In the recovery process of back pain and actually in life I have noticed an important effect that will very much contribute to you to understand what your body is going through during recovery and rehabilitation I’m calling it the “hangover effect”.
Suppose that tonight I go out with friends to drink alcohol and I’ll be drinking. Maybe that night I’ll feel great but tomorrow morning my head hurts and I won’t be at my best. When I get up in the morning feeling bad, I may be baffled why am I feeling so rough? but then I will remember what happened last night and realize I have a hangover from drinking. I will correctly interpret the unpleasant feelings and understand what I’m going through. It’s because drinking. I may do actions and accelerate my return to normal, for example I will drink a lot of water, more rest and etc.
The same exactly happens in the processes of healing from back pain and it happens a lot. Because the healing processes I teach are very successful, my students suddenly dare, -because they feel relieved of the pain- to do something unusual they like or need such as a long walk, cook a lot, work in the garden or play football with the kids. As in the example of drinking – on that day, during activity they may feel wonderful and painless but their body is not used to such an exceptional activity. They might get up the next morning and feel back pain again. Maybe be even stronger pain. They could be sad, frustrated or even frightened or worse. They will not remember what happened yesterday, and will not link the activity they went through. Unlike the hangover they won’t connect these events. But they are connected.
Sometimes in a particularly challenging activity the ‘hangover effect’ may last more than a day. Depending on all kinds of factors, the ‘back hangover’ effect may last even two or more weeks! Some of them turn to me for advice. I enquire and if it match I’ll explain them that what they feel today depends on what they did yesterday and maybe even a day before yesterday, and of course it puts everything into perspective. And that’s how fear and frustration disappear.
What is amazing and accelerates the speed of their rehabilitation from such cases is the special practice available to them. In some cases I suggest to keep practicing the existing practice (same level) and to some I recommend practicing older ‘easy’ practice. The practices in the method are both helpful and also dissipate fear and frustration. What is also amazing is that in many cases, after such an episode, the back condition improves dramatically. So in a practice environment lifestyle the back condition improves even more rapidly. However, if you are not in a protecting practice environment, your back situation might deteriorate and I’ll recommend you will seek advice.