The Destructive Power of Pain Essay -- Expository Essays

The Destructive Power of Pain There are two types of pain that we all experience, physical and emotional (or mental). Physical pain is a signal of the nerves; therefore it is something that is tangible, something that we can prove is there and something that we can feel. Emotional pain is hurt on the inside of one's soul. It cannot be expressed; it is only a feeling in the soul. According to the Christian view, pain makes someone a better person. However, some people disagree with this because they believe that pain destroys a human being's self-worth. Physical pain is a signal given by nerves that an organism is in a potentially hurtful environment. This is the type of pain that hospital in-patients experience, and it often incites a negative reaction when it is in an extreme form. Constant pain can distort the patient's view of the world and surroundings and can make him/her self-absorbed with alleviating the pain. To others, the patient may appear selfish, impatient, quarrelsome, and greedy, but his actions are merely a result of the pain that they are suffering. Jim Jones, a hard working construction worker, was severely injured one day when a sheet of metal fell on him and severed his leg. While in the hospital, he became withdrawn and very short -tempered with the nurses, and he was angry if he was not cared for immediately. He was in so much pain that he lived from one dose of morphine to the next and if the nurses were even one minute late he became impatient. It was as if he thought that there were no more patients in the hospital besides him. When his family came for daily visits he became very quarrelsome and didn't want to accept any help from them, because he felt that he was useless and could no longer contri... ...ng, such as pain. An example of this is to try and describe the color blue to somebody. One can say it is like the color of the sky, or the ocean, but he can't really say what it is. If he could, he could describe blue to a blind person. Even though we don't know how to talk about pain, we can treat it. Medicine is able to stop the nerves from sending a message to the brain. Psychiatrists are able to find the root of a problem and alleviate it. There are some who would say that God is the only one able to take away pain (both physical and emotional). However, others would say that pain can never truly be taken away, just subsided. And still others say that pain really isn't a thing, it is an illusion that can be overcome. Anybody who has hit their thumb with a hammer would swear that this isn't true. If one were to ask them why, they would say "because it hurts."