Pain vs. Suffering
What is suffering?
One of the things that makes pain different when compared to other sensory systems, such as vision, hearing, and touch, is that pain can be associated with suffering. While you can get annoyed with a bright light, or irritated with an annoying sound, pain is unique in that prolonged experience with pain in most cases results in at least some degree of distress or suffering. Suffering by its nature encapsulates negative affective or emotional phenomena. A brief look at synonyms for suffering is telling: distress, anguish, hardship, torment, torture, adversity, martyrdom.
It is important to recognize that pain and suffering are not the same thing. You can have pain with very little distress. A look at high level athletes provides a ready example of this - they have can significant pain, but may not be impaired by i, or bothered by it. Many athletes see pain as a part and parcel of their sport. Similarly, everyone has had experience with pain that is more nuisance than disability, including aching and cracking knees, sore muscles after a good workout, or a hefty bruise you get from a lovely day of hiking.
Suffering and Pain
However, it is also important to recognize that the suffering from pain can truly produce an agonizing experience, and is one of the primary causes for disability. In this age where getting pain medication has become more and more challenging, physical pain can have many psychological consequences. Many patients report that their most significant distress is not associated with disability with respect to employment, but revolves around their inability to do basic life activities, which include interactions with their loved ones and family members. Patients with chronic pain often report significant distress with their inability to play with their children or grandchildren, inability to provide support for their family members or spouses. Patients also report suffering with respect to inability to engage in activities that they used to enjoy, ranging from grueling physical activities like running or lifting weights, down to minimally challenging physical activities like gardening, or hiking, or just walking in the neighborhood.
How To Reduce Suffering
So what are the active steps that we can take to reduce suffering from pain? Some of these are very basic - like seeking medical attention when it is needed, including alternative medical practices when traditional medicine does not provide the relief one might desire. Medications, including anti-inflammatory drugs, opiate analgesics and anti-convulsants, can act directly on the pathways that transmit pain information in the body. However, there are also other medications, like anti-depressant drugs, which have also shown some benefit to pain patients. It is not known if the relief comes from a reduction in pain itself (through descending control pathways for pain), or more from a reduction in the depression that may be associated with debilitating pain (research clearly shows that if a person is depressed, they will focus more on negative experiences, including pain, which can amplify that pain). Similarly, medications that impact a specific neurochemical, serotonin, may also be involved in a pain transmission system located in the brainstem, and may help individuals block out some pain signals.
Similarly, alternative therapies can also reduce suffering from pain, including chiropracticic, acupuncture, reiki, aromatherapy, and even psychological therapies that can target psychological problems associated with pain, including frustration, anxiety, and depression. Similarly, improving psychological strategies, like increasing self-esteem and self-efficacy, can also help to reduce suffering from pain. Therapists and counseling can help you develop better coping strategies for acute pain, that can enable you to do more when you are hurting. This is important, because research is very clear that increasing activity can both decrease physical pain and improve psychological mood states. This does not require high intensity exercise, but can be accomplished with some mild walking, resistance training, or yoga.
Alternative Methods for Dealing With Suffering and Pain
But there are other ways to impact suffering, when pain may not be amenable to direct management. Increasing activities that bring you pleasure can definitely reduce pain associated distress. Research clearly shows that any means that can distract you from the pain can not only help reduce your distress, but can also, to a limited extent, reduce the actual pain you experience. Literally, if your brain is busy doing other things, it cannot dedicate as much of its territory to conscious perception of pain sensations. In a more psychological vein, research also shows that the more control you have in dealing with your pain, which is called self-efficacy, the less negative emotions will be associated with that pain. Reducing psychological patterns like catastrophizing can also help to improve a person’s ability to deal with pain. This can clearly reduce a person’s negative emotions associated with pain, even if the pain may not be able to be reduced directly.
Perhaps the most important thing to dealing with suffering from pain is to do what you can. While pain can limit potential strategies for dealing with suffering and psychological distress, usually there are at least some potential pathways which can improve your experience. You may not be able to get your old life back, but you should be able within limits to find a new, rewarding life with appropriate work. Research is very clear that the more deconditioned someone becomes, they less active they are in their lives, the more pain they will feel, and the more debilitated they will become. Respect that you may need to ask for help to find that pathway to try to live your life as well as you can.
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