This is where it all starts. An event occurs that causes you pain. Perhaps you twist your back or something happens that brings back an old injury. You might come in at this stage looking for pain relief. This is a great stage for acupuncture, and many people from Asheville who are interested in acupuncture visit us at this stage.
Perhaps the pain is not bad enough for you to feel as those you need to seek immediate attention. At this point you will typically go down one of two paths – Fear Avoidance or Muscle Spasms/Guarded response.
Fear Avoidance
Have you ever hurt your back or neck and avoided certain activities in an effort to not re-injure the area?
Maybe you helped a friend move and threw your back out. Now you are in a situation where you aren’t going to go out bowling or mop the house anytime soon. This stage is called fear avoidance and it can lead to immobilization and disuse.
Muscle Spasms/Guarded response
Sometimes an injury leads to muscle spams down the road. Have you ever been in a race and tensed up as they said “ready set GO”? This is a state of guarded response – your muscles are tense and ready for action.
While this is good for something like a short sprint, if you have an injury your muscles can constantly be in a state of tension. You will experience tenseness, soreness and sometimes aching. Depending on the patient, I often prefer to use acupuncture in combination with a chiropractic adjustment to relieve both the pain and begin fixing the underlying issues.
As noted above, if you do not find a good health care practicioner and find the relief you need, you may continue through the Fear Avoidance stage or Muscle Spasm response stage and move on to the Immobilization and Disuse stage. Learn more about Immobilization and Disuse – and how your body can stop functioning normally without you even knowing it.
-Dr. Bart
Questions or comments? Put them here, email me at drbart@bellsouth.net or post on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/RiverRidgeChiro
