What is pain

It is through pain only that power can be achieved. Pain is the ultimate teacher, an ordeal that brings the highest of rewards. 

Path of Lilith 

The only appropriate and fast way to relieve pain is to recognize its legitimacy. 

The fastest way to reduce pain is to accept it. Sounds absurd? Just think about it. Pain is a message saying you did something wrong —maybe had a bad meal, lifted a heavy weight or had an anxiety attack. The body gets upset and sends you a warning. “Stop and change.”  If, instead of heeding this message, you run the red light, the penalties would only get tougher.

The more pressure you put on pain, the more aggressive it becomes. The only appropriate and short way to relieve pain is to recognize it as a sensible mechanism that curbs your insanity, or as a law opposing your anarchy. This surrender may certainly hurt your feelings: humans tend to be sure of their own wisdom, benevolence, and fairness. Yet arguing with nature makes even less sense than arguing with tax authorities. We call her Mother Nature precisely because she always knows what is good or bad for us.  

My thoughts may sound like negative advertising. Some could say a pain management specialist is not supposed to suggest that we surrender to pain voluntarily instead of killing it.  That would be pretty far-fetched, however. I am just suggesting that you should not keep stepping on the same rake when you already have your head bruised all over. You want your pain to leave? Stop yelling at it, stop pushing it aside. This initial step is the first and probably the best painkiller. Learn how to cooperate with your body rather than fight it.  

A compromise with pain 

A patient who seeks a compromise with pain calms down and starts breathing deeply. This reduces pressure on nerve endings by pumping away excess liquid from inflamed spots.  

Those who have suffered an agonizing headache, toothache or back pain know that even the cruelest of pains would subside now and then. It is up to you to extend or shorten these periods. A patient who stoically seeks a compromise with his pain and his body at large would calm down at the moment of relief. His pulse would slow, his stress level drop, and his muscles relax. This would trigger a deep breath that would pump away excess liquid from inflamed areas and reduce the pressure on nerve endings. All this improves microcirculation and tissue nourishment. Inflammation, the engine of pain, will then be doomed.  

On the contrary, a patient who refuses to seek a temporary relief and wants a full victory over pain rather than a compromise, locks himself in a vicious circle. He does not let his pulse and breathing relax. His raging mind keeps adding fuel to the fire of stress and inflammation. Consequently, a short respite will sooner or later give way to a real thunderstorm of pain that can only be handled in an emergency room.  

Eliminating the true causes of pain 

If you wake up feeling no pain, you know you're dead.  

                             Andrew Solomon 

I realize it is a rather disappointing piece of wisdom. Indeed, in some situations, a pain in your stomach or in your heart can be life-threatening and must be promptly addressed by professionals. Yet even in such critical circumstances, the chances of survival are much higher if the patient does not succumb to panic and understands that the body does not want to kill him; it is just crying for help.  

When a patient in pain comes to our office, we certainly offer much more than such "psychotherapy".

Our doctors have efficient ways of understanding the demands of pain and giving it an appropriate answer. For instance, a spasmed muscle that exerts pressure on nerve endings and restricts the supply of blood and oxygen can be readily relaxed by a proper neuromuscular massage or laser reflex therapy. A nerve root pinched by a slipped disk easily responds to focused manual axial decompression to get the much-desired freedom. Muscles, sick of immobility and insufficient blood supply, become flexible and well nourished once again with the help of special axial exercises and, as a matter of gratitude, liberate the body from chronic pain.  

The main point is to avoid messing with the self-controlled biological computer that uses discomfort and pain to send important messages to our mind. Try to listen carefully to these “cries and whispers.” Interpret them correctly. Provide appropriate and fast responses to your body’s requests. This is the easiest and most productive way to interact with pain.