How you can live Free from Pain

pain levels

Nobody ever wants to live with pain but unfortunately, for many of us, it is a fact of life.

Some people are of the belief that they have only two options…one being pain and the other being surgery.

For that reasons, many people who suffer from chronic pain will opt for an existence that involves taking ever increasing amounts of pain relievers and even injections.

Eventually, those very same doctors who have been prescribing the pain meds and administering the injections will stop doing it do to the situation having reached a point where the risks greatly outweigh the benefits.

Those risks include drug abuse.  So, where does this leave someone who is truly suffering from chronic pain?

Pain Defined

Before you can overcome your pain you must first understand what it is, how it works and what the causes are.

Pain is a feeling or sensation that is conveyed to the brain along a type of nerve called a sensory nerve.

This particular type of nerve only carries the pain sensation and they are found everywhere in the entire body.

No matter what type of pain you are experiencing or from where it originates, there must be an involvement of both sensory nerves and motor nerves.

Pain is more than simply a sign of an injury, it is also an interpretation that is subjective.

The combination of this allows you to locate the exact location of the problem, determine how severe the issue (by the intensity of the pain) is as well as the type of problem it may be (burning sensation, stabbing or sharp pains, dull aches, etc.).

Pain can come from a number of things with an injury being the leading cause.  However, it can also be brought on by illness, anxiety, repetitive motion or even depression.

Acute Pain

Whether you know it or not, pain is actually a mechanism that is intended to be one of a protective nature.

Pain that causes an immediate disruption to your normal routine s known as an acute pain.

This type is often a result of actual damage to the tissues such as a cut, bruise, burn or broken bone among many more type of injuries.

Acute pain is sudden and can be extremely intense and then followed by pain of a more dull and aching variety.

This type of pain generally fades and disappears completely as the tissues heal.  However, if it persists then it can morph into chronic pain.

This type of pain is also associated with things like poor circulation or even dehydration at times.

These conditions can be the cause of pain in the form of headaches, muscle cramps, etc. As the condition is treated, the pain will dissipate.

Chronic Pain

Chronic pain differs from acute pain in that it does not diminish or dissipate. A rule of thumb is that if the pain persists for a period of more than 4 – 6 weeks, then it can be classified as chronic pain.

Once the body heals (in case of an injury) the pain remains. There are two main groups of people who suffer from this type of pain.

There are those with diseases that are considered chronic such as degenerative disc disease or even osteoarthritis. These people will continue to have pain due to the fact that their disease is one that progresses.

The second group of chronic pain sufferers are those who may have had an injury that healed but the pain has continued for no reason that is apparent.

Long term pain can also result from causes that are unknown but even if the causes are not known, that does not make the pain invalid. There is a reason whether or not it is known.

How you can live Free from Pain

Dealing with it

There are ways to deal with pain. Some types of pain like acute pains will take care of themselves in time.

Chronic pain is the type that we have to learn how to live with because, regardless of what you may have read or heard, living a life free from pain is not an option.

You have a few choices here. You can suck it up and live with it or you can spend your life counting the hours before that next pain pill or days until the next injection.

Is that what you want to do?  Being in pain is not easy but being addicted to the pain meds is worse.

If you can find what triggers your pain though, you may be able to better deal with it by cutting these triggers out of your life.

For example, if you have an intolerance to gluten, you can have major abdominal pains anytime you ingest it. Gluten has also been linked to RA.

If you cut the gluten from your diet you can have less pain because the gluten is not there to trigger it.