Recently, in an old Canadian Living magazine (November 2003), I came across an article on pain. It's something my mother complains a lot about, so I decided to read it, wondering as I did:
Does my mother really feel all the pain she has been complaining about ever since moving to Ottawa 9 years ago? Currently it's her arthritic knee, but previously it was her shoulders, shortness of breath, chest pain... The list goes on. She seems to be extra sensitive to pain: a needle from a routine blood test makes her shout out: "You're killing me!"
Is she really feeling that much pain? I often wonder...
According to the article, I'll never know, because feeling pain is an intensely personal thing. What is painful to one person may be hardly noticeable to another. The article, entitled "All in your head?" refers to a book entitled Beyond Pain: Making the Mindbody Connection.
Some interesting quotes from the article:
- While the perception of pain is highly personal, the biology of pain is the same for everyone... it's all in your head.
- Nerves carry... the pain message... to the brain.
- How the brain translates electrical impulses into pain is an individual matter.
- medication
- hypnosis
- stress
- whether you're paying attention to the pain
- memories
- genes
- personality
- your own body's painkillers
- culture (in some societies men are not expected to feel pain)
But the point I found most interesting in the article is that a supportive family member or spouse apparently increases one's perception of pain. A German study on pain found that brain activity increased three times when the supportive family member was in the room!
Do I understand this correctly? So, my not being a "Florence Nightingale" - mentioned in a previous blog post - is not a bad thing? A person who pampers a sick person actually increases their sense of pain?!
(That's a relief!!)
No comments:
Post a Comment