Beyond the Pain Barrier
Introduction
Pain, particularly chronic pain, is much more than a neurological response, a simple cause-and-effect. It is a complex physical, emotional, intellectual, environmental and social response to damage, disease or distress. While most pain becomes evident with nerve or tissue damage, the origins of some pain may be emotional, intellectual or even spiritual.
Pain is a common human experience and yet we don't really know what someone else's pain is like. Pain is personal; we all feel and respond to it differently and our tolerance levels vary. What is painful for one might be dismissed as insignificant by another. Long-term pain, or chronic pain, can be a lonely experience and sufferers can feel isolated and powerless.
Perhaps the most destructive aspect of chronic pain is the way it steadily erodes and fragments the life force of the person in pain. The pain sufferer can lose a sense of being in charge of their life, becoming reactive and increasingly powerless, devitalised and demoralised. By its very nature pain can affect all aspects of the sufferer's life - their relationship with themselves and with others, their finances and, if they are able to work, their work performance.
In the range of help available to the chronic pain sufferer, there is a vast resource that is potentially and consistently the most powerful of all. This is the mind. In combination with appropriate therapies, the healing power of the mind gives us access to enduring, effective pain management.
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