Analgesic culture: can reframing pain make it go away?

• We all have experienced pain, be it physical or psychological.
• Trying to quantify or define the intensity of the hurt being experienced isn’t easy.
• Pain is relative, as each of us has a different anatomical and neurochemical build, a different context that makes it unique.
• All these factors make pain a complex phenomenon, and most of us are managing it pharmacologically (popping pills), which generally causes problems.

Most drugs and over-the-counter analgesics only suppress pain, and we think that’s normal as we are brought up believing that pain is wrong and we have to feel good at all times.

Research in the 1980s showed that Americans are having more options to treat their problems and yet are having more illnesses than about 50 years before. This is ironic as these years also witnessed the maximum progress in treatments and vaccines, increasing life expectancy.