Has this situation ever happened to you when something in your body hurts a lot, and you are frantically trying to get out of this stressful state by any means?
Perhaps you have a toothache and it's ruining your whole weekend? Yes, toothache is very unpleasant!
Or maybe your back is “sick”, and back pain does not allow you to move?
Or does a headache make you want to climb a wall?
Attention! I beg you, do not look for a cure for pain in the form of medications! No-shpa and nise are not your best friends, but rather enemies.
There are more humane ways >>>
Your best friend is your body, your body and of course your brain, and therefore in this article I will tell you how you can help yourself cope with pain.
And we will do this with the help of your power of thought! You will be surprised how effective and simple this method is.
Of course, the simplicity of this method may make you doubt its effectiveness, but please don’t rush. First, follow the recommendations, do everything exactly as I describe and believe me, the pain will gradually go away.
If you are a skeptic and do not believe in the power of thought, then you do not believe in yourself and your strength. Well, I won't try to convince you otherwise. You can only believe in the power of your brain if you achieve your goal several times using the techniques outlined in my blog.
Perhaps you will begin the path to self-confidence with this article.
So, go ahead!
Read the techniques described below carefully, choose the one you like best and apply it. You can apply all the techniques at once - the effect will be better.
How it works
Pain is a signal from the body about a problem that needs to be recognized and urgent action taken (drink medicine, see a doctor). And if our consciousness perceives the signal, it means that it is capable of turning it off. Of course, this will not solve the problem - the burn will still appear, and the disease will not go away, but the pain impulse will stop flowing or will become much weaker. Pain psychotherapy works approximately on this principle.
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Treat without maiming. A neurologist on how to properly deal with headaches There are studies that prove that our emotional state affects the intensity of pain - fear and anxiety increase pain. There is also a completely logical explanation for this. During stress, special hormones are released that cause the walls of blood vessels and the muscles of our body to tense (after all, in a stressful situation, it is necessary to mobilize all the body’s resources). But such clamps can intensify existing pain or lead to the emergence of new foci of pain. It is no coincidence that many types of pain (headache, muscle pain) are called tension pain.
And if so, in order to reduce pain, you first need to calm down and relax. There are several techniques for this.
Manifestations of mental pain
Symptoms of deep feelings are divided into:
- physical;
- psychological.
The first, as a rule, arise at the peak of an emotional crisis, as a signal from the brain about distress with the help of the body.
If you don’t want to give up and are ready to really, and not in words, fight for your full and happy life, you may be interested in this article .
Psychological manifestations are often described by people as an intense, painful feeling of anguish and internal torment.
Physiological symptoms
Humans are the only species of creatures whose mental pain can, in terms of severity and intensity, exceed the sensations from fractures and burns. A person can remain in this state for a long time due to the stereotypes of society, which require calm and restraint from its members.
Physical symptoms of psychological distress occur when true emotions are suppressed or when the brain is unable to process the full amount of information and experiences.
Psychological processes are manifested through the following physical signs:
- pressure behind the chest;
- cold or burning sensation in the chest;
- stabbing or cramping sensations in the heart;
- intestinal spasms;
- dysfunction of the vestibular apparatus;
- complications of the cardiovascular system - acceleration or slowdown of the pulse;
- nausea.
Physical manifestations of mental torment may not be noticed by others or attributed to symptoms of another disease. This becomes the reason for the treatment of non-existent diseases, while the person needs psychological support and conversation.
More than 9,000 people have gotten rid of their psychological problems using this technique.
Emotional manifestations are more noticeable, and make loved ones worry and look for ways to relieve a person from mental anguish.
Emotional symptoms
Such manifestations are easier to see than physical ones. A wife or friend just needs to pay attention to the person’s behavior. A suffering soul carefully masks the signs, but some of them cannot be hidden. The person himself needs to understand that the present condition is abnormal and requires treatment.
