Joanne Lee SmithChronic pain and symptoms recovery Nurse / Coach

Stop Fighting Chronic Pain: Understand Your Symptoms

27 Nov 2025 · 1 min

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1:15

In this monologue, Joanne Smith shares her personal journey of living with chronic pain while training for and completing 100‑mile ultramarathons. She explains that simply "carrying on"—working, training, and maintaining daily responsibilities—did not lead to recovery, highlighting the inadequacy of the common advice to just push through pain. Smith emphasizes the importance of becoming curious about one’s own symptoms, using self‑assessment tools such as symptom questionnaires and Dr. Schubiner’s FIT criteria (Functional, Inconsistent, Triggered) to gain insight into the underlying mechanisms of chronic pain. She frames her experience as a coach’s perspective, urging listeners to recognize that chronic pain requires understanding, not just endurance.

Chapters

Okay, so me, I was living my life. Yeah, I carried on. I ran ultramarathons. I ran 100-mile ultramarathons. But I still hurt massively. I still had massive symptoms in the background. I coach people to live with symptoms and do what I was doing because I didn't know 2 years ago, I didn't know that recovery was an option. So I was one of those people. I'm living my life, it's miserable, I'm broken, it's hard, it's a fight, it's a struggle. But doing that is not the answer, because if that was the answer, I would have got well, wouldn't I? Because I was carrying on. I never took time off work. I worked. Yeah, I reduced the hours, but I did have children and I did have other commitments. So if doing that was the solution, then we wouldn't have a crisis of chronic pain. That is not the solution. Understanding this, knowing what's really happening, having that little penny drop moment for yourself, really, really getting curious. Do the questionnaires, do the Dr. Schubiner FIT criteria— functional, inconsistent, and triggered.