NO PAIN - NO GAIN

MENTALLY FLABBY
Johann Wagener 10-26-13

Big Government takes on Big Pharma.

Popping a pain killer every time you feel some pain is self defeating. Your body, which sends signals to your brain when you slam your hand in a car door, or trip and fall "depends" on your brain sending the proper signals in order to respond, "ouch, that hurt" or something like that. At the same time your body and your brain begin the process of managing and repairing the damage which is usually extremely effective and efficient if not interfered with.

That's when those wonderful "pain killers" come in  and mess the whole thing up. It's like cutting the phone line while your in the middle of a conversation with the 911 operator. Pain pills disconnect your brain from your body (or garble up the signals between them) which only serves to hinder the healing process and leads to needing intervention from doctors, massage therapists, training coaches, homeopaths, and the list goes on.

Just like physical exercise. The less you do the more you can't do. A couch potato would tell you that a walk around the block felt like running a marathon. The same with pain. The less you use your bodies own mechanisms to manage pain, the more intervention you're going to need; including more pain killers which then makes you less able to tolerate pain and requires more pain killers to even deal with a pinched toe as if it were a broken leg.

Why? Because the more you disconnect your brain from your body the "flabbier" your brain gets and the less effective you become in dealing with and managing your pain. Pain killers literally shut down or greatly diminish your bodies ability to work in tandem with your brain to manage the healing process.

This is not meant to imply that there are not times when the marvels of science don't serve their purpose. I can recall an incident when, after being in an accident, I was so very happy to get a super sized dose of Demerol! I felt wonderful even though I just had been run over by a bus that left me lying on the pavement with a fractured back. Unfortunately my brain decided to turn off the lights (passed out) rather that subject me to the pain. Still, after about 3 months I can say my body/mind picked up where they left off and 40 years later I still get a few messages (pain) that tell me to slow down, not push so hard if I want to stick around a little longer.

The message for me was simple. Life at times is painful and I am built to cope with it except in cases where I run into a bus. I also remind my self that without pain I would be much more vulnerable to whatever comes my way. I also know that pain is the flip-side of pleasure and, without it, it's hard to experience the other; even though there are pills for that too. Pain and pleasure go hand-in-hand just like darkness and light. Without darkness there would be no light.

So, the next time your body sends a signal to your brain that there's pain, take a deep breath rather than reach for the pills. Maintain a healthy pain "threshold" will work in your favor when the tough times come. And, for most of us, that's a given, like it or not.

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