News Center
On Pain
“I am only reminding the reader that a particular medicine is not to be mistaken for the elixir of life.” –CS Lewis
As physicians who primarily treat pain, our curriculum is, in a way, dedicated to eliminating this undesirable state for our patients. We rarely, however, take time to consider the roots of pain itself.
The perplexing mystery of course is why misfortune, or fortune for that matter, visits all of us disproportionately. Why, for example, lung cancer can develop in the diligent man who never smoked a day in his life, and not in him who indulged every whim. Or why the agonizing pangs of loneliness afflict some, while others make their way merry through all life’s seasons.
I haven’t figured it out. I don’t believe I ever will. I do, however, believe that our pains can be vessels of mercy to the extent they make us rely on the true elixir of life, rather than our medicines of choice, be it the pursuit of money, career success, leisure time, alcohol, entertainment, a respectable reputation, our children’s achievements, lust, material comfort, food, social acceptance or youthful appearances.
Some of these are obviously dangerous. Some are inherently good. But all are at risk of causing great pain if we make them the ultimate thing for which we live in place of the only medicine that won’t, given enough time, disappoint.
As a Christian, I believe in a living, loving God. A God who came to the earth he created, as a man, to suffer and die, in order to redeem me at his own expense. A God who gave himself as the required sacrifice to fulfill the law, so that anyone who wants communion may freely have it.
Regardless of personal belief, how does this relate to pain? Accepting an act of divine love certainly doesn’t take pain away. On the contrary, the resulting transformation of the heart results in a heightened sensitivity to suffering.
But it gives immense meaning to pain. To bear our uniquely allotted pain nobly imparts not only purpose, in the form of spiritual maturation, but value, in the form of receiving an eternal elixir that is outside the vicissitudes of time and change.
As future physicians, understanding this can help us attend to our patients’ need for meaning and connection, in addition to their chief complaints. As aptly noted by CS Lewis, “it is easier to say ‘my tooth is aching’ than to say ‘my heart is broken.’”
Every day I am privy to a litany of physical symptoms. While some make the jump to include emotional plights, very few answer my ‘how may I help you today’ with ‘the deep-seated desire for personal, perfect and eternal love that is etched in my heart remains void.’
Which is precisely the point in each story that pain can lead to healing, true healing. A particular medicine, adjustment, or hydrotherapy may rectify a temporary pathology, but in the end, it is pain that leads us to recognize and drink the true elixir of life.
Where great poets have spoken, I grow silent. The cure for the pain is, indeed, in the pain.
For more information about NUHS’ Naturopathic Medicine program click here.