The most common and striking emotional signs:
- Reluctance to leave home. It is due to the fact that a person does not see the positive sides of the world around him and the desire to hide his feelings and himself from the world. The intensity of stress affects the duration of recovery. Sometimes people actually limit their movements to their home environment. If a person is not inclined to avoid reality, then this will help in healing.
- Decreased attention, memory, concentration. Dulling of cognitive abilities is caused by increased work of the brain on the existing problem, which has become the cause of mental pain.
- Longing, despair. After a breakup or dismissal, a person feels the hopelessness of the situation; apathy seems to be a natural and comfortable state. During this period, a person is extremely susceptible to alcohol or drug abuse.
- Mood disorder. During stress, the brain forces a person to remember what happened, feel joy, regret or anger. The level of joy hormones decreases due to experiences, and the production of cortisol, a stress substance, increases. Therefore, sudden mood swings are the most characteristic manifestation of mental anguish.
To get rid of worries, you need to work on your emotions, put your feelings in order, and make them work in a positive way.
World literature often uses descriptions of the hero's mental anguish. Thus, Leo Tolstoy depicted the torment of Natasha Rostova due to the death of Bolkonsky: “At the end of December, in a black woolen dress, with a braid carelessly tied in a bun, thin and pale, Natasha sat with her legs in the corner of the sofa, tensely crumpling and unraveling the ends of her belt, and looked at the corner of the door... She looked where he had gone, to the other side of life..."
Unfortunately, pills for mental pain have not yet been invented, so a person should think about his own psychological state and take measures to restore it.
Breathing exercises
Our body is designed in such a way that when we inhale, all parts of our body tense, and when we exhale, on the contrary, they relax. Therefore, when performing breathing exercises, you need to focus on exhalation.
Inhale as usual and exhale long. It is enough to repeat this exercise 3-5 times - and the tension will subside, the stress will decrease, and the pain will subside. This breathing exercise is effective for almost any type of pain.
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The Buzzy gadget will help you endure the pain of injections
Especially for those who panic at the thought of an injection, a device has been developed that can reduce pain during such a procedure. The principle of operation of the device is as follows: by cooling the insertion site and accompanying the process with vibration, the sensitivity of the nerves in a certain place is “misled”; they send impulses to the brain about the effects of temperature and vibration, again distracting it from concentrating on pain. In addition, Buzzy is designed in the shape of a bee, which will cheer up not only children, but also adults.
If pain overcomes you during work or an important event, which you cannot leave due to certain circumstances, make every effort to maintain a positive attitude, communicate with others - this will at least minimally help you endure the pain.
Switching attention
This technique is good for short-term pain, such as an earache, or if you need to wait for pain medication to take effect.
We are all a little hypnotists. But if not everyone can inspire something to others, then everyone can influence themselves.
Try to freeze your pain. Sit down, close your eyes, mentally focus on the painful place. Rub the area with something cold, such as a piece of ice or a damp cloth. Now fix your attention not on the pain, but on the feeling of cold, and the pain will subside. The fact is that our psyche is designed in such a way that at a certain moment in time we can experience only one feeling, and which of the sensations you focus on at a particular moment is largely a matter of choice.
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How does it help?
Protection
It’s hard to believe, but mental pain is beneficial; it’s only important to listen to your feelings and understand why it was given to you and what it can teach you.
For example, it performs a protective function. As if warning of possible destruction.
When you accidentally touch a hot pan, you instinctively withdraw your hand without even having time to think about what happened and why. If you linger even for a second, you end up with a burn.
And in a relationship, having heard an insult from a loved one addressed to you, you will move away from him a little - a completely instinctive, natural reaction.
And if you pay attention to her, you can realize that being around him is not so good. And if you choose to stay further, it means dooming yourself to suffering.
Then the experiences become a marker that someday this will end and this particular relationship will be terminated due to the injustice of the aggression shown.
If you choose the other option - to stay, then you will have to endure and resign yourself. An analogy would be to put your hand on a saucepan, which you didn’t want to burn yourself on, and for the sake of higher goals, endure the discomfort, and then treat the blisters.
