Page 58 - Biblical Counseling II

“With pain, as with sights and sounds, the brain sometimes gets its signals crossed. Consider people’s
experiences of phantom limb sensations. After having a limb amputated, some 7 in 10 people feel pain or
movement in limbs that no longer exist. Some try to step off a bed onto a phantom leg or to lift a cup with a
phantom hand. Even those born without a limb sometimes feel sensations in the missing part. The brain
comes prepared to anticipate “that it will be getting information from a body that has limbs” (Myers, p. 143,
2012).

“Phantoms may haunt our other senses, too. People with hearing loss often experience the sound of silence;
tinnitus, a phantom sound of ringing in the ears. Those who lose vision due to illnesses may experience
phantom sights – non-threatening hallucinations. And damage to nerves in the systems for tasting and
smelling can lead to phantom tastes or smells, such as ice water that seems sickeningly sweet, or fresh air
that reeks of rotten food. The point to remember: we see, hear, taste, smell, and feel pain with our brain”
(Myers, p. 143, 2012).

Controlling Pain
“If pain is where body meets mind – if pain is
both a physical and a psychological event – then
it should be treatable both physically and
psychologically. We have some built-in pain
controls. Our brain releases a natural painkiller,
called endorphins, in response to severe pain or
even vigorous exercise. Soothed by the release of
endorphins, our experience of pain may be
greatly diminished. People who carry a gene that
boosts the normal supply of endorphins are less
bothered by pain, and their brains are less
responsive to it. Others, who carry a gene that
disrupts the neural pain circuit, may be unable to experience pain. These discoveries point the way toward
future pain medications that imitate the genetic effects” (Myers, p. 144, 2012).
(photo: today.uconn.edu)

When endorphins combine with distraction, amazing things can happen. Sports injuries may go unnoticed
until after the game. During a 1989 basketball game, Ohio State University player Jay Burson broke his neck –
and kept playing.

“Health care professionals understand the value of distractions and may divert attention with a pleasant
image (‘Think of a warm, comfortable environment') or a request to perform some task (‘Count backwards by
2s’). A well-trained nurse may distract needle-shy patients by chatting with them and asking them to look
away when the needle is inserted” (Myers, p. 144, 2012).

“The brain-pain connection is also clear in our memories of pain. The pain we experience may not be the pain
we remember. In experiments, and after medical procedures, people tend to overlook how long a pain
lasted. Their memory snapshots may instead record their peak moment and also how much pain they felt at
the end” (Myers, p. 144, 2012).

Now that we have an understanding of the biology and psychology behind pain, let’s develop a Biblical
understanding of the purpose of pain. Read the following article by Pastor Adrian Rogers:

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