explain
pain
1
section
19
page
Reflect back to the first image in the book
(page 8), the one with the large nail piercing
theman’s toe. When you step on a nail in the
garden, it may ormay not hurt immediately.
The brain has to decide whether pain is the
best thing for you at that moment. Other
influences whichmay exist at the time
include avoiding other nails, the fear of
serious damage and infection, and the need
to protect others. It probablywon’t hurt if
you also observed that a deadly looking snake
is lying close to your foot.
Emotional and physical pain are frequently
used terms which can be unhelpful. Although
many people tend to separate these pains, the
processing in the brain of painful tissue
injury and anguish has some similarities.
33,34
In fact the processing of any cue that is
important is similar.
35-37
Some pain experiences includemore tissue
injury or disease than others, but there will
always be varying emotional content. In pain
experiences such as grief or rejection from a
loved one, where there is a high emotional
content, there will still be physical issues
such as changes inmuscle tension and
altered cellular healing. In a situationwhere
aman has had a work injury, say from lifting
or falling, and his pain state is denied by a
supervisor or health professional, theremay
be very strong emotional and physical
components. The extent of emotional and
physical components of a pain experience
clearly exist in a spectrum.
To effectively deal with pain, it is important
to identify the contextual cues. We like to call
them the cues that help ignite a pain
experience, or
‘ignition cues’.
