ever tried anything else not on this list to help chronic pain? How did it help? Let me know in the comments!