By Ronnie Biemans, Feb 9 2017 03:13AM
The tyranny of pleasure and of pain ;
They make us what we were not—what they will,
And shake us with the vision that's gone by,
The dread of vanished shadows—Are they so?
Is not the past all shadow?—what are they?
Creations of the mind?—the mind can make
Substances and people planets of its own
With beings brighter than have been, and give
A breath to forms which can outlive all flesh.
-George (Lord) Byron from The Dream
The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) defines pain as an “unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. “ There are essentially two types of pain: acute and chronic. Acute pain is a normal, time-limited, protective sensation that occurs in response to an injury or trauma. Pain receptors send signals to the brain that alert us to the need to take action. Chronic pain occurs when the acute pain response “goes rogue” and becomes a never ending state of discomfort that is debilitating and the signals just keep firing.
