As a chronic pain patient I can definitively state that the pain is physical not mental. It must be understood that all pain comes from the brain. That is how our body is designed, but it doesn't mean the pain is a mental problem.

While in a pain clinic I was given a medication for my severe headaches. The medication was frightening. The pain from my headache was completely gone but the headache was not. How is that possible? Mentally and physically, I thought it was awesome to have a medication to relieve the pain and thought the headache was gone, but when I bent down to grab something I had the black rush of nearly passing out and the overwhelming nausea and dizziness that always accompany my headaches.

The chemical in the drug interrupted the natural physiological reaction to pain, but did not remove the source of the pain. It was still there but I couldn't feel it. It occurred to me then that this was an extremely dangerous medication. Not feeling the pain I could have gone about my normal routine, like driving to the store, blacked out and killed myself or someone else. This proved to me my pain was definitely physical not mental.

There are many physiological reasons for pain that are not understood in traditional medicine. As a fibromyalgia patient, sleep can be my best friend or my worst enemy. When I do not get sufficient sleep, physically and mentally my tolerance for pain is much lower. In contrast when I do get sufficient restful sleep, mentally I am more capable of dealing with the pain.

Chronic pain patients experience at one point or another the distinct five stages of grief. We mourn the loss of "the old me." We get angry. We go through the pleading, the acceptance and the reconciliation stages. It is considered mentally healthy to experience these stages of grief. Unfortunately with chronic pain we tend to cycle through the stages more than once.

Depending on what stage you are experiencing in the grief cycle, your pain may be thought of as mental. In one sense it is but it is an added pain of the heart and psyche from experiencing the physical pain relentlessly day after day, hour after hour.

So little is understood of chronic pain and when a physician doesn't have any answers the next logical step in traditional medicine is to look at the person psychologically as causing the pain. If you or a loved one experience chronic pain, you will need to explore realms beyond traditional medicine and find a comfort zone for you individually.

Society has a tendency to dump people into categories. Chronic pain is a perfect example of traditional mainstream society not understanding fully the complexity, causes and results of chronic pain, so we are thrown into the catch all "mental' category to be dealt with later.

Science is beginning to prove that chronic pain is not mental. Pain pathways physically change after months of experiencing pain. Chemicals produced by the body such as endorphins become depleted and draw from other endocrine areas, causing more decay in the pain cycle.

Society and the media play an integral role in the perception of chronic pain, prescription drug abuse and health care. As members of society experience longer life spans, more emphasis will be placed on understanding chronic pain. In the meantime, those who suffer with chronic pain will have to persevere until science makes the quantum leaps needed to understand chronic pain.

Learn more about this author, Baja Raquel.
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