Why do we experience pain?
Pain acts as the body's warning system. It informs the brain that damage to the body's tissues is about to occur, so you can react quickly to avoid injury and ensure survival. This mechanism works well as long as the pain is acute, such as putting your hand on a hot plate. But when pain becomes chronic, the mechanism no longer makes sense.
Chronic pain is when there has been persistent or recurring pain and disability for more than three to six months, despite attempts to find the cause of the pain and treat it. This does not mean that the pain must have been present non-stop for at least three months, but it does mean that it is the same recognizable pain that has been present either constantly or has come and gone regularly or irregularly for at least three months.
