Understanding Chronic Pain

Sexual Abuse

[From Chapter 9 of Understanding Chronic Pain]

Acute pain is the product of corporal injury. Chronic pain is the product of the mind. It comes, most of the time, to those whose cerebral function has been altered by destructive life experiences. Sometimes the stressor appears proximate in time to the development of pain. The loss of a job, the loss of a loved one, a major infectious illness, or a stroke can all generate painfulness as their aftermath. Equally often, the stressor is remote in time. Past depression or past pharmacologic experiences may evolve months or years later into chronic pain. There is another remote experience which, more predictably than any other, incites a life of chronic pain, and that is childhood abuse, particularly sexual abuse. The subject is disturbing, and many readers, certainly those who have suffered the experience, will find it distressing. This is regrettable but unavoidable. It is quite impossible to understand the nature and meaning of chronic pain without addressing the issue.

Sexual abuse may occur as a single brutal event, a rape. Perhaps even more destructively, it occurs under persuasion and is repetitive, sometimes ritualistic. Surprisingly, it may mimic tenderness, this in the form of fondling. Regardless, the stain is often ineradicable, and the victim is left with guilt, remorse, and frightening flashbacks that may last a lifetime. The frequency of sexual abuse in the chronically painful female (less the male) is astonishing. This is particularly so in those whose pain begins in their youth or early maturity.

You can read the rest in Dr. Cochran's book, Understanding Chronic Pain

Last Updated: Nov 19, 08:18 AM

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