Why Medical Professionals Insist on Making You Describe Your Pain

Pain is your body’s way of telling you that something is wrong. It’s a protective mechanism (pain causing a recoil or limp prevents you from further injuring your already compromised body part). Not only does pain indicate that there is a problem, but it can also give you clues as to the extent and location of the injury and which type(s) of tissue are damaged.

Pain is universal but oddly difficult to describe accurately. Descriptions of pain – and associated sensations – can help identify the cause of the pain and the steps necessary to resolve it. While most people recognize that there are different types of pain, they have a hard time finding words that adequately convey what they’re going through. Oftentimes, it’s easier to select (or reject) descriptive words from a list like a multiple choice question.

Types of Pain

While pain sensations are highly individual (what’s bothersome but tolerable to you might be unbearable to someone else), pain can be classified through a number of systems. The classification system discussed here is based upon the type of tissue damaged and the sensations caused by this pain. Pain in the performing arts is most often caused by damage to tissues like muscles, connective tissue, or bone (nociceptive pain) or by nerve damage (neuropathic pain).*

Tissue damage can cause aching, throbbing, or sharp, stabbing pain, generally referred to as musculoskeletal pain. Most instances of pain fall into this category. Musculoskeletal pain can be acute or chronic, and it can be constant or intermittent. Also, it is common for this type of pain to be worsened by specific motions or activities (as mundane as breathing or coughing or as activity-specific as vibrato or rélevé).

Nerve damage, like the kind that causes “stingers,” causes numbness, tingling, burning, a pins-and-needles sensation, or hypersensitivity (the lightest touch causes a significant amount of pain). This type of pain often resembles the way it feels when your foot falls asleep (or rather, when it “wakes up”). Nerves don’t just send sensory information to your brain (feeling the wind on your face), they tell your muscles to contract, too. So, anytime you have nerve pain, you can also have muscle weakness.

Describing Your Pain

The next time you’re in pain and seeking medical attention, do your best to describe your pain using some of the terms used in this article (aching, numbness, tingling, etc.). Using these words helps the medical professional evaluating you better identify the true cause of your pain, helping relieve your pain sooner.


*A note: The pain classification system here has three categories. Only nociceptive and neuropathic pain are discussed in this article. The third category is psychogenic pain. This pain is often caused by an initial physical injury but is amplified and/or prolonged by psychological factors like fear, depression, stress, anxiety, or a psychological condition.