Pain

-- LIVING WITH PAIN --

 I hope that you (the reader) does not suffer from a long term pain.  Whilst this page can not offer relief from pain, it may help those around the sufferer to understand a bit better the frustrations and emotional toll that pain can cause.  Just know that I speak here from personal experience with chronic pain.

First off, every body's pain perception is different.  It is governed by the level of pain that has been experienced previously, the frame of mind of the sufferer at the time and natural pain tolerance.  Let's look at these individually.

Pain Experience: A person with a broken toe might report that pain as the worst they have ever experienced if that is indeed the worst pain they have actually had, regardless of other people's scales, it will be a 10 out of 10.  If that same injury happened to that same person after they had experienced child birth or kidney stones, that injury might now be reported as a 4/10 instead of a 10/10.

Parents telling kids that they could not possibly be hurt enough to cry like that are denying the fact that the child is actually experiencing the worst pain they ever have in their limited experience.

Frame of Mind:  The better a person is feeling about life, the less impact pain is going to have on them.   There are a bunch of biochemical reasons for this which are beyond the scope of this page.  Many opiate pain killing drugs do not solely kill the pain so much as induce a sense of euphoria.  The euphoria makes it more like the person can still feel the pain, but no longer cares!  Pain is a leading cause of depression, and depression triggers a stronger pain awareness.  This is a cycle that has to be broken before any chance of lifting from that downward spiral of pain and depression.

Natural Pain Tolerance:  There are people who do have a stronger pain response than others.  Some people might have a similarly average pain awareness in their bodies, but also have a much higher level of endorphin response (natural pain killers produced in the body).  In some of these cases, people will actually seek out pain to get the endorphin buzz of euphoria.

So what is it like to live in chronic (long term) pain?  If a loved one lives with pain and you want to understand it a bit better, go and find a two Kg leg weight and wear it for 24 hours without removal, showering, shopping, working, sleeping!  See how your psyche is doing at the end of the day and you will have had a glimpse into the frustrations that are always with a chronic pain sufferer.

I live with chronic pain, what can I do?  First thing is to keep the attitude up as much as you can.  Some might do this through hobbies, counselling, fishing etc.  Whatever works for you with the possible exception of television which saps the body's spirit faster than just about anything else I know of.

Nutrition is critical.  Comfort eating is the worst possible thing you can do as it puts you more firmly into the depression cycle.  Natural whole healthy foods are the best.  See the sections on weight control and food for more ideas on how to relate to food.  Your body will also be best able to deal with the pain if kept in good nutrition.  Starches, flours and sweets are the worst possible things to have when in pain as they will trigger psychological and physical depressions, leading into that same downward spiral again.