What Is the Meaning of the Word Chronic?

When we use chronic to describe an illness, it means it's long lasting. For example, if i hurt my back in an accident and the pain lasts forever, i can say i've chronic pain,. In a medical sense, the opposite of that is acute. So if you hurt your back, but you get better after a couple of weeks, that is not chronic pain. That is acute pain. A we use this word, though, chronic, for more than just illnesses, don't we? Sha that's right. We can use it to describe situations which are long lasting and bad. Or we can talk about chronic unemployment. And as you said, that's for bad situations.