About Pain
Or is it a feeling, a sensation you do not like—or do not know how to describe—so, you call it PAIN.
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You are not sleeping well and wake often because you cannot find a comfortable position
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You have tried ‘everything’ to get better, but nothing seems to be helping
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Because no one can SEE what your problem is, you are beginning to wonder if you might NOT have a problem
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You are frustrated by people telling you that you SHOULD be better by now (especially if you did EXACTLY what they did---or if you would read the success story in the magazine or on-line)
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You cannot make plans because you do not know HOW you will be feeling (even a few hours from now)
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Relationships with your family, your friends, and even with your health providers have changed—for the worse!
DOES THIS SOUND LIKE YOU?
Chronic or persistent pain
Is often used by people in pain as well as their health
providers as a DIAGNOSIS rather than as a symptom of a problem (think of the painful feeling as the noise accompanying the problem).
Persistent pain means that you have been experiencing🔴 longer than what would be considered usual or expected—for whatever condition may have cause the
problem.
But the🔴 may have been caused by different problems.
In order for you to recover or gain control of your specific problem, it is important to understand (or learn) how different parts of your body work and how your brain controls (or interferes at times) with your ‘thinking process.’
A work-related injury
A motor vehicle accident
A Slip and Fall at Home
My medical condition
Joint replacement surgery
Spraining my shoulder while painting
Pain is a message:
Acute pain can be helpful.
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It is telling you to ‘take your hand off that burner’.
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It is telling you that you need to make an appointment with your doctor because of this new pain in your stomach.
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It is reminding you that recovery from surgery takes time.
Persistent pain is often not a dangerous feeling, but it is still a MESSAGE. It is telling you to DO something to CHANGE that feeling.
It is telling you that your back pain is worsening because you have been sitting for too long. Stand up and move around!
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It is telling your neck that the computer monitor is not at the right height—and if you lower it, you will not have to ‘look up’ at the screen.
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It is telling your stiff, achy fingers to stop keyboarding or knitting. Soak your hands in warm water, do some gentle stretching exercises, and rest for a while.
Everyone’s pain experience is different, and each person must develop their OWN way of managing their problems—learning new skills—based on each person's unique situation. But because we are often embarrassed (or may not realize we are embarrassed) to say we are extremely worried and overwhelmed by the 🔴, we can also dismiss any other feelings as not important.
Learning how to separate your pain experience from any other feelings like suffering or anxiety , will allow you to feel that you are DOING something that, over time, will allow you to feel and function better.
So, Why is this website called ‘Don’ t Go to the Ouch?’ Because WHEN you say OUCH and HOW loudly you say it depends on many factors. Each person's pain experience is a very personal one.
Unless you have a rare condition called ‘congenital analgesia’ (insensitivity to pain), the elite athlete or the person who just doesn’t like an ouchy or annoying feeling will say OUCH at some point in time.
Separating the 🔴 into PHYSICAL words (ache, throb) from EMOTIONAL WORDS (worried, anxious) from OTHER words (dizzy, nauseous) may help you separate out WHAT AND how YOU ARE FEELING... and enable you to make some changes to your unique experience.