The Emotions Behind Back Pain

When in pain, one emotionally feels low with feelings of discomfort and general unpleasantness.

The origin of the variety of pain can be figured out from its characteristics like headache, chest pain, abdominal pain, which might be colic, chronic, acute, sharp, or oppressive in nature; and the duration of the pain is calculated as the time from when it occurred to when it subsided.

The frequency of pain is associated with how many times the cramps of pain have occurred. When pain shifts its base location, to a different location, it is termed as irradiation of pain.

The factors which have been believed to have increased the intensity of pain are called as the aggravating factors, whereas those which reduce its intensity are termed as mitigating factors.

Apart from the physical factors, there are a huge range of psychological factors which control pain. There are also some personality factors unique to each person, which are also a great catalyst in controlling pain. They include the state of one’s mind, expectations, anger, trust, fear and most importantly, frustration.

Even some incidents happening in personal life can cause pain.

Pain is mainly characterized into two types with time as the measure –

Acute Pain – This pain doesn’t last for long, usually as short as two weeks. E.g.: toothache, or a cut or wound.

Chronic Pain – It usually lasts for a longer duration like three months or so. E.g.: cancer.

In spite of being tightly disintegrated, it is difficult to distinguish between the above types of pain, because of the uneven nature of pain. Though any pain after an operation has the same symptoms as that of an acute pain, but still its duration is the same as that of chronic pain. Also migraine, which lasts for a varying duration and intensity, is not easily classified as being either acute or chronic.

Pain can again be further classified on the basis of its physiology, as below:

Neuropathic Pain: A direct impact or injury on one’s nervous system, which causes pain in even the slightest stimulus or even no stimulus, is called Neuropathic pain.

Nociceptive Pain: Upon stimulating one’s pain receptors, they give rise to such pain, which is traversed through the entire channel of one’s nervous system, and causes an extremely painful experience.

Pain is also classified on the basis of its location, as follows:

Somatic Pain: the skin, bone or any soft tissues in one’s body have a nociceptor, which when activated, cause a pain called as Somatic pain. The location of such pain is often well-defined and it dull and continuous in nature.
E.g.: arthritis.

Visceral Pain: When the nociceptors explained above are activated by tension, infiltration or compression in areas like abdomen or the pelvic region, they cause what we call as the Visceral pain. This pain is deep and also oppressive in nature. It also causes nausea, vomiting, sweating, and a sharp rise in blood pressure.

In a nutshell, any type of pain is often accompanied with additional symptoms like nausea, giddiness, sweating, paleness, and shivering which may be psychological rather than physical in origin.