More on Pain: Descriptors
One of the weird things about me that make me sometimes doubt my humanity (I'm kidding.) is that I have little to no understanding of words used to describe various types of pain (I'm not kidding). Whenever I am asked to describe my pain, I am at a loss. (And I don't think this is related to my seeming inability to answer questions about favorites.[1]) How does one describe something that can only be felt by oneself? Is this not like trying to explain color to someone born blind? Sure, we all experience pain, but how do we know we experience it the same way?
It is different with colors. When young, we are told, "This color is red; that color is blue." There is an external reference. Even if we all see colors differently within our brains, there is an external standard that makes it possible to share our experiences[2].
This is not really so with pain. Unless we go around inflicting the pain we feel on our children, how do they learn the terms with which we describe pain? If a child has a stomach pain, does the mother assume that the child has an ache and tells him or her, "You have a stomach ache"? In that case, the child now associates that particular pain with aching. But what if the child's stomach were really throbbing? Now the child calls throbbing "aching".
But somehow, this does not seem to be the case, or at least it is not treated as the case, because whenever one goes to a doctor, they base the prognosis many times on the words you use to describe your pain. If you say "sharp", they treat it as something different than if you say "dull" or "sore".
Now, being linguistically-minded, I can try to associate the roots of these words with the type of pain. "Sharp" to me would imply the type of pain felt if I were to poke myself with a needle or thorn. Is that an accurate description compared to how others describe it? I don't know, but I hope so. "Throbbing" means that my muscles or pulse are throbbing. Or it means the the pain cycles with the pulse. But I'm not really sure what an ache or soreness is, except that it seems to be less painful than "sharp". I've no clue what a "dull" pain is. A "cutting" pain is the pain I would feel if I were cut with a knife. But even that analogy fails me, because I usually do not feel knife wounds at all.
Anyhow, I leave you with more Lhynard weirdness....
It is different with colors. When young, we are told, "This color is red; that color is blue." There is an external reference. Even if we all see colors differently within our brains, there is an external standard that makes it possible to share our experiences[2].
This is not really so with pain. Unless we go around inflicting the pain we feel on our children, how do they learn the terms with which we describe pain? If a child has a stomach pain, does the mother assume that the child has an ache and tells him or her, "You have a stomach ache"? In that case, the child now associates that particular pain with aching. But what if the child's stomach were really throbbing? Now the child calls throbbing "aching".
But somehow, this does not seem to be the case, or at least it is not treated as the case, because whenever one goes to a doctor, they base the prognosis many times on the words you use to describe your pain. If you say "sharp", they treat it as something different than if you say "dull" or "sore".
Now, being linguistically-minded, I can try to associate the roots of these words with the type of pain. "Sharp" to me would imply the type of pain felt if I were to poke myself with a needle or thorn. Is that an accurate description compared to how others describe it? I don't know, but I hope so. "Throbbing" means that my muscles or pulse are throbbing. Or it means the the pain cycles with the pulse. But I'm not really sure what an ache or soreness is, except that it seems to be less painful than "sharp". I've no clue what a "dull" pain is. A "cutting" pain is the pain I would feel if I were cut with a knife. But even that analogy fails me, because I usually do not feel knife wounds at all.
Anyhow, I leave you with more Lhynard weirdness....