THE BUSINESS OF PAIN

 James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.

© February 7, 2020

Author, Publisher, Consultant and Devoted Christian Writes:

Chronic and Acute Pain

Why we must suffer in our free solo climb.

By Ken Shelton

Why must pain be such an enigma and paradox?  If pain were more clearly seen as a consequence of sin or crime, or as a prerequisite to gain, we might all gladly accept it as a fair and wise condition of our mortality; but sadly we see the innocent and saintly suffer along with the sinners and criminals, sometimes as a result of collateral damage and at other times for no apparent rhyme or reason.  Do we then have cause to curse the gods or accuse them of malpractice and malfeasance or at least some mistake or misdemeanor?

Inventions and Interventions

            Today I again visited Spinal Interventions to assess what’s next in my attempt to “manage” or mitigate the chronic pain associated with stenosis, sciatica and neuropathy.

            I discussed different options, including the most recent inventions and interventions. Needless to say, everybody has a cure or claim for a cure-all for pain. Since pain is universal and since billions of dollars are spent worldwide to alleviate it, many players are in the pain game.

            I suspect all conceived human beings who have lived outside their mother’s womb for even a minute, or even been a late-term unborn baby still in the womb, have experienced pain. 

What and Why of Pain

            Pain is what we feel when someone or something hurts us. It comes in two forms: Acute pain is sharp, comes suddenly, is caused by something specific, and might last a few moments or few months; Chronic pain is ongoing and usually lasts longer than six months. This pain can continue even after the injury or illness has gone away as pain signals remain active in the nervous system. Some people suffer chronic pain even when there is no past injury or apparent body damage. Emotional effects of chronic pain include depression, anger, anxiety, and fear of re-injury. Common causes include nerve damage and injuries that fail to heal properly. Back pain, for example, may be caused by: poor posture, improper lifting and carrying, obesity, spine curvature, traumatic injury, wearing high heels, sleeping on a poor mattress, degenerative disks or disease.

            Why do we feel pain?              Pain can warn us of cause-effect consequences. When we experience acute or chronic pain resulting from inflammation, injury, insult, loss, rejection, abuse or assault, we see the why of pain and the connections between physical, emotional, mental, social and financial pain. We then have the chance to develop more empathy and compassion for others in pain, whether it’s intense but temporary or incessant and on-going.

Christ: Chronicle of Chronic Pain

            Pain is what links Christ with all persons. Pain is the impulse, the energy force that imprints sin and sorrow on a savior’s soul. Atonement is a two-sided coin: all about pain and suffering on one side, and on the flip side it is all about relief and joy. The imprints and impressions of atonement include the wounds in the hands, feet and side, but remember: the official cause of death was a broken heart, which is why he requires our broken heart and contrite spirit. He doesn’t ask that we be beaten and crucified, but he expects us to carry our cross without becoming addicted to opioids. Christ and his Saints then qualify to be representative chronicles of the acute and chronic pain of humanity, and Christ, alone, to be chief advocate.

My Response

It saddens me as it does my wife, Betty, to hear that you are suffering this triple barrage of painful maladies of stenosis, sciatica, and neuropathy. 

Yet, despite this punishing pain that never leaves you, a constant stream of calming missives are produced seemingly every day with another important book soon to be published, not to mention constant international travel to honor your commitments.  How do you explain this?

My sense is that in additional to acute and chronic pain, pain associated with our temporal bodies, there is psychological pain and psychological joy associated with our souls. 

Now, I know many of my own readers, those of a scientific nature, don’t acknowledge the soul although it is apparent in the psychological joy they express when they make a new discovery of Nature, win an honor in their profession, have a manuscript accepted by a prestige publisher, win a promotion or tenure at some university, or indeed, fall in love and get married, and experience the joy and wonder of becoming a parent. 

Now, psychological pain can become physical pain as you point out.  It happens when you lose influence in the life of a son or daughter who spreads their wings, turns their back on the family in search of their own identity.  I know of that pain, a more excruciating pain then my most recent open heart surgery, a pain that had no physical source.  And yet, for a time, it was totally debilitating. 

Other emotional pains are associated with depression, loneliness, failure in relationships or business, getting old, self-estrangement, not being taken seriously, uncontrollable anger, or as you mention, sliding down the slippery slope into Nowhere Land of Nowhere Man with drug addiction, or some other self-negating dysfunction.

Your strong religious convictions come at a time when this as an operational motive is not as popular as it was when I was a boy. 

My sense is that you have survived and prevailed these hapless attempts to meliorate your pain through modern medicine because of the palliative of your unflinching Christian beliefs.

Two world wars within a single century have left us an anchorless society, suspended in permanent adolescence attempting to compensate for this loss of spiritual confidence with mindless consumption and insatiable materialism.  Science, including medical science, has been unable to fill the spiritual void left by the retreat from the spiritual sanctuary once provided by religion. 

Now, we are faced with a new plague, the coronavirus, with the young Chinese doctor who was first scorned for alerting the world to this disease, now dead of the disease at 34.

This is not to suggest that the world is wicked, that modern medicine has not been a boom to humanity, nor that we are any less spiritual beings than we once were.  It is suggesting, however, that pain is common to us all, and much more manageable with the antidote of love.