Is Pain Real?

Everyone feels pain, but why do we feel pain? I am not saying pain is not real, but I have learned that there is a connection between pain and our brain since “Pain is created by the brain, not passively perceived by the brain as a preformed sensation that arrives from the body” (Hargrove). We feel pain because it is a survival mechanism, created to protect the body. For example, when you break your arm, your nervous system will think your body is in danger, “triggering nerve endings” in hope that you will do something about it (Hargrove), but your body decides if this pain is helpful for you. Additionally, the negative or positive emotions that we think can cause our pain to worsen or to relieve. Even more interesting, your level of pain is not a purposeful measure for determining the severity of the injury because everyone has a different pain tolerance level. Because structural and chemical changes in your body affect your pain levels, others can tolerate it based on their pain from other experiences. Overall, I feel that pain can be felt, but our emotional and physical strength determines how much we let pain affect us.