Chronic Pain and Your Career

Coping with chronic pain while you are at work is a necessity. Without some changes in the workplace, you risk getting worse pain than you have originally or injuring a different area that currently isn't in pain. Some of the injuries that you can get in the work place are neck, back, shoulder, and wrist pain. Others include eyestrain, stiffness, headaches, carpal tunnel syndrome, and repetitive strain injury. Some of these come simply by doing basic office things like typing for long periods of time or staring at a computer monitor eight hours a day, but there are things that you can do to help lessen your chances of increasing your chronic pain.

Adjust your chair

Office chairs need to be adjusted so that you have the correct height for you and the right placement of some lumbar support. This will help you lessen your chance of back pain and injury.

Adjust your monitor

Computer monitors should be at the correct height and distance from you, sitting too close to, or too far from, the screen can give you eyestrain. If it is at the wrong angle to where you are sitting you will get neck and shoulder pain. Keep a close eye on where your office equipment is in relation to your chair.

Glare guard your monitor

Computer monitor glare can cause eyestrain and injury. By putting a simple monitor glare guard on your equipment you can decrease your chances of eyestrain and headaches.

Adjust your keyboard

Where your keyboard is in relation to your chair and desk can make a difference. If it is too high or too low you risk wrist pain and a higher chance of carpal tunnel syndrome and repetitive strain injury.

Take a mouse break

Make sure that you take your hand off your mouse every so often. Keeping your hand curled around a mouse can lead to wrist and shoulder pain. Make sure that you stretch out your hands every so often to lessen your chances.

Take a total break

Every hour or two, try to get up from your chair and stretch. Look around, get moving, and think about something else. This little break to rest and relax can help keep you mentally alert and will reset your body off of office mode. The exercise can be eye exercises so that you reduce your chance of headaches and eyestrain, or it can be simple stretching so that your body doesn't become stiff and strained.

Source: Managing Pain Before it Manages You, Margaret Caudill MD, Ph.D, Guilford Press, 1995, ISBN 0-89862-224-7