Pain is Relevant

“I know my pain is not as bad as yours!” I hear this from friends and family all the time. What nonsense! Pain is relevant! It doesn’t matter where you hurt. What I think is excruciating and rate as a nine or ten you might only rate it as 6 or a 7. Pain tolerance and pain thresholds are different for everyone.If your body is sending the pain signal to your brain, it is pain!


I also hate when my doctor says ‘Rate your pain from 1 to 10’!


Why? Because it depends on what I’m doing or not doing, if I’m standing or sitting, on the day, hour or minute and on the medication I am taking!


Personal I believe pain tolerance is higher RA patients because we are constantly in pain and have conditioned ourselves to only acknowledge the severe pain. Besides if I commented daily on my pain I am fairly sure my family would, after a short period time, condition them to ignore me and my complaints. By only commenting on the severe pain they know it must be bad or I wouldn’t be saying anything.


Why do we have different pain tolerances?


Evidence has shown that genetics as well as developmental, behavioral and social issues affect the way we react to pain. I know that my daughter when she young was less likely to cry when she fell (unhurt) if we ignored or clapped our hands and gave praise that she was so brave/strong. Researchers found that those with one type of a gene called SCN9A reported worse pain than those with a different type.


Pain Tolerance vs Pain Threshold


Pain tolerance is the amount of pain that a person can endure before breaking down emotionally and/or physically. We feel the pain but we don’t react to it.


Pain threshold is the minimum stimulus necessary to produce pain. E.g. Arm wrestling – how much pressure can your arm take before you start to feel the pain.


Does swearing increase pain tolerance?


According to a CTV news story, some researchers beleive that swearing triggers an aggressive emotion which in turn causes the body to release adrenaline and increase the heart rate. This triggers a fight response to the pain in the person and raises their pain tolerance.


I don’t know if I agree with this. Personally, I try not to swear but occasionally a few swear words do slip out. Has this helped my pain tolerance? I have no idea. But if it is true my husband must have a very, very high pain tolerance, lol!


What’s your opinion, do you think swearing helps with pain tolerance?