Ouch!: Why Pain Hurts, and Why it Doesn't Have To (Bloomsbury Sigma)

When you catch your fingers on something really hot you usually react within seconds, getting them under cold water as soon as possible. But what’s actually happening in your body? As soon as your hand makes contact with the hot object, the specialised nerves that register and report bodily sensation send a signal to your spinal cord, up through your central nervous system and into your brain, setting in motion a sophisticated and precisely-timed response. Before you’re even consciously aware what’s happening, your hand retracts. If you can’t react quickly enough and you’re burned, your sympathetic nervous system is further activated: your metabolism kicks into high gear, your heart rate increases and your breathing accelerates. The activities of your ‘thinking’ brain are suspended briefly as all attention shifts to protection. Your body releases natural painkillers, blocking the pain so you can focus on getting away. On the surface, pain seems like a fairly straightforward experience, but it’s actually sophisticated and complex, and culturally, our relationship with it has changed over millennia, and not for the better. Through in-depth interviews, investigation into the historical record and original research this book will challenge the notion that all pain is bad and harmful. The authors argue that understanding how pain works, how we think and talk about it, how we treat it, how it is expressed and what it means, can provide the foundation to build a healthier relationship with it. They explore pain within a framework that encompasses the suffering, the survivors, and the ‘extremists’ on the edges of society using pain for pleasure. Ouch! dismantles the ideas that we all have about pain, and uncovers a truth that we instinctively know but seem to have lost in a misguided quest for a state of perfect painlessness. Pain seems like a fairly straightforward experience – you get hurt and it, well, hurts. But how would you describe it? By the number of broken bones or stitches? By the cause – the crowning baby, the sharp knife, the straying lover? What does a 7 on a pain scale of 1 to 10 really mean? Pain is complicated. But most of the time, the way we treat pain is superficial – we seek out states of perfect painlessness by avoiding it at all costs, or suppressing it, usually with drugs. This has left us hurting all the more. Through in-depth interviews, investigation into the history of pain and original research, Ouch! paints a new picture of pain as a complex and multi-layered phenomenon. Authors Margee Kerr and Linda McRobbie Rodriguez tell the stories of sufferers and survivors, courageous kids and their brave parents, athletes and artists, people who find healing and pleasure in pain, and scientists pushing the boundaries of pain research, to challenge the notion that all pain is bad and harmful. They reveal why who defines pain matters and how history, science, and culture shape how we experience pain. Ouch! dismantles prevailing assumptions about pain and that not all pain is bad, not all pain should be avoided, and, in the right context, pain can even feel good. To build a healthier relationship with pain, we must understand how it works, how it is expressed and how we communicate and think about it. Once we understand how pain is made, we can remake it. Pain seems like a fairly straightforward experience - you get hurt and it, well, hurts. But how would you describe it? Most of the time, the way we treat pain is superficial -- we seek out states of perfect painlessness by avoiding it at all costs, or suppressing it, usually with drugs. Ouch! paints a new picture of pain as a complex and multi-layered phenomenon, recommending steps to build a healthy relationship with pain and how we communicate about it. Introduction: pain (probably) isn't what you think -- What is pain? -- Who is in charge of pain? -- The cure and the cause -- Kids need pain -- and so do the rest of us -- A visit to the pain cave -- The 'shocking' truth: pain is useful -- Hurts so good: when pain is pleasure -- I feel your pain -- How to tell better stories about pain