Pain decreases pain
In Chapter 6 of “The Upside of Irrationality” I wrote about the the process of adaptation, which is the process by which we get used to stuff — like pain, romantic partners, and new cars.
Some of the personal experiences and experiments I described were about how experiencing pain when I was hospitalized caused me (and others) to view pain differently and with a lower intensity.
A new study on back pain, showed the basic same results:
“This study of 396 adults with chronic back pain found that those with some lifetime adversity reported less physical impairment, disability, and heavy utilization of health care than those who had experienced either no adversity or a high level of adversity…… The data suggest that adversity-exposure also may protect against psychiatric disturbances that occur with chronic back pain…”
I am not suggesting that everyone goes and get some more experience in adversity — just to prepare ourselves in case something bad will take place in the future. But, it is interesting to realize that negative experiences influence our adaptation, and this way also on our ability to deal more positively with new negative circumstances.
Dan
My latest book, The Upside of Irrationality, explores some positive and some negative ways that irrationality plays out in our lives.
I wonder if there’s physiological adaptation at play when we undergo hedonic adaptation. e.g. maybe a person who has experienced more adversity releases more dopamine when experiencing pain, because their brains have been trained to build and maintain a large supply of the stuff so that when disaster strikes, it can be released in large quantities. Or perhaps their neurons have more dopamine receptors than the rest of us for similar reasons, which would amplify the effect of dopamine releases.
There is so much more at play then just one thing and if anyone could find out more, it is you I think!
I believe we humans are very adaptable, but some leeches, hangers on of society (some through no fault of their own) that cannot function as well on their own and are the hypochondriacs of the world have greater sensitivity to emotional and physical pain.
EG: The ones who run to mom for laundry, the ones who have helicopter mom’s who won’t let them go, the ones who live at home to 30 (or in a case recently 2 men aged 42 and 45 never left home or married) those who were coddled because of illness and were never allowed to just feel the pain or be normal in spite of it.
Those who are mentally ill, extremely shy, bullied constantly as a child, abused or have brain injuries also seem less likely to have a high pain threshold.
I also think there may be some indication that the children born first may be more sensitive and those born last may be less so. (you younger are more likely to be able to run more freely and to jump off a cliff)
Men may be more able to hide the pain in certain situations, but get them alone with their wives and it is a different story entirely! Whaaaa! (heheh although as a female I know men have less pain tolerance… of that I am certain and it isn’t just the childbirth thing…)
As we age we may have less nerve receptors for pain as well as the dampening effect of past pain observed in that study. Somee also have ability to create zen states to stop pain.
I am of course just throwing all this out there because those are my observations of lifetime. We also have no idea how others experience pain so the only way to judge is with actual pain inducing equipment. (and I would like to say most people don’t like inducing pain, even for experiemnts)
I am inclined to think it is more the brain and your emotional state then nerve receptors and that the other factors above can also have an effect on your reaction, more then past experience. Some people dwell on the pain and can’t self soothe and that is a major problem with those who were coddles too much.
I find I can make my pain (from a stubbed toe for instance) go away by ensuring I shout a sharp expletive (s**t works just fine!) Of course I have also gone to work with broken toes, but I feel less pain by having ‘dealt ‘ with it. *winks*
One last ( and more serious) thought. You were in more pain then most of us will ever have to bear in a lifetime. I know it had a huge effect on your life and I hope you don’t think me too flippant adding my 5 cents worth of opinion.
(and @allyourcode, that may well be the major reason. Very astute)
Hi Dan,
I read your article about hedonic adaptation in the Wired with great interest. What you say make great sense to me. Though, would I be correct in saying hedonic adaptation is why people from cold countries can deal with the cold better than people from hot countries and vice versa. Is it the reason I go to the gym and day in day out put myself through pain that sometimes lasts for days yet it does not matter. Is it why the army put recruits through vigorous psychological training to condition there minds through what you would call hedonic adaptation?
You ever come to the UK?
