Learn More about Pain
Pain has many causes
All physical pain has a direct
underlying physical, or "end" cause. For example, migraine headache may be caused by a biochemical imbalance in the brain, or backache may be caused by irritation of a nerve. These end causes can result from many different external
or internal conditions. For instance, eating a food you are allergic to can lead to the biochemical imbalance in the brain that directly causes the migraine headache. So can changes in altitude, weather, or sleeping patterns, being
tired or stressed, or hormonal changes during PMS or menopause. Conventional treatments work on the end cause only Conventional treatments focus on counteracting the direct physical cause of pain, or on
eliminating the conditions that lead to the direct physical cause. For example, a food allergy to ripe bananas might lead to a serious biochemical imbalance in a common brain hormone, such as serotonin. Conventional
treatments might attempt to eliminate allergenic foods, or to administer drugs to counteract the serotonin imbalance. These treatments can help, but it is not always possible to avoid all potential headache producing situations,
such as suspect foods or PMS. Some of the drugs used to treat pain are also not as effective as we would like, and they might have unpleasant side effects, such as nausea or drowsiness. Most importantly, the conventional treatments
ignore a major factor. There is something else that has a powerful influence on our brain biochemistry, and which thus determines whether the pain will turn into a serious headache such as migraine or cluster, or whether a minor
back pain will turn into a disabling spasm. Pain is a combination of sensation and emotion The experience of pain has at least two different components. The two main ones are what we call a 'sensory
component' and an 'emotional component'. You can illustrate this by inflicting a small pain on yourself, for example by squeezing one of your fingers in a pair of pliers. Start out gently, and then gradually increase the
pressure until it becomes unpleasant. Notice that you feel the pressure first, and then as the pain starts, you want to pull your hand away. There is an important difference between the sensation in your finger, and your desire to
pull your hand back. The sensation in your finger is the sensory component of pain. The emotional component
is your desire to escape from the sensation, or your fear of not being able to escape. With a more serious injury you could be terrified by the extent of your injury, and you'd want to escape from the whole situation. Recall the last time you were in serious pain – you probably wanted to change the situation and escape from it, and you may have been angry and frustrated at not being able to. It is significant that we use the word 'pain' to refer to both physical and emotional pain. With emotional pain, we are unhappy with a situation such as loss of a loved one, but we are helpless to change it. We feel angry and frustrated that we can't do anything about the painful situation, and we may be afraid of what will happen in the future. Physical and emotional pain are very similar, because a large part of what we normally think of as physical pain is actually emotional. It is a well-known and true saying that 'The attempt to escape pain
is pain.' The emotional component of pain can increase the sensory component The emotional component of pain can affect your body in a way that increases the sensory component. That is, the
emotional part can make it hurt worse. Your body undergoes profound physiological changes whenever you attempt to escape from, or fight with anything. These changes have been called the "fight or flight" response, the "stress
reaction", or the "defensive reflex". These are normal reactions that help us deal with a threatening situation, such as being attacked by a wild animal. They involve the emotions of fear (associated with escape), and anger
(associated with fighting). Both of these emotions lead to a flood of different brain chemicals, along with hormonal, blood vessel, and muscular changes. For example, when people get angry, they usually get tight in the chest,
their stomach knots up, their muscle tension increases, and their head gets warmer as blood flows away from the extremities and toward the head. The increase in muscle tension alone can cause some very unpleasant side effects,
particularly when the tension is centered in the head, neck, back, or buttocks. This tension can cause cramping, changes in blood flow, and nerve irritation. The changes in blood flow can cause their own problems, such as headache
and further nerve irritation. The spiral of agony An important key to understanding severe pain is that it causes a stress reaction, or defensive reflex. The attempt to fight or to run away from pain is itself
unpleasant, and it makes the pain worse. I call this the "spiral of agony", because the initial pain causes an unpleasant emotional reaction that increases the sensation of pain. The increased sensation of pain causes an increased
emotional reaction, which increases the sensation of pain, and so on. Think back to the last time you had a severe headache, back spasm, or other pain. You are probably afraid of this pain recurring, and you might be struggling
right now to avoid anything that could bring it on. The unfortunate thing is that this fear and struggling can turn a minor ache into a full blown, disabling bout with severe pain. The role of attitude in pain Pain, of
all varieties, is much more complex than most people realize. Many people assume that pain is caused only by physical damage to the body, such as cutting, burning, disease, and so on. This is only part of the picture. You might
recall a time when a rather small physical injury caused a great deal of pain, for example, getting vaccinated as a child, or when tearing off a Band-Aid. There may be other times when you hardly noticed a more severe injury, such
as when you are deeply absorbed playing sports. You may have rubbed yourself raw horseback riding, or you may have played football with a broken bone. The point is that the way we look at the painful experience is at least as
important as the amount of physical damage. There is abundant research on this subject. For example, one study examined the amount of pain suffered by soldiers who had the same physical battle wounds, let's say losing a leg.
Soldiers who weren't committed to the cause of the war reported much more pain than soldiers who believed they were fighting for something honorable and worthwhile. Draftees suffered more than volunteers, and pain was worse when
fighting in foreign countries than when defending home soil. This is true for all sorts of pain—your state of mind influences how you experience pain. Even mothers who really want a baby report less pain during childbirth than
mothers who are giving birth to unwanted babies. What you can do about severe pain Much of the suffering we endure is controlled by mental and emotional factors, for example, our attitude toward the pain, how
much attention we pay to it, and how much we attempt to escape from it or struggle with it. Your mental and emotional state has a profound effect on the physiology of your entire body, and in fact can determine whether you
feel pain at all. There are many skills you can learn that will enable you to control your body, and eliminate pain and stress. For example, you can learn to break the spiral of agony by changing the defensive reflex into a state
of relaxation and calm abiding. To learn more, study our