About Pain and Breathlessness

What is pain and why breathlessness? 

Pain is a prevalent part of human experience but it is defined in many different ways. Our understanding of pain includes the breadth of experiences from physical pain to feelings of distress. The impacts may be short or long term; they may be positive or negative; they may vary according to age, experience and culture; and they may affect behaviour, cognition, spiritual beliefs and the physical body.

Breathlessness, one of the key areas identified to be explored through the festival, is not usually experienced as “painful” but it does cause severe distress and discomfort and changes the life of the person experiencing it. Does it count as pain? How would you define pain? We are interested in all of the many ways of describing these experiences.

‌This project is a collaboration between the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research, the Life of Breath project and the Public Engagement  and is made possible through the generous support of the Wellcome Trust and its Institutional Strategic Support Fund.

If you have been affected by any issues raised in these events and would like advice on finding further support please contact feel-it-festival@bristol.ac.uk

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