If you've been suffering from lower back pain for any significant length of time, it won't surprise you to learn that it's the single most common form of chronic pain on the planet. But an enormous number of sufferers continue to have terrible pain no matter what treatment they try.

These are the people who will almost certainly be helped by this article.

CHRONIC LOWER BACK PAIN REQUIRES A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT APPROACH

When back pain continues over a long period, despite treatment, we can usually attribute that to a peculiar type of pain called chronic pain. Chronic back pain isn't actually related to any injury or deterioration of the spine, muscles or nerves. We know this because studies show that there is no relationship between damage and pain.

If you were presented with a number of spine x-rays for example, and you were asked to guess which people had the most pain, you'd be wrong in most cases because people with no damage can have extreme pain, and people with a lot of damage might be completely unaware that there is anything wrong.

You may be quite shocked to hear that chronic pain is exactly the same as emotional pain, but in fact fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) shows that this is the case. Acute pain uses different nerve paths, but a map of chronic pain looks just like a map of anger, or a map of sadness.

So this is why, if you've had your back pain for a long time, despite trying many treatments, you are most likely to have chronic pain, and this article is most likely to help you.

7 STEPS TO ELIMINATE CHRONIC PAIN

Step 1: Eliminating Stress. If you have chronic pain, your nervous system is behaving a lot like a faulty car alarm that is going off for no good reason. The more stressed you are, the more your pain signalling will behave in this way. If your nerves are jangling, your pain will be worse. So you need to make a decision to deal with the stress in your life, today.

Step 2: Emotional Reactions. Do you have strong emotional reactions to things? This doesn't help chronic pain because it heightens the reactivity of your nervous system. You might be surprised to learn that there are actually ways to switch off unwanted emotional reactions so that you feel calm and can think more clearly, even in a crisis. Check out www.bmsa-int.com, which is a site for medical practitioners who are using this method very successfully with their clients.

Step 3: It's called social engagement. Yes, you definitely need to mix with people in a way that gives you pleasure. There's a whole field of science devoted to the health advantages (mental and physical) that comes from being involved with people socially, so when you have pain, you especially need to pay attention to this.

Step 4: Being Active. People who don't get enough physical activity have death rates higher than the combined rates of smoking, drinking, and unsafe sex! That's how important physical activity is. Physical activity increases your metabolic rate and gives you energy, boosts your immune system and supports good health, and keeps your muscles strong so that they support your bones and joints properly. There's always a way to increase activity, no matter how disabling your pain is, and no matter your movement constraints.

Step 5: Have an interest outside of yourself and your family or work. Focus is an amazing thing. If we're focussed on our pain (because there's nothing else more absorbing going on) then the pain will actually increase. It's not merely that we perceive that it's worse. It IS worse. So even if you're depressed and feel you can't be bothered getting into anything "interesting" it's essential that you choose something and involve yourself in it regularly. A good program will provide great support to you in that way.

Step 6: Take a look at your relationships. Who are you dependent on? What would happen to that relationship (good and not so good) if your pain suddenly disappeared? Who leans on you or would like to lean on you? What would happen in that relationship if your pain suddenly disappeared? Pain can serve a very useful purpose in maintaining co-dependency, so it's worth checking out they dynamics of your relationships.

Step 7: Use BMSA (Brief, Multi-Sensory Activation). BMSA is designed to re-train your nervous system so that it stops producing chronic pain signals. Most people get relief immediately, and over 50% of people can eliminate their pain totally. Another 30-40% can reduce their pain dramatically, all through using BMSA.

AN EXPERIMENT WITH BMSA

So you can see how BMSA works, we've designed a little experiment that works for most people. It's a little crazy-looking at first glance, but don't let that fool you. BMSA has been tested in clinical trials and has a very sound scientific theory behind it!

Take a moment to think about your pain, and make up a sentence that exactly describes the pain in your own words. This might be something like:

I have this deep ache near my left hip I have this stabbing pain just above my tailbone I have this burning pain in the middle of my lower back but a bit to the left Etc, etc, etc.

Notice that you're describing the type of pain, and where it's located. Now rate that pain out of 10, with 10 out of 10 being the most awful pain you could possibly imagine, and 0 out of 10 being no pain whatsoever.

Once you've got your statement, you're going to be repeating that around 12 times, and each time you say the statement you'll add a sentence ending that is quite different to the statement itself. As you're talking, start tapping all over your body: head, face, shoulders, chest, arms, legs, etc, so that you're talking and tapping at the same time. It's a really great idea, if you can, to walk around as you do this - try to walk in a pattern, like forming the first letter of your name, for example. The aim is to focus on the pain at the same time as you provide yourself with complex multi-sensory stimulation.

If my sentence were "I have this deep ache near my left hip", I would start this tapping, all the while saying:

"I have this deep ache near my left hip, but polka dots taste crunchy."

You need to repeat your sentence (the pain bit at the beginning and whatever sentence ending you decided you use) at least 12 times. Immediately you've done that, still focussed on the pain, start tapping away on your chest, take a very full breath through your nose, and then blow it all out very hard through your mouth.

Now rate that exact pain in that exact place. You may notice other pain, or it might seem that the pain has moved, but what you're most intent on finding out is what has happened in that exact location. Is that pain still the same number out of 10, or has something happened there?

BMSA is much more than this, of course, but this little exercise is a simple way to experience the fact that it can at least impact on your pain. Because everyone is so different, it's impossible to predict what might happen now, whether you got an obvious effect from this or not. Some people might find their pain continues to decrease. Others will find that it comes back exactly the same or almost exactly the same. If you stick with it (see the book "The Pain Train - Time to Get Off") you're highly likely to get the result that you're after.