Awareness
Unfortunately, a person is not always able to appreciate and take care of what he loves. Often he does not even notice how significant something in his life is. Until he loses it.
So, mental pain is like a litmus test by which you can easily determine the importance of some events, people, and so on.
It is also a constant companion of change. People suffer a lot during a crisis, some cannot stand it and commit suicide.
But it is impossible to get something new without getting rid of the old. How to realize your needs without wanting to move.
Let's say, take marriage. You can experience anxiety, sadness, irritation, sadness, disappointment and other unpleasant feelings every second, but of low intensity and remain in it, afraid to take a step towards the unknown.
Or you can decide and terminate it, faced with severe pain, but at least get a chance to be happy with another partner when the emotions subside. This does not mean that the choice should always be made in favor of divorce.
Each situation is individual and requires a specific approach. The point is that crises in our lives are inevitable and, despite the discomfort, they actually give us opportunities to change our lives for the better.
Those who cannot cope with them face a new problem - internal personal conflicts. But you can learn more about them here.
Autogenic training
This technique is aimed at learning to relax certain areas of the body through willpower. Autogenic training is especially effective for headaches. After all, there are no pain receptors in the brain itself, and pain most often occurs due to tension in the walls of blood vessels, for example, due to stress. If stress becomes chronic, then headaches bother a person no longer occasionally, but constantly. The best way to relieve such pain is to simply relax. But achieving relaxation is not as easy as it seems, even if you spend half a day persuading yourself to relax your muscles, perhaps they will still remain tense, because often people simply do not notice stiffness.
Therefore, you need to learn to capture the moment of relaxation. To do this, tense the desired part of the body (for a headache it will be the neck and shoulders), then relax and try to feel the difference. Remember this feeling. At the moment of maximum relaxation, the pain will begin to go away. If you do exercises regularly, you can get rid of chronic headaches, and at the same time from insomnia, which is also often associated with vascular and muscle tension. But in order for your muscles to remember the state of complete relaxation, you will have to train. Repeat the exercises for a few minutes in the morning and evening for three weeks - and then your movements will become automatic.
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If the techniques don't help
Sometimes it happens that doctors shrug their shoulders, saying that the pain is clearly psychosomatic, but they can’t get rid of it. Articles from the Internet do not work, no techniques help.
If this is your case, try seeking professional psychological help. What you can’t do alone, you can do together with a specialist. I have positive experience working with psychosomatics - as a psychologist and as a client. Therefore, I confidently recommend it.
What to read How to stop feeling mental pain
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Useful tips
- Do not perceive psychological techniques as a replacement for treatment . Psychotherapy simply improves your condition, but does not cure the disease.
- Give yourself incentives to get better . It has been noticed that people who have something to recover for, get back on their feet much faster. Imagine what you will do when the disease goes away. It is not necessary to set global goals; you can dream about a trip to the country or going to the gym.
- Believe in yourself . Psychological methods of pain relief work worse for skeptics than for those who believe in their ability to self-heal. Even if it's hard to fully believe, just try some technique, accepting the possibility that it might have an effect.
- Focus on your feelings . If a certain technique is unpleasant or completely ineffective for you, try other methods. Some people are more suitable for breathing exercises, others respond better to autogenic training.
To never feel pain, a person only needs to turn off one gene
The discovery of the genetic basis of pain sensitivity allows us to hope that a radical breakthrough will occur in anesthesiology in the near future. On the image
: leg amputation without anesthesia at St Thomas' Hospital, London, ca. 1775 (image from www.general-anaesthesia.com)
A gene has been discovered, the disabling of which in mice leads to death, and in humans - to a complete loss of pain sensitivity. This gene ( SCN9A
) is located on the second chromosome and encodes a protein involved in the transport of sodium ions across the membranes of neurons responsible for pain. The discovery enables pharmacologists to develop new highly effective analgesics.
