Stress and Pain Perception
If it doesn’t hurt to touch a hot plate, you can burn your hand without even knowing it. If you ignore the ache in your abdomen for too long, it’ll be too late to treat it effectively. As a warning system, pain signals us to act accordingly in order to prevent further damage from taking place. Sometimes the perception of pain can be a lifesaver. More assuring than that is the degree to which pain can be manipulated within our own control. Indeed, not just by the things going on around you, but by the very things going on in your head.
The Painkillers Within
During horrifying fires and accidents, adults have been known to forget about their severe injuries while attempting to save the life of a child. Sounds like the kind of scene you see in a horror flick — people going about their business with massive wounds — but amazingly, such things really do happen.
During intense situations, energy must be put to optimal use. Because feeling pain would be a distraction, not feeling pain may become the key to survival. Fortunately, we have enkephalins, dynorphins, and endorphins naturally originating within us. These chemicals, collectively known as endogenous opioids, are similar in structure to opiate drugs like heroin and morphine. Once activated by stress, their painkilling effects can last up to four hours.
Obliviousness to pain is quite common. Soldiers engaged in combat and athletes on the playing field usually fail to notice, or are able to ignore pain, when they’ve been injured. This numbing response can also be activated at will through exercise. Tough out the initial pain for thirty minutes or so and before you know it, you may feel exhilarated — that is, at least until your muscles begin to ache later.
A Tale of Two Pathways
Mosquito bites and sore feet aren’t just annoying — they demonstrate how your pain system works. Nerve fibers responsible for pain perception extend from all the parts of your body to your spinal cord and brain. Fundamentally, these nerve fibers can be sorted out according to the type of message they transmit: pain that is sharp and sudden or pain that is dull and lingering. That’s why it feels so good to scratch mosquito bites and rub your sore feet: stimulating the nerve fibers for sharp, sudden pain will block the message of dull, lingering pain from registering right away. The result is instant — short-term pain relief!
This dual pathway concept is used by the Chinese healing art of acupuncture. Sticking needles into the skin triggers an enormous release of endogenous opioids. However, endogenous opioids need not always be involved to experience insensibility to pain. Different stressors can induce analgesia or pain relief in different ways. We can point to two excellent examples: During the stress and excitement of athletic competition, athletes ignore a brief, small injury received to pursue the game or goal. Using distraction provides a powerful force that interrupts and lessens pain perception. We also see this in action when relaxation and distraction are used to lessen the pain of childbirth in the Lamaze Method.
Pain on Your Brain
In comparison with tactile sensations, psychological sensations seem to play an equal, if not greater role, in stimulating pain pathways. Fear of pain alone is capable of exaggerating the level of pain actually experienced. When thoughts of pain, bleeding, needles, and/or death crowd your head at the sight of your dentist’s pick, you’re bound to squeal the instant it touches a tooth. On the contrary, when pain is the last thing on your mind, chances are that it won’t feel so bad, if you feel any pain at all. That’s why so many dentists offer music, headphones, or other distractions.
The manipulation of two variables are especially recognized as influencing pain perception:
- The quality of immediate environmental surroundings
- The sense of control regarding personal experience
Studies of hospital records reveal that patients staying in rooms without windows or windows facing other walls request pain medication more frequently. Patients staying in rooms with a view have fewer complaints. Other studies show that when patients are allowed to administer their own pain medication, the overall intake of these drugs decreases. When it comes to the task of making pain manageable, relieving the pain of uncertainty, no doubt, does wonders. Whenever our anxiety goes up, with or without fear, pain increases too.
When confronting a state of pain whenever you experience pain, try changing your state of mind. Recall a favorite memory. Visualizing a positive outcome or any other positive thoughts will help contribute to a less stressful, less painful experience. When possible, reduce stress by enhancing your surroundings with, for example, a big leafy plant, a Beethoven concerto, or a tank of fancy fish, or something you love seeing or having near you. Getting active, involved and distracted helps, too. Most importantly, take control. Ask questions. Pain doesn’t have to have the final word.
It’s equally important to remember that pain is your friend. It’s your body’s first alert warning system that tells you, “Something’s wrong. Please help.” How you pay attention, what you do, and how you learn from this experience can make all the difference in your health, and how well you cope with pain in your future.