“Pain precedes damage.”

Moshe Feldenkrais made this statement, and it reflects his hard-earned experience in working with many people, including himself, who were suffering from pain.

One’s natural inclination when pain arises is to do anything to make it go away. A vast industry has risen up to supply pain-relieving drugs. Although there are benefits to taking pharmaceutical pain relievers, there is also a big disadvantage: you mask the symptom which is trying to tell you something.

Pain is a signal. Drugs turn off the message while leaving the the underlying problem unresolved.

For me, a striking dramatization of this situation was given in the 1970’s movie “North Dallas 40.” It was a football movie about the Dallas Cowboys’ owners and coaching staff pressuring the players to abuse pain medications. One handsome, black, injured running back refused throughout the movie to yield to this pressure. Then, at the very end, when the Super Bowl was in its final moments, he gave in. He took the injection, and the coach put him in the game. As he ran for the winning pass, leaping in the air and reaching for the ball……his hamstring muscles snapped. He fell to the ground, a broken warrior.

The moral of the story is – don’t kill the messenger who brings bad news. Instead, listen and learn what needs to be known.