When it comes to dealing with pain on a regular basis, there are two basic responses.
- Fight – Pretend the pain isn’t there. Go about your normal day. Hide your pain from others.
- Flight – Drug yourself. Go home. Zone out. Sleep.
I have always tended towards fighting pain myself. However, that doesn’t always work. I had one case where I fought to finish my final year in High School even though my intestine had perforated and an abscess had developed on my intestinal tract. I was in extreme pain but never missed a day of school. Eventually, I reached the point when I literally couldn’t stand up straight and my parents had to drive me to the emergency ward. Shortly afterwards, the abscess burst and I was thrown into deep toxic shock. Only emergency surgery and the fact that I was young saved me. Fight isn’t always the best way to deal with pain.
Painkillers often form the basis of the flight pattern
There are other people I know with the same illness I have who have totally dropped out of life. They drug themselves into oblivion every day, do virtually nothing and have no interest in doing anything. I do not presume to judge these people because I can’t crawl inside their bodies and feel what they feel. Perhaps they are in much more pain than I am or maybe they don’t have the passion to create that keeps me fighting.
Then there are those few wise people who are able to do both. When things get bad, they have no problem with taking it easy and treating themselves gently. When their health gets better they jump back into things. It is rare that you find people who are able to balance these two responses well.
Finally, I know some people in so much pain that they have to take lots of mind-numbing drugs, then spend their day fighting against the cerebral effects of the medication in order to accomplish their goals. This isn’t a balance as much as it is a curse. They are fighters in a body that needs flight.
Pain is an unpleasant matter for most people, but for those with a painful chronic illness it’s a complicated battle that involves not only the body but also the soul.
