"Pain is Just Weakness Leaving the Body." - Chad

Something special about the senses that we've talked about countless times is how they can all invoke emotions and responses in the self. But I think one of the most unique characteristics about touch is how it is basically the only sense that can trigger pain in our bodies. Now, pain can technically be experienced through hearing because listening to some crazy level of volume can really hurt, but there is just so many more types of pain that can be experienced through touch that I feel like it barely counts. Pain, to me, is such an interesting concept. At the biological level, it isn't really a good thing to experience because it is basically your brain telling you that your body is undergoing some kind of experience that is not in accordance with homeostasis. But we, as people, have taken the concept of pain and gone for an insane run with it. We have made pain into a form of punishment (spankings), we have made pain into a form of pleasure (choking), we have made pain religious (flagellation), and we have made pain, or inflicting pain, illegal (assault). Those are only a few areas where we have conceptualized pain, but the point I'm articulating is that so much meaning has been given to this specific sensation (which I think is pretty interesting!).

One of the points that Glucklich brings up regarding pain is the difficulty that we typically have when describing pain to somebody else. I like this idea a lot because it made me stop and think for a minute. How would I describe types of pain to someone else? Now, while we can attribute words to certain pains, like getting sand in a cut and saying it feels like a stinging pain, nobody will ever really know specifically what the pain that we feel at any given time actually and truly FEELS like. It kind of makes the phrase "I feel your pain" redundant. We can do our best to capture pain in the moment with various words and intricate diction, but because everybody experiences pain differently, it makes it very difficult to describe pain effectively. I mean, how are we supposed to know what a "6" feels like on the 1-10 pain scale that is usually used when you go to the doctor?

In addition to pain being difficult to describe, one of the things that I think is also very intriguing about it is how people interpret it. Pain is typically thought of to be something completely unenjoyable, torturous if you will. But me being an athlete, I'll flat out say that there are some pains that I love. I love the way my lungs hurt after swimming a sprint workout for 2 hours, or the way my arms feel like they're going to fall off after bench-pressing a heavy amount of weight for many repetitions. I enjoy subjecting myself to torturous feelings because it makes me better at the sports that I play. To some, my love of those pains may seem psychotic, but to me, it is completely valid because what I love about those pains is that it is training my body to become stronger and more tolerant of them in the future. Both points of view regarding pain and how much you want or don't want to experience in your life are valid because pain is subjective; everybody interprets it in their own way. People have different opinions about pain because pain has become a social construct, in addition to it already being a physical construct. Some people follow the mentality behind "no pain, no gain," while others may think that people who intentionally do things that inflict pain on themselves are all weirdos. And I might have to agree with the latter set of people because when I think about it, I have to be a little weird to like swimming to the point where I feel like I can't breathe.