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When I hurt my back last year, my doctor saw me regularly as I was recovering. She kept asking me if I was depressed or anxious about returning to work. It got to the point that I was wondering if she thought I was making up my back pain or if I was nuts. What should I say to her next time she asks me?

Doctors, particularly family doctors or general practitioners, are trained to look for more than just one thing in their patients. A patient may come to them with one problem, but may actually have others that are equally important or their other problem may be causing the one that they're telling the doctor about. Many situations with chronic pain may have other issues that have either caused them or is causing the pain to continue. For this reason, your doctor is likely probing to see if this is the case with you. It's been found that people with certain types of chronic back pain can be helped by reducing other problems, such as depression or fear of worsening back pain. The best thing to do in your situation is to ask your doctor why she is asking you these questions. Good open communication between the doctor and you is the best way to get the best possible treatment.

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