Suffering pains: meanings of pain and suffering for people with chronic pain

Abstract

Chronic pain is a common problem, yet pain and pain-related suffering are vaguely defined and often conflated with one another. This can be confusing and difficult for people with chronic pain who seek treatment from health care providers. Chronic pain is often treated through the medical system which tends to favour biomedical explanations of pain and neglect or under-treat suffering. This study used hermeneutic phenomenology to explore the meaning of pain and suffering in the context of chronic pain. Eight people who experience chronic pain engaged in qualitative interviews investigating their experiences with and perspectives on pain and suffering. This study found a close relationship between the meaning of pain and suffering linguistically, conceptually, and experientially. This close understanding was interpreted through historical understandings of pain and suffering, especially mind-body dualism whereby pain is more commonly associated with the body, and suffering more commonly associated with the mind. Another finding was that the way people think about pain can lead to suffering. The types of thoughts, as well as the relationship people have to those thoughts, can have an impact on the degree of suffering experienced in response to their pain. Suffering related to pain may be eased in part by formal supports such as counselling and psychotherapy. One key implication is that professionals such as counsellors and psychologists can teach skills and provide relational support that can help a person in pain to work with their thoughts and emotions and potentially reduce or eliminate their suffering.