What is Pain?

When we think about pain, the one thing that comes to mind is a damage of some kind to our bodies but this is not necessarily the case. We feel pain when we have an injury but we also feel pain when we can also feel pain when there is no injury present. It is important to note this because pain does not mean that there is an injury, it is a warning system. Pain is present as a warning siren in our bodies, vigilant in preventing further injury. For example, you moved your shoulder in a position that is unfamiliar to you and you felt pain, does that mean that you have an injury? The answer is no but it did warn you to not perform that movement since the possibility for an injury could increase. There could be multiple reason why you felt that pain that don’t involve tissue injury, assuming there is no prior trauma to the area.

It is important to note that not everyone feels pain the same way and that not all pain can be explained. We still have some ground to cover regarding our understanding of pain and what causes some of the pain experiences that we can’t explain or treat well. It can sometimes be hard when a patient feels pain but there is no damage to the area, because there is not a clear picture of what is going on. It is important to note just because you feel pain in one area that does not mean that the pain generator is in that area or that the main issue is located in the same area. Pain can move and be expressed elsewhere and sometimes can be hard to determine where it is coming from. You have noticed the difference between pain experienced in the arm vs a stomach ache, one is more local while the other is more diffuse.

Pain is an experience and an alarm, not a palpable element which is why treating pain can be complicated in various instances. Pain in our bodies is produced when there is certain stimulus perceived by our nervous system. Those stimuli go to the brain where the information is interpreted and sent back to the area where it was produced and it is expressed as pain. In certain respect when people say the pain is in your head, well they are correct because that is the physiological nature of pain but that does not invalidate the experience of pain that any person experiences. We have been taught that pain is something that should not be present in our lives but that is not realistic, pain is part of the human experience.