THE PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO PAIN OF ORGANIC ORIGIN: DISTRACTION OF ATTENTION
If our attention can be distracted we obtain respite from our pain. It would seem that our mind can only hold one topic in consciousness at a time.
If our attention can be diverted away from our pain on to some other matter, then we are no longer conscious of our pain. A child falls and hurts himself. He cries with pain. Mother picks him up, and looking out the window says, “Oh, I thought I saw a rabbit under that bush.” The pain ceases. If his attention is diverted only momentarily his pain returns. But if his mother can maintain his attention for a few moments, while the painful stimuli settle down, then there is no return of the pain.
The same tiling happens with us adults. The patient with arthritis says, “I am better when I am doing something. I am really better at work; the pain does not worry me so much then.” We often make conscious efforts to divert our attention from pain by going to a show, watching TV or by conversation with our friends. The difficulty, of course, is that our brain gives a very high priority for attention to pain of any severity. It therefore usually requires something of real urgency to divert our attention. This is seen in soldiers wounded in battle who continue to fight with little awareness of their wound. In a similar way injured football players often finish the game before they are fully aware of the extent of their injury.
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