Pain Theory 1:
How Pain Happens & How We Perceive It
Pain theory may sound very dull but, if you know how pain works you will be able to more wholeheartedly embrace some of the complementary therapies we will be talking about later.
The mechanistic view of pain is that something is damaged or diseased and that this produces a feeling of pain proportional to the severity of the injury. But this isn't always the case. Pain perception varies both between people and between circumstances.
For example it has been shown that soldiers with war wounds feel less pain than a civilian with comparable injuries? Pain theory says that this is because for the soldiers their wounds meant a discharge home and an end to being in danger, whereas for the civilians it meant anxiety and fear and possibly even the loss of a job.
Another example of the variability of pain is that of those who feel pain in a missing limb. No doubt you have heard of phantom limb pain. This happens when someone has had a limb amputated because of a painful disease or an injury in that limb, but the pain in the “limb” continues unabated. How can this be if the pain originated in the limb?
Another example: if you are a sufferer of chronic pain you will have noticed that when your mind or body is fully occupied with something other than your symptoms, your pain is not so bothersome. Isn’t it so that at these times you feel it much less, or perhaps you just don’t notice it at all?
If pain was coming only from an obvious physical condition or injury none these things would happen, the pain would be constant. The fact is that the process of pain perception isn’t a straightforward one of cause and effect.
The mechanistic view of pain is too simplistic. Because we see it in a mechanistic way many people with chronic pain, whose diagnostic tests are negative, are sure that something has been missed. They spend their time searching for a treatment or investigation that will find the cause and fix them.
They frequently become angry with their doctors and may go from doctor to doctor seeking help. Desperate to find a treatment that they are certain will cure their pain they will try anything that give even a glimmer of hope. This mechanistic view is the reason so many people with chronic pain undergo endless tests and sometimes endure unnecessary, surgery. The anger and depression that ensues makes the pain feel worse.
You might even have done, or still are doing, some or all of this yourself, I did. Its natural to feel this way because it fits in with past our past experiences of pain. But my experience is that it is only when we stop running around like this and begin to look for things that we can do to help ourselves, that we begin to manage or even heal ourselves.
Pain is now believed to be a complex process influenced by many factors including emotions and thoughts. This is not bad news! It means that we have an opportunity to make a difference to its severity by working on our thoughts and emotions. We can do this whether the pain is brought about by a known injury or disease or an unknown one.
This is absolutely not the same as saying it is all in your head, meaning imaginary, or in other words “you are crazy”
So what does it mean?
The body works as a whole and the brain is a part of that whole. The brain is the power house for all bodily processes. There is nothing that you see, hear, smell, touch or think that is not brought to your attention solely by the brain. That includes pain. Your brain tells you about pain and you feel it. Does this seem obvious? It is, but we don't always think about what this means for us.
If we accept that all the necessities of life are mediated by brain functioning we have to agree that pain is a part of that and that the brain controls our pain and our perception of pain. Therefore we may be able to influence it. This is very good news.
Those statement are so important. Don't skim past, think about it and what it can mean for you
