Stress

Almost a year ago, I developed lower back pain. At first I thought I had pulled a muscle ducking under a tree branch while out running with a friend.

I took it easy for a few days and the pain seemed to subside. But then it came back, and with a vengeance. It remained with me on and off for a year and was often so severe that I had to hold onto pieces of furniture to support myself when rising from a chair or my bed, or when brushing my teeth.

We’ve all been there some time or other: we get injured or start experiencing some form of pain, and the people around us will all come up with their own suggestions, sometimes even with a full retelling of their own painful experience;

“Don’t carry too much weight!”, “Be careful at the gym!”, “it took very long to get better after I got that”, or, the worst of the worst: “Your pain might be chronic”.