Actually in therapeutic terms, there is more of a swing between the two.
Inner emotional pain can be severe, often worse than the physical. During these times of pain, understandably there is often a swing towards something that will numb the effects. The swing towards the pleasure continuum tends to numb things for a while until the consequences of living purely with pleasure take their effect.
For instance, take someone who finds it difficult to be disciplined with money.
They realize that they have credit card debt rising or bills outstanding, which places a very real burden on them. To escape this pain, they may anaesthetize themselves with something more pleasurable, often an instant gratification of some kind, which is a quick cure for the pain being experienced; say overindulging in a chocolate, vegging out with the TV for hours on end, or even gambling away what they have left.
The false comforts that are chosen are anaesthetic and temporary and can manifest in many ways, but will only satisfy in the short term.
Some of these things are frowned upon and easily identified as detrimental, like a dependence on alcohol, cigarettes or drugs and some are seemingly innocuous, even praised favourably in society such as overworking, excessive watching and/or participation in sport and also materialism. Eventually the pain must be looked at again and if not dealt with and the swing understood, there can be a lasting devastating consequence, either physically, mentally or emotionally.
We all need places to escape and to take the heat off in a tense time, but if the pleasure/pain swing keeps us oscillating madly, it’s time to identify and understand the false comforts we are using to ease this emotional pain, and then deal with the source of this pain.
There is hope.
Inner emotional pain can be severe, often worse than the physical. During these times of pain, understandably there is often a swing towards something that will numb the effects. The swing towards the pleasure continuum tends to numb things for a while until the consequences of living purely with pleasure take their effect.
For instance, take someone who finds it difficult to be disciplined with money.
They realize that they have credit card debt rising or bills outstanding, which places a very real burden on them. To escape this pain, they may anaesthetize themselves with something more pleasurable, often an instant gratification of some kind, which is a quick cure for the pain being experienced; say overindulging in a chocolate, vegging out with the TV for hours on end, or even gambling away what they have left.
The false comforts that are chosen are anaesthetic and temporary and can manifest in many ways, but will only satisfy in the short term.
Some of these things are frowned upon and easily identified as detrimental, like a dependence on alcohol, cigarettes or drugs and some are seemingly innocuous, even praised favourably in society such as overworking, excessive watching and/or participation in sport and also materialism. Eventually the pain must be looked at again and if not dealt with and the swing understood, there can be a lasting devastating consequence, either physically, mentally or emotionally.
We all need places to escape and to take the heat off in a tense time, but if the pleasure/pain swing keeps us oscillating madly, it’s time to identify and understand the false comforts we are using to ease this emotional pain, and then deal with the source of this pain.
There is hope.