Our New Perception of Pain Lead to the Opioid Epidemic

No Pain, No Gain became No Pain, Opioid Abuse

We all know that stepping on a lego is equal to torture. So painful, you want to throw away all your legos, but some people shrug and continue with their day. No crying. No throwing of things. No hopping on one foot. How could two people have such different feelings towards stepping on legos? The answer is simple: pain is up to interpretation.

Human bodies technically don’t have pain receptors. We have what are called nociceptors. Nociceptors respond to a variety of stimuli that have the potential to cause tissue damage (1). These triggers include chemical, mechanical, or thermal stimuli. This stimulus includes touching a hot stove, overstretching a muscle, and stepping on a lego. The main point of these receptors is to stimulate responses that adapt and protect the body. One example of a protective response is the withdrawal reflex; this reflex causes you to pull your body away from harmful stimuli before your body is aware it is dangerous. Like if you touch a hot stove, the withdrawal reflex causes you to jerk your hand back before you even register that the oven is hot.

With this definition of pain, pain isn’t a feeling. It’s the brain’s interpretation of sensory information transmitted from nociceptors. This definition means it is a perception or…