It is safe to say that everyone has experienced some kind of physical pain in his or her lifetime. For most people, it is a normal, if unpleasant, sensation triggered by the nervous system to alert them to an injury or the need to seek medical treatment. With medical care and the body's amazing power to heal itself, such pain normally stops, tapers off, or disappears, leaving little more than a vivid memory. Doctors call this acute pain.
Chronic pain is something quite different.
It persists sometimes for weeks, months, or years after the injury or infection that initially caused it has healed. Even more perniciously, it may have no apparent cause or reason, no discernable physical insult or injury to which it can be attributed. It is easy to see how such pain can overwhelm even the sturdiest, most resolute people. Without relief, and eventually without even the hope of relief, they can lose the ability and desire to eat, sleep, work, or function in any way normally. Pain becomes the defining factor in their lives, leading to an endless cycle of sleeplessness, irritability, and depression.