Pain physiology has fascinated me since biology A-level (not the administering of it, rather the solving of it).Did you know that your pain receiving areas in the brain are right next to your emotion centres so that mood, context, stress etc can all heighten your physiological response to pain.
We now know that the brain is a neuroplastic organ and has the ability to adapt and change according to different input, this means your experience of your pain can be moderated by smells, sounds, focussing attention on specific repetitive tasks. Something as simple as doodling can change our physiological experience of pain. This is great news for sufferers of chronic pain, fibromyalgia and those not in pain or are depressed but needing to de-stress or have time to themselves.
This brings me on to something that I particularly enjoy and find useful personally for de-stressing at the end of the day, which is Zentangling, doodling or colouring in. Here is an example of some doodling I've been doing this week.
If you want to read further on this fascinating subject then these are two excellent sources. David Butler, Textbook of Pain sixth edition and Mark J Millan, Descending Control of Pain.
Our judgements when we are pleased and friendly are not the same as when we are pained and hostile. - Aristotle
No comments:
Post a Comment