Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Pain As a Warning Sign


Pain
If you’re experiencing pain, making it go away is an understandable goal. What is the purpose of pain? Why are we equipped to experience this unpleasant feeling?


Identify Limits
Pain is a way our body tells us we’ve reached a boundary. When our finger exceeds the limits of the joint function for which it was designed for, we experience pain.

Montage of road signs
Like highway signs, pain is a warning sign. Ignore it at your own risk!


Provide Warning
Pain is a signal our body uses to alert us that something isn’t working correctly. Physical pain, social pain and even psychological pain is a warning that something must change.


Avoid Injury
Ultimately, pain is a form of self-protection. Without experiencing pain, we might do more serious, irreversible damage to ourselves.


Understandably, we want pain to disappear. A convenient way is to ingest a drug that covers-up or fools the body. As you might expect, this strategy can make the underlying problem worsen, making it more difficult and expensive to correct.

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