Have you thought what pain really means? When our clients talk about their pain what do we understand about what they are going through? Here are fewbrief ideas about what pain really is:

• Nazis: when nazis wanted a man to talk they didn’t take his house, or his investment portfolio or confiscate his pension- they took his fingernails
• Sacrifice anything to avoid pain: We are willing to sacrifice anything to avoid pain. A mother would hock her wedding ring to get a pill to relieve her child of pain
• State cannot inflict pain/death: In our civilized the goverrnment may put someone to death but may not torture them
• Hell = pain: pain is a window looking into hell
• Surgery w/o anesthetic: we read about operations before anesthetic – the patient was tied down to the table and the surgeon had to work fast because there was no relief from the pain. Who would save money by passing on anesthetic?
• Dentist: if the dentist tells you the pain medication is $20 for the shot to drill the teeth for half an hour we pay to avoid even half an hour of pain.
• no holiday from pain: an injured person gets no holiday from pain- they don’t get Coff or Thanksgiving off – they have discomfort minute by minute, hour by hour and day by day
• Like ocean waves: pain is like an ocean wave – it strikes goes away and strikes again over and over.
• Webster: Webster has definitions for pain:

1. "Pain: a sensation of hurting or strong discomfort in some part of the body. Distress, agony, torment, misery, affliction.
2. "Anguish: to be distressed with extreme pain or grief of the body or mind.
3. "Suffer: to undergo something painful or unpleasant. To endure pain, harm, injury or loss.