Pain a Major Form of Stress

Stress comes in many forms, such as work overload, financial responsibilities, raising children, and relationships, just to mention a few; but none more potent than pain. Most of us experience some sort of pain in our everyday life, be it physical or emotional. The common remedy is either drug therapy which only serves to mask the pain and does not cure it; or surgery, which is not always successful and can create additional trauma from tissue scarring. Pain is defined as an unpleasant sensation, occurring in varying degrees of severity. The magnitude of pain is dependent on the varying levels and combination of stresses generated as a consequence of injury, disease or emotional disorder.How many times have you heard a person say, “my doctor told me the pain in all in my head” or “ my doctor says that my pain isn’t that bad and I don’t need the medication anymore”, the truth is, the pain is all in your head.

   
Many people have everyday pain and adapt and cope with it almost unconsciously.  Rarely do we take medication for this type of pain. It is a discomfort we just deal with, we get on with our lives with a “grin and bear” it attitude. But this type of pain also creates stress, effects our patience, sleep patterns, and ability to concentrate and function normally. Compound this with the daily stress of living and this type of pain begins to take control of our lives without us even knowing it!  In many cases our body automatically makes adjustments; such as walking a different way to avoid back pain; or turning our shoulders instead of our head to avoid neck pain. Unfortunately these and other adaptations don’t solve the fundamental problem , they just serve to create secondary areas of unconscious pain.