Página 48 - Teacher’s book - ENGLISH FOR HEALTH-CARE PROVIDERS

46 ENGLISH FOR HEALTH-CARE PROVIDERS
Unit 4. Understanding pain: What to do about it in less than
five minutes?
Everyone agrees that pain is a universal human experience.
We now know the pain is 100% of the time produced by the brain. This includes all pain –no
matter how it feels– sharp, dull, strong or mild, and no matter how long you’ve had it.
You might have had it for a few weeks or months. This is called “acute pain” and it’s com-
mon with tissue damage –say from a back injury or ankle sprain– and generally, you’ll be
encouraged to stay active, and gradually get back to doing all your normal things, including
work.
Or you might have had it for three months or more, and this pain is generally called persist-
ent or chronic, because in this type of pain, tissue damage is not the main issue.
What’s less clear though is when you are told you have chronic pain is knowing what’s best
to do about it. Well, in Australia chronic pain is a really big problem. In fact, 1 in 5 people
have it.
Having a brain that keeps on producing pain even after the body tissues are restored and out
of danger is no fun. Some people say it still feels like they must have something wrong.
But that’s just it. Once anything dangerous is ruled out, health professionals can explain
that most things in the body are healed -as well as they can be- by 3 or 6 months. So, on-go-
ing pain being produced by the brain is less about structural changes in the body, and more
about the sensitivity of the nervous system. In other words: it’s more complex.
So to try and figure out what’s going on, you need to retrain the brain and nervous system.
To do this, it’s helpful to look at all the things that affect the nervous system; and may be
contributing to your individual pain experience. What can help is to look at persistent pain
from a broad perspective and by using a structured approach and a plan, it’s less likely that
anything important will be missed.
Let’s start with a medical side.
Firstly, taking medication can help, but only to a limited extent. It is the more active ap-
proaches that are necessary to retrain the brain. So using medications to get going is OK,
and then mostly they can be tapered and ceased.
Some people also think surgery might be the answer. But when it comes to a complex
problem like chronic pain, surgery may not be helpful. So, if you’re thinking of surgery, it’s
best to get a second opinion, and remember to consider all the things.
Next, it is helpful to consider how your thoughts and emotions are affecting your nervous
system. Pain really impacts on people’s lives and this could have a big effect on your mood
and stress levels. All those thoughts and beliefs are brain impulses, too, but you can learn
ways to reduce stress and wind down the nervous system. This helps with emotional well-
being and can reduce pain as well.