Pain! Why do we have it?

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Pain is an important alarm system the body has to make us aware of injury.

Pain is (very) complex- let’s break it down.

There are various types of pain; so let’s start discussing acute vs chronic pain. 

  • Acute pain: short term; there is a stimulus causing injury to the body and that message is relayed from the affected tissue to the brain by our nerves to feel “pain”; once that stimulus has stopped or the tissue has healed the pain will go away. (1,2)

  • Chronic pain: long term (> 3 months); is when the injury has healed or the stimulus has gone away but the sensation of pain persists; chronic pain often ebbs and flows with intensity and can become hard to define. (1,2)

Pain can affect your physical, emotional, and mental state so, having a good understanding of your pain can help you recover more successfully. 

There are multiple factors to be aware of when discussing chronic pain. Since the pain has been around for a long time, the nerves relaying the messages of the pain to your brain have been over-stimulated so they are less accurate in localizing the pain and describing your pain to you. Which is why you may find yourself having a difficult time defining your pain or it feels like the pain moves around. 

Also, when you are dealing with chronic pain, the body becomes more sensitive to stimulus. A good analogy of this is one found in the book, Why do I Hurt (1). Louw describes your body as a house alarm system. When you are pain-free, it takes a great amount of stimulus to set off the alarm like “someone breaking a window” (1). But when you are already in pain, it is much easier to set off this alarm as the body’s threshold for pain is more sensitive. So, that loud sound you originally needed to set off the alarm becomes a soft sound for example if  “a leaf blows by” (1). 

Again, pain neuroscience is very complex but understanding pain can really improve your outcomes in physical therapy. 

If you are struggling with pain we suggest you talk to your physical therapist or doctor to get a better understanding of your pain. 

If you would like more knowledge on pain neuroscience there is a great patient friendly resource called;  “Why do I Hurt?” by Adriaan Louw PT, PhD. 

Citations:

  1. Louw, A. (2013). Why do I hurt?: A patient book about the neuroscience of pain. Orthopedic Physical Therapy Products. 
  2. Varma, A. (2023, March 31). Acute vs. chronic pain: Definitions, causes, and treatment. Medical News Today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/acute-vs-chronic-pain#chronic-pain