No. There are two major types of pain: Acute and chronic.

Acute pain is usually due to an injury, surgery or cancer and serves to protect us. When tissue is damaged, free nerve endings in your skin send signals to your brain via your spinal cord. Your brain then sends signals to your body to respond to pain, such as removing your burning finger from a hot stove.

Chronic pain is pain that persists over three months, beyond when an injury should have healed. Chronic pain can be intermittent (occurs in a pattern) or persistent (lasting more than 12 hours daily) and can be considered a disease itself. Usually the pain results from a known cause, such as surgery, or inflammation from arthritis. Sometimes the cause of this pain is abnormal processing of pain by the nervous system as in the case of fibromyalgia.

Pain signals to your brain may keep occurring long after the injury due to changes in the nervous system. This is called neuropathic pain. Many common diseases can result in changes in our nervous systems that cause pain. Shingles, diabetic neuropathies, and stroke are common examples.

Am I alone? No. It is estimated that one in five Canadians have chronic pain that interferes with their quality of life and productivity. There are specialized Pain Clinics in many cities across Canada, and there are support groups where people with pain meet and share strategies for managing pain.