Understanding Chronic Pain Syndrome
When Persistent Pain Begins to Take a Mental Toll Everybody hurts at some point and often for good reason. Pain is one of the ways your body tells you that something is wrong, that you need to seek medical attention. In many instances, the cause of your pain is clear and the pain goes away after proper treatment. But that’s not always the case. Your discomfort or pain may persist long after the initial source of the hurt has been effectively addressed. As a general rule, if the same pain stays with you for more than about three months, and the original cause of the pain has been remedied, you have a condition known as “ chronic pain .” In about one of every four cases of people who experience chronic pain, the condition will develop into what is known as chronic pain syndrome, or CPS. With CPS, the consequences are more than physical—they manifest in depression and anxiety as well, wreaking havoc on your daily life. Though medical practitioners don’t know exactly what causes CPS,...