Facing pain and overcoming it makes us stronger

Pain is one of the emotions inherent to our existence. From the moment we are born, we are exposed to the inconsistency that is life itself and the frustration that arises from the dissatisfaction of our desires. Therefore, knowing how to face pain and move forward is essential to move through a degree of suffering that we can assume.

In the first instance, it is essential to differentiate between pain, sadness or melancholy. Making this distinction is essentialsince frequently in colloquial language they are used interchangeably, when they are not synonyms.

Does facing pain mean sadness or melancholy?

Sigmund Freud, father of Psychoanalysis, proposes an important distinction between concepts, since although they are similar, or at least the collective imagination equates them, they are dissimilar. Precisely, in his masterpiece “Grief and melancholy”, tries to establish the points at which both concepts are distinguished.

Thus, literally, Freud states that “Grief is the reaction to the loss of a loved person or an abstraction that takes its place such as an ideal, freedom, etc. As a result of identical influences, many people experience melancholy instead of mourning.“.

Certainly, Freud asserts that the duel It is an affect that does not have to be pathological and that is suffered by the subject who has lost the loved object. However, one is set as a way of feeling that responds to absolutely normal parameterswhile melancholy would be more related to the pathological.

Both emotional processes present similar characteristics, except for one fundamental point. In both states, pain is shared, lack of interest in the outside world and lack of inclination to acquire a new object of love.

Nevertheless, In melancholy, a disturbance of the feeling of pain appears, adding to a harassment towards the Self., which does not happen in the course of a normal mourning; where an impoverishment of its integrity occurs.

Facing pain allows us to know ourselves in a comprehensive way

Emotional life is directly linked to the human psyche and, therefore, directly or indirectly impacts physical or biological well-being. As a rule, the actual societyand the individual in particular, underestimates the importance of emotions.

As soon as a person has a symptom, such as insomnia or depression, they want it to disappear as if by magic and resort to a drug that will solve their life. However, it is very difficult for the symptom to be absent, at least permanently, if comprehensive psychoanalytic work is not done.

Precisely, Medicinemore specifically psychiatry, reinforces the behaviorist theory of stimulation–response to disappear any kind of symptoms. The idea is that With the right medication, any patient could return to their daily routine.because the symptom, at least for a time, disappears or is significantly attenuated.

Nevertheless, Medication in many cases is just a thick carpet that covers the symptom.the manifestation, letting the ultimate cause of the picture remain latent.

Thus, when the medication is withdrawn it reappears and even if the medication is maintained, it can take other forms to become visible, harming the person’s quality of life.

Certainly, the symptom is an informative element that something incorrect is happening in the subject’s mental life. In this way, by silencing the voice we will only lose information about what is happening and it will be more difficult to intervene on it. Hence it is A good clinical evaluation is so important before starting any type of intervention.

In this way, psychotherapy offers us the opportunity to establish new parameters to see the world from a new perspective. A new point of view that involves less pain and more satisfaction or fulfillment.

Let’s think that all our suffering has an important degree of subjectivityTherefore, it is the person who ultimately knows what really hurts him. On the other hand, through his story, the psychologist will be able to understand what the unsatisfied desire represents as a source of his discomfort.

You might be interested…