Learn How Pain is Only About Protection
Painbites — The Pain Habit Blog
There's a common misconception about pain that many people suffering from persistent pain, and many others in general, hold. They mistakenly think that pain equates to damage and there must be damage when pain is present.
The actual meaning of pain is that one of protection, and pain is a very poor indicator of whether there is any damage. Read on to see how making this shift in belief can be fundamental in allowing someone in chronic or persistent pain to recover.
Pain is only about protection. Always protection and nothing else. We sometimes mistakenly believe that it is related to damage. We sometimes think the more pain we have and the longer we have it, indicates how badly damaged we are.
We think that the pain confirms the presence of damage. If this is a long-held belief, it may surprise you to be told it is not true.
How Many Pains Have You Had?
Just think of all the different pains you have had in your lifetime.
They all came when you nearly damaged yourself, and the pain protected you from that damage when you became aware of something because of the pain. Or some pains came when you injured yourself.
Bumps, burns, scratches, twists, bruises, broken bones, cuts, grazes — and possibly loads of them. These experiences brought pain when you were damaged because the pain was an indication that you had to protect that injury.
These injuries occur because the stimulus causing the injury happens too fast for us to react to until it is too late. The best we can do is become aware of that injury and do whatever we can to protect that tissue as it heals.
Pain After an Injury
The pain that comes after an injury is designed to get you to protect that injury. It makes you learn what happened to cause it. It makes you seek attention for it and reminds you to look after the injury whilst it heals.
If you ever suffer a pain that you recognise as having suffered before, you quickly realise that you have all the things you need to deal with that situation. You realise why it happened, what you need to do, and how long that injury will take to heal.
The Paper Cut
Let’s use the example of a paper cut. We have all experienced a paper cut. Even if you have not suffered one for 10 years, there’s a good chance that you can recall what it feels like.
Why? Because you have a memory of it. You actually have a memory of every painful thing you have ever experienced, and the paper cut memory is tucked away in your brain to be used when needed.
The paper cut memory now offers you a protective mechanism, which only appears when someone passes you some paper or you pick up a piece of paper. It’s a memory that serves you well.
You now know how to act when you hold the paper to prevent injuring yourself. This should mean that you don’t purposefully whip your hand along the edge of the sheet of paper and neither do you pull the edge of an envelope across the edge of your tongue as you’re licking it to seal it.
It’s an awareness you maintain at the moment you are holding the paper, but this is not a strong conscious thought. It is a gentle unconscious awareness, that you could remember if you focused on it.
But it’s just offering you a reminder of what could happen if you did the behaviours again which resulted in getting a paper cut.
Once Bitten (Cut!), Twice Shy
Pain taught you that lesson.
When you first experience a paper cut; the sensation was so unexpectedly unpleasant and severe, that your brain quickly encoded all the relevant information present in that moment.
It wires how you were feeling with that pain so it can recognise any aspect of that situation in the future and warn you of danger, to prevent you from feeling that level of pain again.
Bitten (Cut) Again!
Now if you are unlucky enough to suffer another paper cut in your life — and unfortunately, you probably will — you have to use that memory to know what to do next.
Ouch! You feel the sharp sting of the sensation.
You look to see where that injury is and determine how bad it is. You see the blood and size of the cut, then decide what action to take. You have to make sure that you do the things relating to protecting that injury, and pain guides you to do the right things.
So, pain offers you protection after the injury, but how?
It reminds you of all the behaviours you used previously to help you recover fully from the last paper cut you suffered. It also encodes some of the things you did to remind you that what you were doing wasn’t protecting that paper cut.
So, as long as you follow the protective behaviours, you will feel less pain quickly.
Good Protective Behaviours = Pain Soon Goes
With that new paper cut, you might suck it or press it to stem any bleeding. You may rinse it under cold water, dry it, and put on a plaster.
Whatever action you take, it's likely that it's what you learnt from your parents after your first experience of a paper cut. Within about 10-15 minutes or sometimes sooner, there is very little pain.
If pain was ever down to damage, the pain would still be there until the tissue heals That’s not what happens.
The pain goes long before the tissue has fully healed.
“Pain is only ever about protection.”
Bad Non-Protective Behaviours = Pain Stays Longer
The pain appears to make you aware of the injury, but the length of time it stays depends on whether you interpret that pain correctly and take the correct actions for it.
If your behaviours are not protective, the pain will return or stay.
Would you dip that new paper cut into lemon juice?
Would you place that finger in a bag of salt and vinegar crisps?
I doubt you would do either.
Why? Because you have probably encoded in your brain what each behaviour feels like, and from my memory, they generally make a paper cut sting even more.
The interesting thing is that pain from the lemon juice or salt and vinegar crisps does not indicate there is more damage. It just indicates that you are not protecting the injured tissue.
“Do I have to tell you again?”
As soon as you return to the healthy protective behaviours, the pain reduces and soon stops.
But be warned because if you act outside the boundaries of safety whilst that tissue heals, you may get a smart painful reminder of what you’re doing and be prompted to change course!.
Pain is a Blessing — Listen, Understand, and Act
Pain offers an amazing warning system, but you need to understand what it is warning us about.
The brain uses pain not just about protection before and after physical injuries, but it is the default mechanism that we look for in Western culture and medicine. Once you recognise the beneficial protective mechanism of pain and that it isn’t actually indicating damage, you can look for its true meaning.
What is it actually protecting you from in persistent pain if it isn’t physical damage that you thought for so long?
Well, if you’re open to the idea that it’s not due to ‘damage’, you can start looking for the real reason.
What’s next?
Take Your First Step to Recovery.
Join our FREE private Facebook group, The Pain Habit Community, to learn how others have successfully returned to a pain-free life and get support on your journey.
Subscribe to The Pain Habit YouTube channel.
Buy The Pain Habit book. Buy It Here.
