How can I beat pain?
CrowdScience
BBC
4.8 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 13 November 2020
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We all feel pain on a regular basis; when we stub a toe, break a bone or even experience heartbreak. Bebeto from Cameroon wants to know how to cope with a pain in his wrist that just won’t go away. Does a positive mindset help? Or perhaps meditation? Marnie Chesterton speaks to psychologists and neuroscientists to find the answers. We hear from two people with very different experiences of pain. Lucy has fibromyalgia and experiences pain all over her body every day. While Stephen has a rare genetic condition which means he doesn’t feel physical pain at all. But they both argue that pain shouldn’t always be unwanted. Perhaps we need to embrace and accept our pain in order to beat it. Presented by Marnie Chesterton. Produced by Caroline Steel for the BBC World Service
[Image: Man in pain. Credit: Getty Images]
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of |
| 0:07.0 | Happiness Podcast. |
| 0:08.0 | For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want |
| 0:14.4 | to share that science with you. |
| 0:16.1 | And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley. |
| 0:19.4 | I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that |
| 0:25.4 | calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:31.6 | It's really hard not to be miserable in this sort of situation because I am lying in my bed. |
| 0:39.0 | I have been in pain most of the day, but it's got a bit more intense in the past couple of |
| 0:45.2 | hours so I've got this sensation which is like a really really weird burning sensation in my face. It's kind of like a beard of pain and it goes |
| 0:57.7 | from my ears all the way to like around my throat and in my eye sockets and it's a real high frequency pain. |
| 1:05.6 | And I'm struggling to overcome it right now and my friend just texted me to say let's me at seven of my birthday and it's now five I'm just like it's |
| 1:31.6 | very hard to not cancel. |
| 1:35.0 | Welcome to Crowd Science from the BBC World Service, |
| 1:39.0 | where we answer science questions from all over the world. |
| 1:42.0 | I'm Marnie Chesterton. |
| 1:44.0 | And that woman in pain is Lucy. She's in her early 30s, living in Italy and as you can hear, suffering. |
| 1:52.0 | She has a chronic condition called fibromyalgia |
| 1:55.0 | where she feels pain all over her body every day. |
| 1:59.0 | But I'm not going to cancel because I know that if I cancel I will just be here alone and |
| 2:07.6 | miserable and I need something that's going to distract me from this. I'm going to |
| 2:10.8 | do what I normally do in this situation that it sort of gives me a feeling of |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.