Almost every day, I see people suffering from chronic pain due to fibromyalgia and other causes. People who wage a life battle with pain can become exhausted from the struggle. The result is often depression.
That’s why I’m dedicating this post to discussing how chiropractic care reduces depression risk.
Depression is a widely misunderstood mental health condition. It’s not just having a bad day, or not feeling “right in your own skin”. Depression is a clinical condition which is debilitating and can have long term, spin off health effects, including impacts on surgical and other treatment outcomes.
While statistics for this sector of people affected by depression are inconclusive to date, research continues to find a verifiable link between chronic pain and depression. Let’s look at how chiropractic care can help.
Not a cure – a support.
I want to make it clear from the outset that I’m by no means suggesting that chiropractic is a cure for depression. That’s simply not the case. For people with chronic pain who are “at risk”, chiropractic provides them with a support that promotes overall wellbeing and enhanced mental clarity. For those already in the grips of depression, chiropractic can reduce their symptoms by improving physical function.
After all, it’s physical function that’s at the heart of depression for people with chronic pain. Chiropractic, in restoring balance to the body, provides a reason for hope. In improving physical conditions, psychological conditions are concurrently improved.
A light in the darkness.
Chronic pain sufferers experience depression at 3 to 4 times the rate of the public as a whole. That’s a staggering statistic.
Because chronic pain can stem from conditions like arthritis (which is very common) and migraines (also increasingly common), we’re looking at a huge sample of people who need support.
Chiropractic offers at risk people a way to stay afloat by controlling symptoms. It offers those who are already depressed a light in the darkness that improves their mental state by improving the immune, endocrine and other systems in the body.
Soul-crushing pain.
This is a phrase I’ve heard more than once from my chronic pain patients. Pain that lurks in your life over long periods of time, attacking at will, can suck all the joy out of life. It’s difficult to make plans when you don’t know when the next attack will come. It’s difficult to enjoy the activities other people do, when you hurt.
Chiropractic is an innovative approach to chronic pain that helps prevent people living with it from falling into debilitating, life-threatening depression. By applying manipulation and adjustment, patients are assisted in managing their pain. The result is clinical support that ends the pain cycle by helping patients diminish and control its influence on their lives.
More than 15% of Americans live with long term, daily pain. Chiropractic care reduces depression risk for those suffering from it. It can also help those who have succumbed to depression find the relief that lifts them out of the darkness.
If you’re suffering from chronic pain, please contact us. We can help.