KR’
Issaac
One fine day I fell off a house, landed on a ladder and broke my left arm to bits. Instead of surgery, I was sent home with instruction to remain upright and let the pieces slide into place. After two weeks, the surgeon said, everything would be in place and start to heal.
However, key to the treatment was that I relax the arm. When it was relaxed, it would not hurt. He was right.
After two weeks I had become a sort of Zen master of one-armed relaxation.
I had to take some physiotherapy. Did some exercises. The surgeon said they would hurt. They didn’t very much though and the constant improvement (and maybe endorphins) was exhilerating. I’d bounce out of there.
I got most range of motion back. Not all.
A year later, I broke my hand (I’m clumsy.) and returned to the same therapist. She checked my range of motion from the previous injury, saw it had improved and asked if I had continued the exercises by myself. I told her I certainly had. She said I must have a high tolerance for pain.
I do not know if the reason for not feeling the pain so much was learning to relax the pain away or, as I thought at the time, I was just motivated to improve or some other reason.
At the end of the day, I’m not sure I want to engage in further experimentation to test any hypothesis.
While pregnant with my first child, I took childbirth classes that stressed deep relaxation (the bradley method) rather than the lamaze breathing. We learned to relax all of the muscles in our body by controlling our breathing and focusing. I found that this worked not only for childbirth (two children) but also great for when I had a migraine, twice for broken arms, and an appendectomy. I do cannot tolerate narcotic pain killers so I used only acetominophen or ibuprofen for both broken arms, and several surgeries. The doctors are always amazed by my pain tolerance, but I think that part of dealing with it is learning to compartmentalize the pain and to expect it and in some ways to accept it…if you move that broken arm, it will hurt, so don’t move it unless you need to!
Pain is a chemical reaction so it would seem that we should be able to modify either the initial reaction or the response to it….
Thank you, Amy.
At 54 and male, I will not be indulging in any childbirth shenanigans but it’s good to hear that relaxation works in other realms.
Nietzche once said: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
I think we human beings are survivors.
And we have tremendous healing powers to get over challenges and pain.
When we have a condition that is chronic, after the initial phase, we get over the flight-or-fight response. And so the healing process kicks in after that. And even if the pain doesn’t go away physically, we develop strength and attitude to deal with it.
Deven, that is also very true. I have chronic pain and illness and rather then be deemed a hypochondriac I tend not to even mention it during a Doctor’s visit because it is something I ‘live with.’ I forgedaboutit. It was to my detriment as it means taking a longer time to diagnose other unrelated illness.
Of course the opposite is true for my sister (the American for profit healthcare dream) who is a hypochondriac. She takes so many pills that they counteract andmake them useless, actually cause her more pain. (migraines) She has forgone childbirth to ensure she never experiences that particular pain…
To me pain is something I not to endure but it makes me glad to be alive. Attitude really does make a difference for endurance. I am 56, so arthritis is starting to kick in. It pays to just keep moving. At the dentist, I forgo the needles, unless it is surgery, as it makes my heart race. taking your mind off on a vacation works and the dentists have suggested that to other patients and found their pain tolerance is increased. They added quiet, relaxing music and found that helps immensely as well.
Thanks for the discussion Dan.
Pain is all a mind game to be honest. As a young child I was always told if someone or something hurts me than I should consentrate on something else so that the pain would magically dissapear, I tested this theory for many years and it did actually seem to work for me. When it comes to causing more pain in order to decrease another pain doesn’t really make much sense to me personally because pain is pain no matter how we feel it. The real obstacle is how to trick our minds into not feeling pain.
Felicha I agree. I feel like pain is mostly in the mind. Yes a person may be in pain somewhere on their body like their back but if they would stop thinking about it so much the pain would decrees. I know from experience too. I have fractured my back multiple times due to my spondylosis and now I have just learned to deal with the pain that comes with it and not think of it as much. I really believe that if you do not think about the pain and get your mind to think about other things then the pain will go away.