Introduction

The word pain is used in many different connections that have no other common trait than personal discomfort. A person with a headache does not mean the same thing with being in pain as the one who are in painful sorrow or a cancer patient.

Pain is something the individual feel and that cannot be measured, you have to believe it. It is the same with art, love and joy – they cannot be measured either, you have to experience them. Discussion is out of the question, the experience is personal not communal. The others can approach sympathetically, understandingly, empathetically – but that is all.

Experiencing pain contains three elements:

1. A physical part that consist of electrical signals which are sent through the nerve fibres from the body up to the brain.
2. A psychological part that is the sum of negatively coloured experiences and the fear of what significance the pain holds.
3. A social part that is the interaction with other people coloured by conditions like education, family, work and economy.

If pain is to be soothed, both the physical, psychological and social part need to be affected. The physical part can be treated with painkilling medication, the psychological part with understanding, acceptance and enlightenment and the social part by the implementation of social initiatives.

Further reading on What is pain?