Thoughts on pain

Grizzly · 2011-04-08

Saw this today and it got me to thinking. Last year I was on an 8 out of 10, but yes, according to this it was maybe a 1, and when I think about the pain that friends have gone through with cancer over the last year I have nothing to complain about. But on the physio table today for my weekly torture session, and I don't use that term lightly, I got to thinking about how (and I don't know any other way of putting this) intimate pain can be. No, I'm not going all S&M on you here, my motto isn't "No Pain, No Gain", it's "No Pain, No Pain". But I can see how for some people pain is what can ground them to this existence, provide proof of their tangible reality. Maybe thats what the attraction is to boxing and the more violent sports. When all you can focus on is pain your life is made far simpler and your concerns are reduced to a singular focus. It's that focus that is lacking in most lives and I think it can be for some people an intoxicant - much like "falling in love" provides a simiilar all-consuming focus. I've gone to this weird space in describing my pain. The absence of pain is not being pain-free for me at the moment, it's like there's a void where the pain used to be, a receptacle there that can be filled up again with pain, a potential for it to be held again. Something like that Spinal Tap dial that can go to 11, it's down really low but somehow I know that it can be cranked up again. Oh well, time get a tea and get to work.

467 Views 10 Replies 7 Participants Last post by GaReb770, Apr 10, 2011

Grizzly

Discussion Starter · Apr 8, 2011

Saw this today and it got me to thinking.
 
<a class="H-lightbox-open" href="http://www.kickrunners.com/content/type/61/id/82090/width/1000/height/800/flags/" target="_blank"><img alt="pain_rating.png" class="lightbox-enabled" data-id="16642" data-type="61" src="http://www.kickrunners.com/content/type/61/id/16642/width/740/height/217" style="; width: 740px; height: 217px"></a>
 
 
Last year I was on an 8 out of 10, but yes, according to this it was maybe a 1, and when I think about the pain that friends have gone through with cancer over the last year I have nothing to complain about.
 
But on the physio table today for my weekly torture session, and I don't use that term lightly, I got to thinking about how (and I don't know any other way of putting this) intimate pain can be. No, I'm not going all S&M on you here, my motto isn't "No Pain, No Gain", it's "No Pain, No Pain".
 
But I can see how for some people pain is what can ground them to this existence, provide proof of their tangible reality. Maybe thats what the attraction is to boxing and the more violent sports.
 
When all you can focus on is pain your life is made far simpler and your concerns are reduced to a singular focus. It's that focus that is lacking in most lives and I think it can be for some people an intoxicant - much like "falling in love" provides a simiilar all-consuming focus.
 
I've gone to this weird space in describing my pain. The absence of pain is not being pain-free for me at the moment, it's like there's a void where the pain used to be, a receptacle there that can be filled up again with pain, a potential for it to be held again. Something like that Spinal Tap dial that can go to 11, it's down really low but somehow I know that it can be cranked up again.
 
Oh well, time get a tea and get to work.

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RaisingArizonainNH

· #6 · Apr 9, 2011

Acute pain as in trauma is dealt with by the brain differently than chronic pain. I liken the pain of child birth to the same level of pain cause by trauma. The brain experiences the pain but after trauma many people just can't remember it . The brain knows it wasbad but it just cannot allow you to remember it the way it really was. Childbirth definitely falls into that for me anyway- It hurt then really .. but afterward somehow it wasn't so bad... of course it helps that you get this cool little baby out of the deal too !
 
 Chronic pain is so on going and your brain KNOWS it is there, expects it and even gets used to it. My knees .. yeah well this week wasn't good. I can;t take ibuprofen any more - it aggravates my asthma and makes me hoarse all the time.. but now I can't walk well at all. I have a pulled muscle in my butt.. piriformis I think - probably from favoring the really bad right knee...It wakes me up several times a night - can't sleep on it can't sleep on the other side - as that causes pain.. 
 
 
Chronic pain sucks .

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