All higher animals have a feeling of pain, and this is, of course, a very useful feeling. It not only forces us to pull our hand away from something hot, but also teaches us to avoid dangerous situations, that is, it plays an important role in learning, the formation of reflexes, habits and conscious ways of behavior.
The pain perception system is quite complex - it involves many receptors, neurons and neural structures. It is no coincidence that there are so many different analgesics that act on different parts of this system. It was difficult to expect that there would be a single gene, the disabling of which could lead to a complete loss of pain sensitivity. Therefore, the result obtained by an international team of doctors and biologists from Great Britain, Pakistan, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Italy can be called sensational without exaggeration.
Scientists studied three families with a rare hereditary anomaly - complete insensitivity to any type of pain. At the same time, all other senses in these people are completely preserved, and no other neurological disorders are observed. Qureshi clan.
). A total of 6 individuals were studied in different years - children and adolescents (4, 6, 6, 10, 12 and 14 years old).
These children had absolutely no idea what pain was. One of them (a 14-year-old who soon died as a result of jumping from a roof) earned his living by such tricks as walking on hot coals and stabbing his own hands with a dagger. All six of them had severely damaged lips and tongues: they bit them in early childhood, before they could yet understand that this was harmful. Two actually bit off a third of their tongue. They have many scars, cuts and bruises; in a number of cases, they did not even notice fractures, which then somehow healed and were discovered only after the fact. They normally distinguish cold from hot, but do not feel pain from a burn; They have a good sense of touch, they perfectly feel, for example, how a needle is stuck into a finger, but do not perceive the sensation as unpleasant. The intellectual development and health of these children generally corresponds to the norm. Their parents and siblings have normal pain sensitivity.
To identify genes in which mutations are responsible for the loss of pain sensitivity, scientists used a classic method - analysis of genetic markers
(for more details about the method, see here).
It turned out that in all three families the cause of the anomaly is a mutation of the same gene - SCN9A
, however, the specific mutation is different in each family. Mutations represent a replacement (in two cases) or loss (in the third case) of one nucleotide in the coding part of the gene.
SCN9A gene
encodes the Nav1.7
protein
. This protein is localized in the cell membrane and forms a channel that allows or does not allow sodium ions to pass through the membrane, depending on the difference in electrical potential on both sides of the membrane. These types of ion channels play a key role in the formation of nerve impulses, but the function of this particular sodium channel in nerve cells is not precisely known. But it is known that this gene works especially actively in those neurons of the peripheral nervous system that are responsible for pain perception.
Using genetic engineering experiments with cell cultures, scientists showed that the mutations they discovered lead to a complete loss of functionality of the SCN9A
: the messenger RNA read from the mutant gene is either simply destroyed or becomes the basis for the synthesis of a non-functioning defective protein.
Thus, turning off a single gene is a necessary and sufficient condition for the complete loss of pain sensitivity. This discovery makes it possible for pharmacologists to develop new, ultra-effective analgesics and, perhaps, completely overcome pain. After all, the selection of an inhibitor substance that suppresses the activity of any known protein is a completely solvable task for modern pharmacology, one might say, routine.
The authors note that a hereditary anomaly associated with the SCN9A
, and with a feeling of pain - the so-called primary erythromelalgia (primary erythermalgia).
But this is an anomaly of the opposite nature, in which minor stimuli (heat or slight physical activity) can lead to severe attacks of pain. Erythromelalgia is associated with other mutations in the SCN9A
, which alter the sensitivity threshold of the Nav1.7 protein and lead to hyperexcitability of pain neurons.
Mutations associated with loss of functionality of Nav1.7 have not previously been known in humans, but have been studied in mice. Mice with partial loss of Nav1.7 function have reduced pain sensitivity. However, if this protein completely fails (as happened in the six Pakistani children studied), the mice simply die soon after birth. Apparently, in mice this protein performs some important additional functions.
Source:
JJ Cox et al.
An SCN9A
channelopathy causes congenital disability to experience pain //
Nature
. 2006. V. 444. P. 894-898.
Alexander Markov
