When I was in my twenties I suffered from severe Chronic Pain. In my search for finding a treatment, I went to Education for Therapist called Explain Pain Therapy and when the Teacher said. “Pain is a part of living a human life, in fact our survival depends on being able to feel pain,” on the first day, I was so provoked that I almost left because of his way of saying it. Today I realize it was necessary, for me to be provoked in order to learn something completely new.
If you should find your self getting provoked by reading along this article, please give yourself a chance to learn soemthing new.
Okay, back to the story.
The teacher then explained, that there exist a few very unfortunate people who are born into this world with a genetic mutation called CIPA. This mutation makes them unable to experience pain, cold and heat. A large proportion of the children born with this mutation die before they reach the age of 3. They don’t feel if they scratch themself too hard or if they hurt them self bad – and the surviving group has to constantly check themselves as they do not notice any injuries they may cause upon themself.
This example shows the teacher’s statement. That our ability to experience pain is essential to our survival as it causes us to act and avoid certain things.
This example did give me a new perspective on pain despite my own suffering. It shows that pain protects us and keeps us safe. But why do we then get chronic pain then, what are we protecting ourself from?