I fell a couple of weeks ago, and along with chronic lower back pain, I wonder if it's some of this is in my head. I was feeling so bad, that I could barely get to mass this morning. Later in the day, I forgot about the pain, at a wonderful concert. How do you tell the difference between what's real and exaggerated? I know I have some arthritis, and I'll have my back xrayed this week, after years of postponing getting to the core of the problem(there's a pun there, since I'll be asked to do more "core" exercises).