Foot pain shares many common characteristics with back pain, which is no surprise, since a great number of patients have both health issues as chronic concerns. Both the feet and the back are required in order to be mobile, go to work, take care of a family and perform the countless other functions we require of our bodies every day. Psychologically-induced pain syndromes often target parts of our bodies which are necessary for our survival and success.
The most common diagnoses used to explain painful feet are heel spurs, plantar fasciitis and metatarsalgia. Any of these conditions can be a direct result of psychosomatic pain disorders or may be enacted by purely structural injury or degeneration. Of all anatomical locations, the feet are one of the most problematic. Chronic symptoms are the rule in foot ache syndromes, with symptoms often scoffing at varied therapy attempts. Meanwhile, doctors actively treat structural concerns and resolve them, yet pain often remains even once the anatomical issues have been fixed. Sounds a lot like chronic back ache to me.
This article provides a rare look at foot pain conditions that are deemed to be psychogenic, rather than structurally-motivated.
Foot Pain Conditions
Many patients with severe pain in their feet demonstrate a clinical symptomatic expression that is linked to a given physical activity. This is also common for back pain patients. The activities providing the painful stimuli are usually either directly linked to a job function or some other important facet of a person’s life. This is surely no coincidence.
Medical doctors usually explain this correlation by blaming the activity as a source of injury, overuse or degeneration. This is rarely the truth, which explains medical science’s poor treatment results with both common back pain, as well as foot-related discomfort. In most cases, there are psychoemotional issues related to the activity that actually cause the pain to occur and recur over and over again.
Sometimes, the patient’s foot symptoms are actually blamed on a abnormal spinal condition. This helps to solidify the link between foot and back pain, as well as explain how medicine often misses the point completely during the diagnostic process.
Feet Pain Diagnosis
Many doctors rarely consider anything about a patient except for the specific health complaint explaining their visit. This is poor medicine and the main reason for unsuccessful treatment results in so many problematic issues. Holistic doctors have learned that all parts of the anatomy influence the form and function of surrounding bodily locations. This is an improvement, but still not a complete picture.
Specialists in mindbody medicine realize that all states of health and disease are a combined result of the physical, mental and emotional aspects of the self. When it comes to common pain in the feet, there is no exception to this rule. Symptoms are most often blamed on some coincidental anatomical condition, when they actually sometimes the direct result of psychoemotional issues.
For additional information about 2 of the most common diagnoses involved in feet pain syndromes, please read our pages detailing plantar fasciitis and heel spurs.
Foot Pain Solutions
True structurally-enacted pain usually responds well to traditional and alternative medical treatment. If your pain resists all varieties of therapies, there is a chance that you are actually suffering from a psychosomatic process experienced primarily in the feet. This is a common back pain substitute symptom and can be absolutely debilitating.
Do not expect that your doctor will diagnose this condition accurately, since medical science mostly denies the power the mind possesses to cause pain in the physical body. With this limited understanding of the human organism, it is no surprise that psychological pain syndromes have become an epidemic burden to modern society.
While times are changing in some regards, podiatrists and other foot specialists are slow to accept the truth of mindbody pain. Eventually all medical sectors will get on board with experts in chronic pain, addiction and cancer care, by embracing the fact that the mind can cause or cure various health concerns. There are other explanatory factors at work for many foot ache sufferers and learning about alternative treatment options may just provide many patients with their best hope for a cure.
Back Pain > Psychologically Induced Pain Syndromes > Foot Pain
