Have you ever considered why smaller injuries such as a paper cut or a scrape hurt more than you might expect? Emily Stull has the story.
AH, THE SWEET WARNING SOUND OF AN ONCOMING BIKE. UNFORTUNATELY, THE BIKE THAT HIT ME DID NOT HAVE A BELL. BUT IF IT HAD, MAYBE I WOULDN’T BE TELLING THIS STORY.
WE’RE NOT GOING TO TALK ABOUT WHO WAS AT FAULT IN MY SITUATION.
BECAUSE IT WON’T CHANGE THAT I GOT A HANDLEBAR TO THE RIBS AND A RUBBER TIRE TO THE KNEE.
CLEARLY, I HAVE MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT THE ACCIDENT. BUT ONE QUESTION STANDS OUT TO ME: WHY DID THESE SMALL INJURIES HURT SO MUCH? IT’S NOT LIKE I BROKE ANY BONES OR GOT MORE THAN A SCRAPE.
TO FIND OUT, I SPOKE WITH DR. APKAR APKARIAN, A NEUROSCIENCE PROFESSOR AT NORTHWESTERN’S FEINBERG SCHOOL OF MEDICINE IN CHICAGO.
[Dr. Apkarian] My lab does research on brain mechanisms of pain and perception in general.”
[Emily Stull] “To start our conversation on a very broad level, what happens in the body when we feel pain?”
[Dr. A] “Fundamentally, pain is a subjective perceptual assessment of an injury. An injury to the tissue activates both peripheral and brain pathways … and if these pathways are active enough … then you feel pain. Pain is obviously a protective mechanism to walk away from an event, to pay attention to that event, to hide from it in a sense.”
OK, SO THE LEVEL OF PAIN I FEEL WHEN I’M INJURED COMES FROM MY BRAIN’S ASSESSMENT OF THE INJURY’S SCALE. AND THAT PAIN IS MY BODY’S WAY OF COMMUNICATING TO ME THAT WHATEVER I JUST DID TO GET INJURED, IS DANGEROUS.
BUT WHY DOES A SMALL SCRAPE FEEL SO INTENSE? WHAT ELSE IS AT PLAY HERE?
I ALSO TALKED TO FRESHMAN PHOEBE WRYCHA, WHO IS A SELF-PROCLAIMED KLUTZ.
[Phoebe Wrycha] “I get a lot of bruises because I’ll run into doorways. I’ll just think that they’re a foot more over to the other side and then I just run into them. … I stub my toe a lot because I walk past things very closely, that really hurts.”
[ES] “So why do you think these small injuries hurt as much as they do?”
[PW] “They’re unexpected? I mean I guess every injury is unexpected. Maybe it’s because you’re like “why is this hurting? It shouldn’t hurt so much.’”
ACCORDING TO DOCTOR APKARIAN, WRYCHA ISN’T ACTUALLY TOO FAR OFF.
[DR. A] “I think what you are getting at is the sudden and sharpness of the event that engages more acutely and as a result, the experience seems more extreme. … In a very simple way, the organism is surprised which leads to an exaggerated perpetual state. The surprise element is also protective so that you don’t keep cutting your finger or pricking your finger.”
OKAY, SO, WHEN I WAS HIT BY A BIKE, THE LEVEL OF PAIN FROM MY BRUISES AND SCRAPES CAN MAKE SENSE. BUT IF WRYCHA IS RUNNING INTO A DOOR FRAME MULTIPLE TIMES A DAY OR CONSTANTLY STUBBING HER TOE, WHY ARE HER PAIN LEVELS UNWAVERED? SHOULDN’T HER BODY BE UNSURPRISED BY NOW?
ACCORDING TO DOCTOR APKARIAN, EVEN IF YOU UNDERGO SMALL INJURIES ON THE REGULAR, THE BODY WILL CONTINUE TO HAVE A STRONG REACTION BECAUSE THE INJURIES ARE INDEPENDENT OF EACH OTHER.
[Dr. A] “When it is a short event you will end up with a bigger surprise event, but when you have been living with back pain for many years, the surprise element has gone away, but the suffering component has not gone away.”
AND BECAUSE OF THIS, A CHRONIC PAIN MAY NOT BE AS INTENSE AS THE SHARP SENSATION OF A STUBBED TOE.
SMALLER INJURIES MAY ALSO FEEL MORE INTENSE THAN THEY SHOULD BECAUSE THERE IS A LACK IN ADRENALINE OR EXCITEMENT THAT MIGHT DULL THE PAIN IN LARGER INJURIES.
[Dr. A] “Football players for example who have a major injury but continue to play the game because the excitement of the game blocks the receptiveness of that injury, and as soon as they walk off the field, they’re in excruciating pain. … The injury signal is there, but your brain properties and psychological state can dramatically modulate that experience.”
WHEN I WAS HIT BY A BIKE, THE STATE I WAS IN WAS IN NO WAY EXCITING, NOR GRANTING OF ADRENALINE. THE IMPACT, THOUGH SMALL, WAS DEFINITELY SUDDEN. MY STRONG REACTION OF PAIN WAS CERTAINLY INFLUENCED BY THIS FACTOR OF SURPRISE, AND ACCORDING TO DR. APKARIAN, THE STRONG REACTION WAS ALSO A PROTECTIVE MECHANISM OF MY BODY TELLING ME TO “NEVER DO THAT AGAIN.”
SO I WILL TRY MY BEST.
STAY SAFE OUT THERE, FOR WNUR NEWS, I’M EMILY STULL.
