When Swearing Is Good for You

  

  When Swearing Is Needed or Necessary

In the December 10-11, 2011 Wall Street Journal, there was a summary about dealing with pain. Pain is frequently encountered, especially as we age. Of course, we don’t have to age to experience pain. And we also know that there are levels or degrees of pain. Just go into a doctor’s office and the nurse will likely ask you to, on a scale of 1-10, rate your pain level.

About a month ago, my wife Linda had her second knee replacement. So the study that follows seemed pertinent. In this study, 71 undergraduates held their hand in a container of near freezing water for as long as they could. The variable studied was the use of obscene or offensive swear words. In other words, would swearing activate, fight or flight responses that have been known to release opiates?

In this research, swearing helped nearly ¾ of the students deal with pain. In other words, they endured the test for a longer period of time [Average length of time improvement was 31 seconds or about 50% over non-swears].

 I suggested to Linda that she start swearing when she was experiencing pain related to her surgery. Initially, she had difficulty using cuss words. At first, when I reminded her, she would say or give a word without much enthusiasm or conviction. As I continued coaching and/ or reminding her over time, she improved somewhat. For her, when experiencing the pain, swearing didn’t come immediately to her mind.

Linda had to practice swearing so that her reaction became more immediate, more credible or believable. So, it’s not clear if swearing can help reduce her pain. Another idea about confronting pain, is to re-frame thinking. Instead of calling it pain, refer to it as discomfort. By re-framing, one can then think about the discomfort differently as the associations associated with discomfort are very different than the associations associated with pain. Hopefully, perception will allow you to think differently about the workings of your body and yourself.

Next time you’re having difficulty or when things aren’t working properly, consider swearing and re-framing. Like everything, practice can make it better.In the meantime, keep moving, laughing, smiling, bonding, loving and appreciating.