Pain is a serious thing no doubt.  The problem is that many look at pain from the standpoint of it being something that we need to get rid of.  Yet pain is there for a reason.  It is an alarm telling us that something is wrong.  If it is something like a burn or from an injury, we know the source, then it is much easier to know what to do.  You are going to treat it or get it treated if you know it is something that requires more expertise.  If you don't know the source of the pain like chest pain or sciatica (pain going down the leg)  Take that seriously.  That is your alarm telling you something is wrong.  In all my years of being a Chaplain and a Doctor, I have never met someone who told me " I did not think my pain was not serious.  I just hoped it would go away."    What is fullish is to ignore an alarm that is telling us something is wrong.  The longer the alarm is sounding the more serious the problem can become.  Lastly,  Don't just pull the battery out of the alarm or cover the pain with medications.  Look to the source of your pain first.  Then and only then should you consider taking medications that turn the alarm off.

In my Asheville Chiropractor's office, we take pain seriously.  Many individuals who come into our office have let their pain go for years.  They tell me that they could manage it with some pain medications.  The sad thing is that in many cases if  I could have seen them years earlier, we could have slowed and potentially stopped the progression of the cause of their original pain.