I vividly remember many years ago, my dentist telling me about a patient who would come into the surgery, take a seat and say, “Just give me a minute.” He would then proceed to close his eyes and after a short time let the dentist know he was ready.
I thought I was about to hear a story about managing anxiety regarding dental procedures, but I was wrong. I discovered that after preparing himself, the patient would undergo the dental procedure with no anaesthetic or pain relief, he managed his pain with his mind.
Recent years have seen exponential growth in our understanding about pain. Many of the drugs we use and the operations we have to alleviate pain, are now seen to be at best ineffective and in some cases further damaging to the individual.
Our understanding about pain and pain management has come a long way since the days of routinely issuing ongoing prescriptions for opioids to those who are in pain. We now know that such drugs if used at all, must be used carefully and for limited periods of time, lest they lead to addiction, as well as developing a tolerance for the drug which leads to a need for increasingly greater doses to receive any relief at all.
I remember a client of mine who attended a pain management course but failed to complete it because of their perception that they were being told the pain was all in their heads. They became angry and defensive because their pain was very real, and they thought they were being told it was not, this was a misinterpretation of the message about pain. They were not being told their pain was all in their head, but rather that they had the ability to perceive their pain in a way that could lessen its intensity and impact.
The dental patient mentioned earlier was not some wellness guru from far away places, but an ordinary person living in our community. We all have the ability to use the power of our mind to better manage our pain. We can even choose to see some pain as good pain, for example the pain we may feel after exercise, which may actually be a sign we have worked underused muscles. Taking charge of our pain is important for quality of life.