Pain is your brain’s opinion about the state of your tissue and your safety in your current environment. It’s a response to lots and lots of incoming stimuli from your body and the environment, and it’s a decision that is made to make you change your behaviour to keep you safe.

Suffering is what is seen all too commonly by the time someone reaches health care. Suffering is the powerlessness and fear that this is permanent, that nothing will make it better, that fundamentally there is a persisting disease or factor that is going to limit life forever and ever amen. And for very many people, it does…

This is suffering:

- a slippery slope in to disability based on fear and poor information

- side effects of ineffective pain medication

- loss of full time work and earning capacity

- financial stress

- health care costs

- inefficient treatment

- loss of life potential, contribution and the dreams of a full and rich life

- hopelessness

This pain stuff is REAL — and we’re not treating it in the best ways possible. By changing the paradigm, by understanding why we feel pain and the very many factors that result in pain occurring, I hope we can make meaningful changes to the lives of the billions of people who suffer with pain on a daily basis.