Physiotherapists in Bayswater treat many different conditions including the issues profiled below.

Overdoing and Avoiding in Chronic Pain

Chronic pain can lead to significant levels of distress and disability as sufferers struggle to maintain their activity levels in the face of high levels of pain. People vary enormously in their responses to a chronic pain problem but the two most obvious approaches are avoiding and overdoing. Avoiding is much less common the person doing less and less with time, avoiding activities as they fear damage to their back. With time this evolves into an almost complete avoidance of activity as the person rests for the majority of the day, with others typically taking over all the domestic tasks and often many of the personal ones too. This leads to high levels of unfitness and deconditioning.

The other approach, more common overall, is to keep pushing on with activities because they have to be done, and then cope with the consequences afterwards. These people feel guilty at not being able to do the things they should and when they wake up to a better day than normal they go for it, doing all the things they have wanted to do until the pain increase stops them and then is much worse for several days, forcing them to rest.

Staying Active after Whiplash

Part of the art of recovering from whiplash injury is to keep as active as possible without aggravating the pain too severely. Resting for a few days in the presence of severe pain is reasonable but longer periods of rest can be counterproductive and disabling. Most activities can be performed without the neck having full movement so the patient should get on and do what they can. Static postures should be avoided for too long and the patient encouraged to change positions and keep moving regularly. The movements should be progressed steadily every day to push the joints a little bit further each time.

When sitting the chair should be the right height and the person get up very regularly to vary the neck position. Office work can be much easier with a well adjusted chair and the computer monitor and keyboard in optimal positions. Driving should be for short periods with regular stops to get out and move around. Pacing general activities by splitting them up into shorter time slots is a very useful strategy, allowing the patient to continue activities or restart them again without causing a significant worsening of pain.