There are two types of pain: one capable of locking us up, one that generates trauma, those by which wounds no longer usually come into light, the other is the one that teaches us, the one that gives us a heart of graphene and an immeasurable Force that ignites in us the ability to connect better with others, to be more sensitive and receptive to the suffering of others.
Dante said that anyone who knows pain knows everything, but does that mean that we are almost forced to suffer to acquire a true learning of what life is?There are differences. In fact, it could be said that as for the psychological plane and this more intimate, atomic and at the same time strange scenario that characterizes our inner universe, there are details that should be searched, tuned and mowed.
“If I had the opportunity to choose between feeling pain and nothing, I would choose pain. -William Faulkner-
The first thing to keep in mind is that the pain comes from the brain, it is he who, after receiving certain signs of the environment, the body and the senses, interprets in a few seconds and decides immediately whether or not to create a feeling of pain. like an alarm, like someone who presses the panic button when attacked, when something or someone attacks their own physical or emotional well-being, against their own survival.
However, and this is certainly the most interesting, every sign of pain sensed and perceived has a purpose, they are warning signs that we cannot ignore and to which we must react, when we put our finger on fire, the brain sends a signal. of severe pain, but when we eliminate it, it immediately sends a series of neurochemicals to alleviate suffering.
So, emotionally, almost the same thing happens physically. When we experience trauma, disappointment, rupture, etc. , the brain also interprets these facts as aggressions, as true “burns”. Pain is a direct invitation to react, act, practice certain coping strategies, to keep your hand away from fire. The learning you learn from it is never forgotten.
It was Aldous Huxley who taught us that living in a state of endless pleasure can create true dystopian societies, as we saw in his book “A Happy World. “Although the idea of endless pleasure seems idyllic, the truth is very different. or another, could we say without fear of making the mistakes that human beings need?Touch or pain stings to feel the contrast of pleasure.
For example, few things can be more comforting on a cold winter night than going home and drinking. . . Athletes, on the other hand, also experience remarkable euphoria after intense physical exertion, when endorphins and other endogenous opioids provide a sense of well-being. so comforting that, in a way, the pain of a body taken to the extreme.
If we say that pain can increase the feeling of pleasure and happiness, it is not a contradiction, it is not an irony, many researches have been published on this relationship, such as that published in the Journal of Social Psychology and Personality, which explains that the ad hoc suffering and properly managed and suffered encourages the feeling of pleasure and keeps us in touch with the world around us.
Consider, for example, all the periods of life in which we have been strong, the moments when we had no choice but to have value, it was perhaps a disease, perhaps a loss, perhaps the worst disappointment of our lives or the most traumatic. humiliation.
Overcoming the whirlwind of this sometimes painful, very hard and at the same time always private inner journey, we now have an exceptional psychic tendon, thanks to it we feel freer, more worthy and with better tools to enjoy and build ours. Happiness.
At the beginning of the text we said that the brain interprets emotional suffering as a real burn. It is not we who affirm it, it is not a fragile metaphor, but an obvious truth that has been demonstrated by interesting research published a few years ago in the scientific journal “Actes de l’Académie naturelle des science”.
“Whoever manages not to know the pain will at the same time avoid knowledge of pleasure and reduce man himself to nothingness. “-Michel de Montaigne-
Through neuroscience we know that when someone says “is the pain in their head?”, make no mistake, it is real and it is true, because there is a very complex structure, the anterior cingulate cortex, which does not distinguish between psychic and body pain; everything is the same for him, and that’s why emotional suffering sometimes seems devastating?
But, if suffering is in our heads and is governed by the brain, is it possible to “disable” it?The first thing a lot of people usually think about is drugs. Well, it should be remembered that neither painkillers nor antidepressants are the solution, because what they do is numb the pain in the cingulate cortex, but they never manage to calm or resolve the emotional discomfort.
Pain, and it is important to remember, is an alert, it is the incandescent beacon that warns us from the shore that there is an imminent risk, that we can crash into the reefs, if we decide to hide in the basement as a stowawaline, we will not solve the problem: the risk will remain there.
Therefore, the only possible way out is to change course, raise sails and take control of our own lives to seek more serene seas, more favorable currents and more encouraging winds, learning through experience will make us unique and connect us much more with life. .