What is Pain? Why do we feel it? and most importantly when will it stop?
At the outset I want mention that this post has nothing to do with Jewelry design but has a lot to do with Jewelry makers.
When I first started making jewelry I wrote an entry in a jewelry making community about my injuries and pain and was overwhelmed by the response. It was then I realized that pain was a topic that was most discussed in those circles after beads, supplies and techniques. Since then I have been wanting to write a series of posts on Pain (sorry, there are far too many stories to fit into one) and this is me finally making a start.
Before talking about Pain I need to state that I am neither a medical professional nor someone who is academically qualified to dissect it or offer pain remedies and most if not all things discussed in column are my own opinion based on my life experiences and those of people around me.
“If you are someone who has never experience prolonged pain in your life, I urge you to read it ; for the it will make you think for a couple of moments before you brush off another person’s pain as purely psychological. If you are someone who lives/lived with pain, What the heck you might even enjoy it.“
Now that the disclaimer is put up, lets get started. This one like I mentioned earlier is an introduction post on pain.
What is Pain?
Pain or rather physical pain to begin with, is a sensation – a reaction to stimuli caused by internal (Illness caused pain ) or external sources (stubbing your toe). It is a very unique, rather humbling and individual experience. Only the person who is experiencing the pain will know its intensity and can describe it properly.
There are 3 basic types of pain
– Momentary pain ( pain that’s forgotten in minute – like a eyepin prick)
– Acute Pain – resultant of an injury and heals in 3- 6 months
– chronic pain – This is the nagging pain thats just refuses to go away even after the injury is healed
– There is one more category which I like to call Chronic – Acute pain. It when your chronic pain leads to new injury or discomfort which when doesnt heal properly and keeps contributing to your chronic pain. Not many doctors acknowledge it but I am sure the many of you who suffer from chronic pain will agree with me. Let me give you an example – You are someone with a bad knee and suffer from chronic pain. When you wake up on a particular morning and realise that its a bad day. But you spend a lot of time warming up your leg and exercising that you are late to work; you start to run, trip or twist your leg and fall – contributing to new injury for which you cant take rest as hey – you have to work!This combination, when repeated time and again, in my opinion leads to Chronic – Acute pain
Some people feel more pain than the others. Others feel it differently. so why do people react to pain in different ways? Here is one of the most sensible videos (from Ted ED) that I found explaining what pain is and how people suffer pain
Here the point to be noted is that – “Pain is all in the Brain” – But it is not “all in the mind”. There is a huge difference in these two. Some pain is more psychological than others or can be caused by non biological factors – like outside stress. Some pain like those caused by migraine headaches can be also triggered by even thinking of smells or being in a disco with flashing lights. Also people with sensitive skin feel more pain as they are more “sensitive” to pain. Scientists now say that a broken heart could be treated to lessen psycho-physiological pain with aspirin by treating it as a “heart ache”.
We all have broken backs, compressed discs, sprained elbows/ wrists and swollen fingers that lead to pain while making jewelry but that does not stop us from doing it; does it? No, we learn to live with it, manage it, even overcome it at times. I hope that this monthly column would be filled with stories of how you and I overcame pain. Write to me, your stories, nothing morbid, weird or gory (no, no, no, no, no!) no blood dripping either! but real, funny, sarcastic, even heart wrenching events when you were able to overcome pain.
I hope you found it interesting
Cheers
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