Pain as an alarm system

think of a few situations where pain wasn't the best or most appropriate response (like that paper cut, for example)

think of  a few situations where you or someone you know was seriously injured yet had no pain.

watch this video that demonstrates perfectly how the brain can make grave mistakes in accessing the situation.

Your probably are already aware that pain is one of the body's protective mechanisms - pain's job is to alarm you whenever there's damage to the body or when something potentially dangerous is happening.

The purpose of pain is to make you change your behavior: stop walking on that sprained ankle, nurse that sore shoulder, or stay in bed (usually with a cold - yuck, I know) - when you are run down and exhausted.

Unlike any simple motion detector - or even your house alarm system, the pain mechanisms of the body are extremely complex, adaptable, and always changing.

Imagine now, that there's a sophisticated computer attached to your house alarm system - this computer can analyze the potentially dangerous situation and decide on an appropriate response: not only it is able to decide whether just the lights need to be turned on or a SWAT team has to be called, but also decide if these were the most beneficial and appropriate actions.

Your brain works just like that extremely sophisticated computer at the end of this alarm system.

However, unlike a simple alarm system, brain has many response options to choose from - pain is just one of them.

Because our pain mechanism is so complex, adaptable and ever changing, there are many things that can go wrong with it.

Have you ever had a paper cut that was so sore it kept waking you up the whole night? I know, I have!

This is but one of the examples how our protection mechanisms can go haywire, and create pain where it doesn't need to be.

We will explore these and other pain concepts in a more detail in the few weeks to follow.