Innovative Approaches to Chronic Pain by Wemyss-Gorman Peter; Dieppe Paul; Williamson Ann

Author:Wemyss-Gorman, Peter; Dieppe, Paul; Williamson, Ann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Published: 2020-12-21T00:00:00+00:00

Words of war

Warmongering language

The widespread use of warmongering language in society when talking about health issues creates a battlefield, which is rather ironic given our goal is to alleviate suffering, to save lives, treat injury and help people recover and heal. The use of warmongering language prepares people to fight, run, freeze or flop. How does this encourage healing and recovery? How can turning your body into a war zone lead to increased wellbeing and improved health?

Medicine isn’t about winning or losing or using it as a weapon against pain, disease and death. This sets an expectation of recovery based on how hard you’ve fought, and this can have a detrimental effect on everyone. It’s a battle that no one can win because we all die eventually. Being always ready to fight or run suppresses healing in patients and clinicians. When we view a person’s body as a battlefield it can prevent us caring for the person behind the label.

You have to suppress emotions when you’re at war. To appear strong, to hide any weakness – an enemy will pounce on weakness. War leaves no room for fun, play, laughter, curiosity or healing in either the person with pain or those treating them. Living in a constant state of battling ‘the enemy’ can mean you miss out on the things that make life worthwhile.

It comes as no surprise that in a study by Degner and colleagues women with breast cancer who ‘ascribed negative meaning of illness with choices such as “enemy”, “loss” or “punishment” had significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety and poorer quality of life than women who indicated a more positive meaning’.1

When we talk about fighting pain or view it as ‘the enemy’ to battle against, it encourages us to try to beat it with an ever-expanding arsenal of pain-killing weaponry. Viewing painkillers as weapons invites us to try one more drug, a new weapon, to fight until the bitter end and try every treatment and every weapon at our disposal. This can lead to overtreatment and medicalization of issues that may be rooted in social problems. Pain becomes an enemy that people have to live with every day…every hour…every moment of their lives. Language such as stabbing, crushing, pinching, burning, shooting, blinding further promote the idea of pain as the enemy. It encourages people to predict when their enemy will strike, to be vigilant at all times in anticipation. Life is exhausting when pain is the enemy.

War links pain to suffering; it generates fear, worry, anxiety, hopelessness and despair. The more threatening we perceive our world to be, the more we look out for threat, the more likely we are to come to catastrophic conclusions. We see less of the good things. We become vigilant and sensitive to symptoms. War leads to chaos, destruction and uncertainty: a place where there is little safety, increased stress, tension and pain. You can’t begin a journey towards recovery and healing in this state.

Warmongering language is so ingrained in our

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