Pain they say is perceptive and so people feel pain differently. If you have stepped on a Lego, or you have been pricked by a nail, you will agree that the pain is hard an it will look like the most painful thing that has ever happened to you but according to scientists, there are other conditions that are more painful than the pain you think.
Pain ranges from annoying, shocking, and some times life-changing when it is intense. Remember I mentioned that pain is felt differently for different people and that is why it is very difficult to measure and this is because pain is a way for the brain to the body that something is wrong somewhere an with this, it calls the alarm that the body has something.
Every part of the body and every receptor sends messages to the nervous system, and the nervous system carries these messages to and fro the body to the brain. In the eyes, photoreceptors send these messages, in the tongue, taste receptors and in the body nociceptor for identifying damaged tissues. Nociceptors pick damages and pain in the body and send the signals to the brain. Since pain signals cannot be measured in the nerve cells, it is subjective and that is why visual scale is used to point different kinds of pain scale which is calculated fromt 0 to 10 with zero being no pain at all and 10 being the highest pain.
The funny thing about pain is that one persons 3 might be another person's 9 so this is subjective. To explain the subjectiveness of pain, a person who doesn't have fire in his hand or a knife on his chest can describe pain as burning pain or stabbing pain just because they want to express how they feel.
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Have you heard of thunder clap pain? This is an intense, extreme and sudden pain ramping up in less than 30 to 60 seconds like thunder. There is no obvious cause as it can be as a result of steering at the screen for too long or as a result of cold. The name was first coined in a case study in 1986 where 42-year-old female had three episodes in a week saying the events were like hammers hitting the head. It happens and can serve as signs of serious sicknesses associated to the brain. In the 1986 case, the headache was related to cerebral aneurysms.
Another painful condition is trigeminal neuralgia which people has described as a lightening bolt pain towards the face. The pain is forcing, piercing, and it occurs around the trigeminal nerve which runs beneath the face controlling major face movement. With this pain, the slightest touch to the face can look like a heavy blow to the face and this happens because there is a damage in the trigeminal nerve. This damage can occur as a result of a direct nerve damage from surgery or trauma from an injury, Blood vessel pushing on the nerve, and diseases like multiple sclerosis. Treatment would include surgeries so as to help remove pressure from the nerve and medications that will reduce the activity of the nerve.
While you might think a pain is in the scale of 10, I might assume that it is in the scale of 2 and this is because pain is subjective but people who have experienced these pain can tell that they are intense and extreme.
Reference.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/12051-acute-vs-chronic-pain
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1782012/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470255/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10926488.2010.510926
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK219252/
https://ichd-3.org/other-primary-headache-disorders/4-4-primary-thunderclap-headache/
https://europeanpainfederation.eu/measuring-pain-in-the-clinic/
https://mh.bmj.com/content/42/1/3
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK560629/
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/cerebral-aneurysm
https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/72/1/6
https://www.pennmedicine.org/for-patients-and-visitors/find-a-program-or-service/neurosurgery/cerebrovascular-disease/treatments-and-procedures/aneurysm-clipping
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482283/
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/thunderclap-headache-the-worst-headache-of-my-life-2019062516939
https://thejns.org/view/journals/j-neurosurg/90/5/article-p977.xml
https://uthscsa.edu/physicians/services/trigeminal-neuralgia/history-trigeminal-neuralgia
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK554486/
https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/disorders/trigeminal-neuralgia
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/multiple-sclerosis-ms
