The Honest Answer — and the Two Traps
“Will I always have back pain?” It’s one of the most common questions I get asked, and I understand why — when you’re in it, it can feel like it’s never going to end.
So let me give you the honest answer. For most people, no, you won’t. You can absolutely sort it out. But — and this matters — only if you go about it the right way. Because there are two traps people fall into with back pain, and it’s these two traps that keep people stuck for years. So let me walk you through both, so you don’t fall into them.
Trap One — Searching for a Magic Cure
The first trap is searching for a magic cure. People go looking for that one thing — the one click of the back, the one treatment, the one fix that means they’ll never have back pain again.
I get the appeal, but it simply doesn’t work like that, because that kind of approach is only ever treating the symptom. You go, you get the relief, it feels great for a few days, and then it comes back. So you go again. And again. And if that’s the pattern you’re in, you’ll be paying for treatment forever and never actually getting better.
What you have to do instead is get to the root cause. Why is it actually happening? Is it a leg that’s slightly longer than the other? A hip that doesn’t move properly? The way your desk is set up? Your mattress? Whatever it is, that’s the thing that has to be found and fixed — the driver, not the symptom. And honestly, this is the reason so many people have back pain for years and years. It’s not that their back is beyond help. It’s that nobody has ever properly looked at them, assessed them biomechanically, or looked at the whole chain to work out what’s actually going wrong. They’ve never genuinely got to the bottom of it — so of course it keeps coming back.
Trap Two — Thinking You Can Fix It and Forget It
The second trap is thinking that once it’s sorted, it’s sorted forever, and you can forget about it. And this is where the mindset shift comes in: you have to look after it, long term.
The people who stay pain-free aren’t the ones who found a magic cure. They’re the ones who found their root cause and then got into a routine of looking after it. And I want to give you some real examples, because they make the point better than anything. I’ve got patients who have had serious accidents. People who’ve needed spinal surgery. Backs that have genuinely been through it. You’d think they’d be the ones in trouble for life — but they’re not. Because they’ve got a brilliant attitude. They know exactly where their issues are, they know what they need to do to look after it, and they’ve built it into a routine — a few simple things they do consistently. And they go for years and years with no problems at all.
Think about that: someone who’s had spinal surgery, staying pain-free for years, simply because they understood their back and they look after it. So if they can do it, with everything they’ve been through, most people can.
So, Will You Always Have Back Pain?
So let me bring it together. Will you always have back pain? For most people, no — but you’ve got to avoid the two traps.
Don’t chase a magic cure that only treats the symptom — get to the root cause of why it’s happening. And don’t think you can fix it and forget it — adopt the mindset of looking after it for the long term. Do those two things, and back pain doesn’t have to be a life sentence. The people who stay stuck with it for years usually just never got to the bottom of it, and never learned how to look after it. That’s it. Get those two things right, and there’s every reason to believe you can leave it behind.
Joe Sharp
BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy
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