Pain is essential for survival. Injuries are splinted by pain and swelling, giving them time to heal. Pain signals danger, motivates change and prevents further damage. If we ignore pain or use pain-killers to continue painful activities instead of fixing the causes, pain can eventually be incapacitating.
Chronic pain can perpetuate stress and stifle mental and physical capacity. Extreme chronic pain can erode relationships. Friends and partners may take irritation personally or may be traumatised by the distress.
pain medications
Anesthetics and pain medications during surgery and dentistry reduce immediate pain but without them the body may respond more fully to the damage and recover quicker with less pain. Some dentists and surgeons will operate without chemical pain relief.
Addictive pain medications lose their effectiveness after prolonged use. They add the ups and downs of distressing withdrawal symptoms and accumulating side effects to the original pain. Acquiring medications and experimenting with doses and combinations as their effectiveness waxes and wanes is stressful. A never-ending cycle of agony and relief, agony and relief.
In the long term most of them gradually increase the body’s sensitivity to pain. Ever increasing doses are needed to relieve pain as the body adjusts to them. Eventually the pain is no longer relieved without increasing dosage to the point of being incapacitating or life threatening and quitting is extremely distressing. Ever increasing sales are leaving a trail of illness and misery that has surpassed illegal heroin.
Opioids were a gold mine for Big Pharma when they got heroin and morphine-like substances past regulative authorities as medications. Eager prescribers (after a bit of ritual hand-wringing) use them to create long term loyal patients. They are on the gravy train. After decades the damage has become obvious and this is beginning to be more effectively questioned by regulators.
experiencing the pain
Fearing or resisting pain magnifies and perpetuates it. By relaxing or not tensing muscles the experience of pain is not as overwhelming. The pain not felt so intensely. Calmly experiencing the pain with curiosity and interest allows the experience of pain to subside. Notice what the pain and the fear of pain feel like and where they are felt rather than not want them.
It is as if one gets used to the pain or the nervous system can't maintain the pain signal once it is no longer energised by fear or tension.
hypnosis
Some people can undergo surgery without experiencing pain and can alleviate chronic pain using suggestion, hypnotic suggestion or self hypnosis.
visualisations
Visualisations can be constructed from previous comfortable or imagined experiences. Distancing from the experience of pain is often effective.
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For example: |
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Put the pain to one side and then allow it to move further away. |
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Imagine the pain growing smaller until it is barely noticeable. |
diversion
Absorption in recreation can be relaxing and can swamp the senses with other stimuli. Pain can seem to disappear as attention shifts elsewhere.
massage
Physiotherapy or massage can often relieve muscular pain by relaxing and mobilising muscles and showing the body how to find more comfortable ways to move and position itself.
exercise
As much exercise as possible without causing damage boosts blood flow, promotes recovery and maintains health. Vigorous activity if possible stimulates the release of endorphins that are natural pain relievers.
movement
Reorganisation of posture and movement may allow life to go on without pain or with a tolerable level of pain. Painless ways of moving might be discovered within Feldenkrais, Tai Chi, Yoga or other movement practices outlined in the body pages.
relaxation
During the stress of a very traumatic incident there is often no sensation of pain as attention is focused elsewhere. Pain relieving endorphins are released and pain pathways are disconnected from awareness.
Stress, anxiety and depression amplify the experience of pain. Focusing on pain and tensing against it magnifies it.
Much pain results from muscle tensions. Tense back muscles can eventually pull the spine out of alignment, which increases pain. The relaxation exercises on the stress pages can be used to eliminate tensions.
Most back pain is associated with impaired circulation which reduces the evacuation of metabolic by-products like lactic acid which irritate nerves.
other resources
Not all pain is easy to understand or remedy. For example pain nerves can follow blood vessels growing into degenerated vertebral discs as part of the repair process and generate pain that does not respond to manipulation or exercises.
If the suggestions in these pages don't give complete relief or the cause is difficult to figure out then specialist pain clinics can often help.
Relaxation, biofeedback, visualisation, energy therapy and trance exercises are available from the internet and books.
Fellow sufferers often post solutions to their problems on the internet. They are more motivated and focused than medical workers who get paid as much for treating pain as eliminating it or diagnosing causes. They don't take the pain home with them at the end of the day.
Yoga, Ti Chi, massage, Feldenkrais and posture exercises relax and improve blood circulation and can be used to reorganise postures and movements that cause pain. They are outlined on the side menu.
When unnecessary pain is reduced then the fear of pain does not inhibit movement so much and the body can relax more.