My daughter started calling things "thing-a-ma-bobbers" recently. It's pretty humorous to hear her call something she doesn't know a "thing-a-ma-bobber" . When I started thinking about sharing Lorimer Moseley's Ted Talk entiltled "Why Things Hurt", I couldn't help but think of my daughter's new term. It's interesting how children experience the world and how they resolve it. This fill in the blank term helps her to navigate with her own unique lens gathered through her experiences.
Pain is a general term that is fairly misunderstood by many and it is expressed in as much as each individual is unique. How one resolves the experience of pain is quite an individual process and it could be made simpler if a better understanding is achieved in how it comes about in the first place. Further to this, our lack of understanding can also bring about reliance on others for our return to normalcy and, ultimately, loss of power to our own self-efficacy.
The "TED Talk" video below is a great primer about the mechanisms behind the experience of pain from Dr. Lorimer Moseley, a leading pain neuroscientist from the land down-under. I like that it is short and digestible for most people and that Lorimer keeps it pretty entertaining.
Lorimer also has a great book of short stories called "Painful Yarns". it's a worthwhile and entertaining read for those wishing to understand more about pain. or you can contact me :-) i'm always enthusiastic to share about pain science to those who are interested.