Pain is never a feeling people want to experience but it makes us aware of what is harming our body or not. The most excruciating pain I've ever experienced was during my junior year in high school when I was in a basketball gain & I sprained my ankle. I felt this intense sharp pain and heard a loud pop, it hurt like hell and quickly started swelling. While reading the material in the text I replayed this experience in my head as how the pain travels. If I felt a sharp pain , I know that thick and faster axons were conveying this pain along with neurotransmitters such as glutamate and substance.. Even after about an hour after my incident even the slightest touch would hurt my ankle and foot, I didnt even want to move it. I felt sharp pains throughout the whole night on my ankle that it felt like little needles were poking at me . I felt like my endorphins never kicked in because it felt as if the pain never went away, not even for a bit.
I know how you felt i have sprained my ankles countless of times.What i try to do to help me get rid of the pain is by paying attention to something else away from my ankle. I will admit sometimes it works then sometimes it does not, i really dont know why it works like that.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Pain is something that even though most of us don't enjoy it is something extremely essential to life. It lets us know when something is wrong with us or when something shouldn't be done. I really liked how you connected the process to something most people have experienced and can relate to.
ReplyDeleteYou also need to keep in mind that endorphins do lessen the pain, but IF it were to lessen the pain from you sprained ankle to a much lesser pain such as a paper cut like pain, you might not ever know its sprained. I somewhat concluded that endorphins add in the lessening of pain but don't extinguish it completely. Our body's endorphins make the pain manageable.
Its amazing how our body works. In that moment when you sprained your ankle and heard/ felt that pop, information was rushing to you brain. Your spinal cord was releasing neurotransmitters such as glutamate and substance P (Depending on the intensity of the pain). Cells from your spinal cord were sending the information to various areas your brain that have your memories & warnings of pain.
pain. something i go through EVERY MONTH (girls you know what i mean). no matter how many pills i take that one week... it still goes on and on and on.. i hate this topic because it hits home and how horrible it feels sometimes to be in a lot of pain. i do not agree with placebos when it comes to pain. if i dont take pills to ease my cramps... i will go insane. and i will hurt people. its hard to believe that a placebo would make PAIN disappear. i hardly believe that.
ReplyDeleteOuch! Your experience sounds excruciatingly painful! I'm sorry to hear that. Pain can be so unbearable sometimes. It's interesting that your endorphins didn't kick in. I think it works differently for different people. Perhaps, due to evolution, some people release less endorphins than others. Pain is still important though. If it weren't for pain, we wouldn't know when we're in danger. Imagine if you hadn't felt pain that night. You might've continued to play and caused more damage to your foot than your foot could handle.
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