Most commonly, pain occurs when your body’s alarm system alerts the
brain to actual or potential tissue damage. But this is only part of a big
story. Pain often involves all of your body systems and all of the responses
that occur are aimed at protection and healing. Pain is like the light on the
top of the Christmas tree – there is a lot going on in and under the tree.
However, whenmost of us think of painwe think of the experience of pain
– that unpleasant and sometimes downright horrible experience that makes
you take notice andmotivates you to do something about the situation.
In fact, pain can be so effective that you can’t think, feel or focus on anything
else. If the brain thinks that experiencing pain is not the best thing for
your survival (imagine for example, a wounded soldier hiding from the
enemy) youwon’t experience pain, nomatter how serious the injury is.
There aremanymyths, misunderstandings and unnecessary fears about
pain. Most people, includingmany health professionals, do not have a
modern understanding of pain. This is disappointing because we know that
understanding pain helps you to deal with it effectively. Here are two
important things we now know about explaining pain: the biology of pain
can be easily understood bymen andwomen in the street, and
understanding pain biology changes the way people think about pain,
reduces its threat value and improves theirmanagement of it.
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Hopefully, youwill find this journey as exciting, fascinating and
empowering as we have. Read on...
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