Chronic pain disorder is when you cannot seem to forget the pain long after your body heals from an injury. This issue usually develops after you’ve had painful surgery, an injury, or if you’ve been involved in an accident. Somehow, even as your body repairs and heals itself, the mind is unable to adjust back to normal even when the cause of the pain is no longer present.

There are quite a number of patients who show up at the hospital complaining of being in pain despite there being no known trigger behind it. Most people are quick to dismiss it. They just either sleep it off, distract their minds, or indulge in drug-taking or abuse.

But the first step in finding help for chronic pain is by talking to a professional and getting properly diagnosed and treated. If, after three to six months, you still feel tremendous pain in whatever part of your body, it could point to a chronic pain disorder.

Millions of people in the United States suffer from chronic pain every day. One of the hardest parts of chronic pain is the fact that your pain is imperceptible to most people, so your close loved ones have difficulty seeing that you are in pain. Chronic pain, unfortunately, tends to bring about not just physical pain, but also emotional and psychological pain. Cases of chronic pain differ greatly between people, but generally fall into a few categories:

Acute Pain/Short-Term Pain

This pain usually indicates a disease or a physical injury within the body. It can be an important signal of wounds, infections, burns, or other injuries, and helps the body protect itself. Acute pain can last anywhere up to 12 weeks (depending on the cause of the pain). Once the cause has been treated, the pain will usually go away on its own. It is important to remember that acute pain is a symptom, but chronic pain is a disease in its own right.

Chronic Pain/Long-Term Pain

There are two essential categories of pain that can be divided into nociceptive and neuropathic pain. Nociceptive pain is when signals are sent to the brain after an injury. Neuropathic pain is a result of damage to the nervous system itself. Chronic pain may exist even long after the injury has healed. The nervous system will incorrectly signal to the brain that there is a brain when there is actually no injury present anymore. Chronic pain can last months or even years.

Nerve Pain/Neuropathic Pain

Quite a few events or conditions can cause nerve damage. Neuropathic pain directly affects how pain signals are sent to the brain. If unrepaired, nerve damage can lead to long-time neuropathic chronic pain.

Localized Nerve/Neuropathic Pain

Most nerve conditions are localized to a specific part of the body. Infections and surgeries both can create localized nerve damage that in turn will create long-term/chronic pain. The origins of localized neuropathic pain can be hard to trace, so make sure to inform your doctor if you had an infection or surgery in the area your chronic pain is stemming from.

Conditions marked by widespread and long-lasting pain are typically linked to Chronic Pain Syndrome. These conditions may include:

Rheumatoid Arthritis
An autoimmune disease that brings powerful inflammation at the joints.

Osteoarthritis
A type of arthritis that usually comes from wear and tears on the body.

Fibromyalgia
A neurological condition that creates pain and tenderness in trigger points across the body.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Characterized by chronic inflammation of the digestive tract that produces intestinal cramping.

Advanced Cancer

Back Pain

Surgical Trauma

Even after some of these conditions improve through treatment, some people may still have chronic pain. This is usually a miscommunication between the nervous system and the brain.