Pain and Health
February 20th 2007 20:59
Pain is an intriguing thing. It demonstrates that we are whole organisms. That is: it may be only one ‘part’ of us that is painful (eg. the thumb that was impressed by that hammer) but it affects all of us. The throbbing in our thumb may affect our stomach (nausea) or our heads (a headache) or even our ‘higher’ mental functions (it will probably be harder to concentrate on something).
Pain is nature’s way of getting our attention. Deadening it with pain killers isn’t a good first option. It is better to first find out what is causing us pain. When it is something like having hit our thumb with a hammer this doesn’t take long and we can reach for the pain killers straight away (there is no virtue in pointless suffering).
But . . . the cause of so much of our pain can be harder to pin down. In Australia the figures suggest we are living through an epidemic of depression. And the publicity is mostly about how to treat it. The fact that so many people find their lives unsatisfactory rates hardly a mention. Instead the answers are pills and various forms of therapy. All of these therapies can be useful and should be widely available – there is no virtue in pointless suffering. However, I think looking at causes should rate a deal more in importance.
Perhaps this is understandable. After all individuals may not have the resources to change their work and other life circumstances that they find so unsatisfactory. And to tell them that they need to change their life is likely to be just more depressing. So therapy focussed on individuals is understandable. But the campaign is there because it is a social problem – and the social causes are a long way from being the focus. To me this just seems a cop out by the public health authorities.
It may not be depression of course. There are many reasons for feeling pain – and physical causes should not be overlooked. Ongoing pain means something trying to get our attention and a trip to the doctor – to find the physical cause - could save your life.
So this post is a plea to listen to our pain, and to make our first response to listen to it and find out what it is trying to tell us – to find out the reason for our pain (which may be physical, emotional, mental or spiritual in my view).
Pain is nature’s way of getting our attention. Deadening it with pain killers isn’t a good first option. It is better to first find out what is causing us pain. When it is something like having hit our thumb with a hammer this doesn’t take long and we can reach for the pain killers straight away (there is no virtue in pointless suffering).
But . . . the cause of so much of our pain can be harder to pin down. In Australia the figures suggest we are living through an epidemic of depression. And the publicity is mostly about how to treat it. The fact that so many people find their lives unsatisfactory rates hardly a mention. Instead the answers are pills and various forms of therapy. All of these therapies can be useful and should be widely available – there is no virtue in pointless suffering. However, I think looking at causes should rate a deal more in importance.
Perhaps this is understandable. After all individuals may not have the resources to change their work and other life circumstances that they find so unsatisfactory. And to tell them that they need to change their life is likely to be just more depressing. So therapy focussed on individuals is understandable. But the campaign is there because it is a social problem – and the social causes are a long way from being the focus. To me this just seems a cop out by the public health authorities.
It may not be depression of course. There are many reasons for feeling pain – and physical causes should not be overlooked. Ongoing pain means something trying to get our attention and a trip to the doctor – to find the physical cause - could save your life.
So this post is a plea to listen to our pain, and to make our first response to listen to it and find out what it is trying to tell us – to find out the reason for our pain (which may be physical, emotional, mental or spiritual in my view).
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