OUCH!
One of the biggest fears we have when we’ve been hurt or injured is making it worse or getting hurt again.
It would set us back even further, make us feel even more incapable, and cause more frustration and confusion than we already have.
We need to parse out the word PAIN before we can determine our next steps. The following four words will help you express and understand
what you’re feeling, why you might be feeling it
how to make confident decisions about
what to do,
when to do it
when to stop
INSULT
Insult is an unconscious response to a stimulus
Some examples:
Your shirt on your skin
The seat you are sitting on, on your thighs
These things aren’t even on your radar most of the time, but they are input into your system.
IRRITATION
Irritation is the conscious response to a stimulus.
For example:
If I ask you to, “Freeze right now; no movement...hold this for 90 minutes.” Eventually, you’d say, “I need to move”, and you’d adjust your position.
This conscious decision that the sensation you were experiencing was uncomfortable was in response to irritation. The moment you decided you needed to change position, insult became irritation.
Irritation is the sensation we report when we use a “Pain Scale” when you’re talking to a medical professional
It can be a “I just need to move a bit”; it can be a 10 “call the ambulance”, or anywhere in between
Irritation is Required for Adaptation
The most important thing to know about irritation is that irritation is required for adaptation to occur.
Irritation can be considered stress and stress is only a problem if it exceeds our capacities and escapes our ability to effectively respond.
In a nutshell:
Intentional irritation within reasonable boundaries is not only ok but often required for progress.
Irritation outside of the boundaries we establish can do more harm than good
We want to make sure we’re alert to the irritation we’re facing so we can make confident decisions.
PAIN
We define pain as the negative emotional response to irritation, typically tied to uncertainty.
For example:
the first time a child stubs their toe while running outside and scrapes off some skin, leading to some blood and a really tender toe, what’s their reaction?
“OWWW!” Many will cry and want mom or dad to perform some magic to make it go away. They’re shocked and afraid and aren’t sure what’s happening to their toe.
Now imagine that you stub your toe. Yes, it hurts and you’ll probably curse.
You’ll feel a tender sting and maybe some throbbing. However, you probably won’t register it as an emergency.
The difference is that the child hasn’t been there before and is uncertain and afraid. The emotional response to this creates what we call PAIN.
You, on the other hand, have probably been here a handful of times and you are certain about how it will go: in a week or so, you’ll probably have forgotten about your toe.
Irritated toe? Yes. Pain? Depends on your reaction.
INJURY
Injury is the decision that “I can’t.”
For example:
If we sever a tendon completely, our muscles might be incapable of moving a limb of ours. We might be injured in our ability to perform a certain movement.
If someone has a joint that hurts them so intensely that they choose not to use it, they will consider themselves injured in their ability to perform that movement.
someone reports a 9/10 pain in her knee when she walks down stairs. It doesn’t hurt when they bike, when they walk or run, or when they push a sled.
It hurts when she gets off the toilet and a bit when she goes up the stairs. But when she goes DOWN the stairs? It hurts so much that she only descends on her other leg, never loading her painful knee.
We might consider her temporarily injured in her ability to go down stairs RIGHT NOW. This means we shift our thinking away from “I have a ‘bad’ knee” to “I have a knee that doesn’t go down stairs well.”
What’s crucial about injury is that in many cases, it comes down to our decision to perform a movement or not based on the irritation or pain we experience.
With a common agreement about these words, we can start to look ahead to our movement, starting right now, and make clear, confident decisions about whether or not we’re doing the right thing.
Stay tuned for Part II …
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