Pain and perception

Yesterday I was treating one of my newer patients who experiences chronic pain due to a severe injury years ago. We were discussing how perception of one's pain greatly influences one's awareness of the actual pain itself.

He was telling me that when he and his wife have to travel by car to go somewhere he insists on being the driver. He tells me that as a passenger his pain is unbearable, but when he is the driver he almost forgets about his pain as he is concentrating on his driving. He agreed that his pain is actually no less when he is the driver or the passenger, yet, his perception of this pain is clearly different.

I, and I'm sure many of you, have had this same experience. It is so often what we allow ourselves to be aware of which has the most influence on our own perceptions. As in my patient's case it is not that the pain or problem is any different, but, WE are different in our perceptions of this particular pain or problem. This is an example of a reframing technique that I have learned from studying NLP. It is so often true that we have a great influence on how we perceive any situation based upon what we focus on.

Norman Cousins studied this phenomenon by conducting experiments where subjects who were experiencing chronic and often severe physical pain were asked to watch television comedy shows. They were asked to rate their pain from a scale of 1-10 before watching the comedies and then immediately after. He found that on average these subjects received 2 hours of pain relief correlating to just 10 minutes of actual enjoyment of the comedy show. This, to me, is fascinating!

So often I see this same phenomenon occurring in my practice. If one sees themselves as a victim, one will subconsciously set themselves up as a victim in their relationships with others due to their focus of this perception of themselves. They are often not able, or unwilling, to see themselves differently by reframing this schematic perception of themselves and others.

I find it helpful to be mindful of my own schemas and how my perceptions can impact the way I view the world and my relationship to others. We need to take absolute responsibility for not just how we act or think, but also of what we choose to focus on.

****************OK. Bonus question here----Can anyone guess which two television programs Cousins used in his study? (Now , you graduates of Suffolk Institute for Hypnotherapy are NOT permitted to play!) Please leave your answer in the comments section on this blog entry.