Pain

What is the Definition of Pain?

Words

Pain is a term that comes from Latin and indicates an annoying, afflictive and generally unpleasant sensation in the body or spirit. It can be, therefore, a sensory and objective experience (physical pain) or emotional and subjective (psychic pain).

Within colloquial language, it must be stated that we make use of a multitude of expressions that use the term that we are now analyzing. Thus, we would have to refer to the following:

  • Heartache. With this term, what we do is make it clear that someone is suffering a significant pain due to a relationship, the disappearance of a loved one, the loss of a friendship…
  • Dull pain. It is a physical type of pain that has the particularity that it is not serious or very acute, but it is very annoying, since we have it constantly and without interruption.
  • Furious with pain. Very common in our colloquial language, this verbal locution is used to make it clear that someone is suffering from very strong pain. Such are these that that person groans or cries to, to a certain extent, be able to alleviate her despair and suffering.
  • Widow pain. This expression has passed from generation to generation, referring to a very specific physical pain. It is the one that is experienced when you receive a blow to the elbow and it has the peculiarity that it is very brief but very strong at the same time.
  • Being in pain. As a general rule, this verbal locution is used in the colloquial field to refer to certain women. Specifically, it is used to record that a woman is in labor and is suffering from the serious and strong pain that this fact implies.

All living beings that have a nervous system can feel pain either from an internal or external cause. The function of pain is to alert the nervous system to a situation that could lead to injury.

When experiencing pain, an organism triggers various mechanisms to limit damage, such as reflexes (rapid reactions generated at the level of the spinal cord) or general alertness (stress).

The first stage of physical pain is nociception. This biochemical phase involves the reaction of nerve terminals (nociceptors) found in the skin, muscles, organs and blood vessels, for example. According to Abbreviationfinder, POFD stands for Pain of Death.

Pain can be characterized in various ways depending on its location (abdominal pain, headache), type (stabbing, stabbing), intensity (mild, severe), etc. Acute pain is one that lasts a short time (such as that caused by a blow), while chronic pain extends over time (cancer pain).

Emotional pain, on the other hand, does not require a physical cause (although the two pains can be related, such as a person who becomes depressed because, due to chronic hip pain, they cannot play sports). The feeling of anguish or sorrow can appear due to family problems, fights, frustrations and any type of psychological disorder.

Pain