Imagine you’re a cup. Now imagine all of the factors that contribute to pain and/or injury is liquid in the cup. The metaphor says that we experience pain when the cup overflows. Good physio assessment helps you to identify what factors are in your cup and to what degree they might be contributing to your pain or injury. While the pain-cup metaphor isn’t perfect, it does a great job at simplifying our assessment and giving us treatment options.
The cup on the left is an example of a person in pain with possible contributors. The cup on the right is an example of a person who is successfully managing the loads (physical and psychosocial) in their life.
I know these are the worst images in the history of art, but bare with me. The cup analogy is helpful in leading into our treatment framework because it demonstrates we have treatment options.
We can aim to increase our capacity to tolerate the stressors in our life (build a bigger cup)
For example,
- We can aim to reduce any of the stressors in life that might be sensitising us (ie., reduce the liquid in the cup), or
- We can aim to increase our capacity to tolerate any of the stressors in our life and become resilient (ie., build a bigger cup)
The straw that broke the camel’s back.
Look at the camel above – the last straw being added is going to be blamed for breaking the his back. (This is actually a brutal expression now that I think of it!). But it’s not the last straw’s fault – the camel already had a huge amount on its back!
Sometimes in life we can blame the small or most recent concerns/problems without considering the bigger picture. Is your mattress really to blame for your back pain rather than your poor diet, lack of exercise, relationship stress and poor work/life balance? We don’t know. But it does seem unhelpful to demonise some things and neglect to consider the contribution of others.
Thanks for reading!
We’ve helped hundreds of patients overcome their pain or injury and we’d love to help you overcome yours!
