Boom and bust cycle

Pain can affect how you do everyday activities. It’s very common to fall into an unhelpful trap of ‘boom and bust’ patterns, where on days with less pain you find yourself saying: “I must get this, that and even this done before pain increases again.”

You can push yourself into doing more work, more stretching and increasing the time to complete a task or activity. Sometimes only pain or tiredness stops you. Then you find you have severe pain flare-ups, feel exhausted and have to rest for hours or days until pain levels lessen.

This pattern of activity leads to you being stuck in the vicious cycle of pain and is demoralising. Learning to find your personal balance of activity, breaks, relaxation, change or activities in different postures and places can boost your confidence as you can do more of the things in life you want.