PAIN IS INEVITABLE

Welcome to the current newsletter issue of Advances in Medicine
(AIM) - Take AIM against pain, brought to you by Dr. Tim Sams
and My Pain Relief Doc - www.mypainreliefdoc.com

Feel free to send me an e-mail with your own thoughts and
experiences. Email: timsams@mypainreliefdoc.com.

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                           PAIN IS INEVITABLE

"Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional." This is a
statement that I have I included in many of my book dedications.
What does it mean?

Physical and emotional pain and suffering are intrinsic to life.
Pain tells us that we are out of balance in a way that threatens
us, physically or emotionally, or both. Pain is a warning signal
that you need to change your behavior to ease suffering. In the
short term, pain is valuable and healthy. It can accomplish a
range of goals from saving your life to teaching you that
sleeping with strangers is a bad idea. Most of us get this-we
understand that feeling miserable can motivate us to go to the
doctor, start to exercise, or remember to take our medication.

Chronic physical pain feels like a whole new world but really
isn't. As you age, it is less and less surprising to have
physical pain. The body wears down. Years of physical abuse and
hard living take their toll. As you proceed from your 30s to
your 50s and your 70s, it is increasingly natural that you will
have regular physical pain. It has been estimated-in the
United States-one in four people have regular pain. If we just
look at adults over the age of 18, the incidence climbs rapidly
and with each decade. For most aging adults, the issue isn't
if you'll have chronic physical pain, but when.

Chronic emotional pain is very similar. Each decade of life
tends to bring its own special set of stressful demands,
including: leaving home and becoming a grown up; finding a
romantic partner; establishing a career and/or raising children;
caring for aging parents; and then dealing with your own aging
and loss of function.

So, all aspects of pain are truly inevitable, natural products
of life. I have noticed that part of the misery of chronic
physical or emotional pain is triggered by the powerful
perception of unfairness-the sense that you should not have to
be dealing with this level of physical or emotional
pain-reinforced by the belief that others aren't compelled
to cope with as much misery. Clearly, this is an inaccurate
perception, driven by the reality that we compare our internal
worlds, not to other people's internal worlds, but to their
external presentation of their internal world. In the same way
that other people can't see your physical and emotional
misery, you can't see theirs.

I saw someone recently who refused to believe that she did not
have the most tragic, painful problem I had ever treated. She
was not happy when I communicated that as long as she could use
her arms and legs and wasn't on a ventilator, her condition
could be much, much worse, like many hundreds, if not thousands,
of other people I had treated.

Life is incredibly difficult and stressful. It doesn't
necessarily get easier as we age. Eventually, it will absolutely
get harder. Accepting this reality is critical to the task of
managing pain and suffering. Not accepting this reality will
make your suffering worse. Not committing to managing your life
as effectively as possible will make your suffering worse. Not
trying every strategy you are confronted with, will make your
suffering worse.

From my perspective, people make decisions every second of every
day that either increase or decrease their suffering; hence the
subtitle of my pain book: Advances, Breakthroughs, and Choices.
Choices are every bit as important as coping advances or medical
breakthroughs. This is what we mean by saying, "Suffering is
optional."

So many people spend so much precious time trying to avoid
stress. They are convinced that every new physical or emotional
stressor is a barrier to happiness, and they often blame others
for their misery. In fact, the only way to avoid stress is to
avoid life, and some people will make that decision. However,
stress, pain, struggle, rage, and refusal to surrender to the
dark side, scream to the Cosmos, "I am alive and I will not go
gently into that good night, but fight to my dying breath!"

A toast to courage, it shows to combat pain and stress and the
glory in winning the battle. Even if no one else sees it or
knows it, you do. You know that the eagle soars highest that
flies against the wind.

Good light,

Dr. Tim Sams
My Pain Relief Doc
www.mypainreliefdoc.com

Copyright 2007. Dr. Tim Sams and My Pain Relief Doc.
All rights reserved. www.mypainreliefdoc.com

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Thanks, Dr. Tim
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