The Biopsychosocial Components of Pain
Sensitised Tissues
Overstraining tissues beyond their tolerance can lead to injury.
When cells are damaged, specialised threat-detecting neurons and the immune system detect it, triggering inflammation to guard against infections and injuries.
As inflammation spreads, it awakens other dormant threat-detecting neurons, cranks up their volume and aggressively excites them.
A protective response that sensitises our brain to all potential dangers, heightening alertness while injured tissues heal and strengthen.
The Psychological Elements of Pain
As human brains evolved in complexity, so did our ability to influence our sensory experiences.
Cognition enables us to acquire, process, and utilise knowledge derived from our experiences, perceptions, and thoughts. Think of cognition as a control room with different knobs and dials. Outside this room, our lived sensory experiences, like pain or pleasure, resemble music.
Our cognitive abilities let us choose the melody and fine-tune its volume, rhythm, and nuance, assembling meaningful experiences based on our needs.
Our ability to adjust perception has transformed pain from a simple damage alarm into a complex defensive behaviour with adjustable intensity and quality.
From this perspective, pain is not always a sign of physical damage. Sometimes, our brain, anticipating potential harm, creates pain to protect us before any harm occurs, even when no real damage is present. This alerts us to potential dangers sooner, prompting us to act to enhance our odds of survival.
Like adjusting a speaker's volume, certain behaviours, thoughts, and emotions can turn our pain volume up.
Conversely, focusing on positive counterparts and meaningful activities can turn our pain volume down.
The Sociological Aspects of Pain
In times of distress, we seek support from others, much like a student seeking guidance from their teacher. A teacher's response can shape a student's outlook: doubt discourages, while encouragement boosts confidence and perseverance.
Likewise, our interactions with loved ones and healthcare providers affect how we perceive threats. Negativity heightens pain’s menace, while reassurance eases suffering and fosters resilience.
Our memories store all our environmental influences in life. These memories are organised for quick and efficient retrieval, allowing us to relive them when necessary.
For instance, gunshot victims might first feel a thud upon impact, but often pain sets in after seeing the wound. Memories add context and urgency, triggering a protective response.
Our memories shape how we react to threats. When we sense danger, we might feel pain, fear, or anxiety that guides us to safety. However, instead of avoiding danger, hedonists and thrill-seekers pursue it for pleasure, with their memories transforming physical harm into rewarding experiences.
Our brain blends sensations, emotions, and thoughts to create all our lived experiences. This makes pain complex and multi-dimensional, influenced by encounters, knowledge, beliefs, emotions, behaviours, environment, and social interactions.
Our brain draws on everything it knows to create meaningful protection against perceived threats. These factors not only influence the volume of pain but also how much it bothers us.
Creating unique lived experiences that differ among individuals and across cultures, assembled from distinct environmental influences.
Recognising pain's complexity helps us better understand its significance in our lives.
