Explaining pain

Hmmm... returning to this as "explaining pain"

because:

1) would like to help TheCatWoman 

2) Except for a very few people with a rare genetic condition we all experience pain which, except for a very few people, is generally considered unpleasant so...

I have spent the past 25 years working with people who primarily have got to the point of seeing me because they are driven to do so by pain.

I realise that other people have written books on the subject and there is s vast body of study related to it.

Furthermore my version of understanding it and explaining it is guaranteed to be incomplete and might by the very nature of things be upsetting to some people who are in pain.  This gets tricky personally as I aspire to live by a "do no harm" principle.

Here's my quick go of explaining it tho'

Pain is a message -  a rare group of people who, by their genetics, don't feel it can end up severely injured because they don't receive a message to stop doing something that is causing injury.

A whole load of philosophers since conclude that pain and pleasure are on a continuum.  The likes of Aristotle nearly 2 1/2 thousand years ago reckoned that pain stops us from feeling pleasure.

More recently many neuroscientist conclude that pleasure stops us from feeling pain and also that the brain can control the degree of pain that is perceived, based on which pain stimuli are to be ignored to pursue potential gains.

In this context the experience of pain varies - even though the "cause" may still be there.

Sometimes we don't realise we have been not perceiving pain until it builds up to a point where one has to acknowledge it or because the things that have been preventing us from noticing it are no longer doing so.

Pain (and pleasure) are strongly correlated to emotions.  Pain can trigger anger and frustration which in itself ramps up the experience of pain.  Pleasure the opposite somewhat.

"painkillers" per se might be the metaphorical equivalent to shooting the messenger who brings one bad news and then consequently not attending to the cause of the pain.  Meanwhile the thing that is causing the pain might be getting worse because one has been enabled to ignore it.

This is not to say that if the cause of the pain is intractable one should not deserve and receive relief. 

Personally I believe that addressing the cause of the pain where possible is the best thing to prioritise.  Using analgesia - including pleasurable things - to enable this as necessary.

Best wishes

I know why I'm in pain, or mostly, some of it is from old injuries, some from osteoarthritis and some from fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is a difficult one for normal doctors to deal with, its a diagnosis of exclusion rather than inclusion, it's one of the things they're left with after they've done all the tests they can think of. Osteoarthritis they can only treat with pain killers, steroid injections or replacing the joints, mine isn't bad enough for me to be on any list for surgery, even though my pain relief options are so limited. 

The pleasurable pain relieving options are expensive far more expensive than the ilegal one. The NHS is very reluctant to even think about using it, even though experts agree that it's a good option for many, they can't even use CBD oil and thats an expensive option too.

Oddly one of the things I find most helpful is reflexology treatments, although they're expensive too, but at least they treat all of me, rather than just bits of me.

I know why I'm in pain, or mostly, some of it is from old injuries, some from osteoarthritis and some from fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is a difficult one for normal doctors to deal with, its a diagnosis of exclusion rather than inclusion, it's one of the things they're left with after they've done all the tests they can think of. Osteoarthritis they can only treat with pain killers, steroid injections or replacing the joints, mine isn't bad enough for me to be on any list for surgery, even though my pain relief options are so limited. 

The pleasurable pain relieving options are expensive far more expensive than the ilegal one. The NHS is very reluctant to even think about using it, even though experts agree that it's a good option for many, they can't even use CBD oil and thats an expensive option too.

Oddly one of the things I find most helpful is reflexology treatments, although they're expensive too, but at least they treat all of me, rather than just bits of me.