A 10-minute read

WARNING: ADULT LANGUAGE AHEAD

 DO NOT READ IF EASILY OFFENDED

You may have noticed that I swear a bit now and then. Actually, I swear a fucking lot. This is not to be deliberately crass, vulgar, or offensive; it's just how I often communicate and express myself.

Now, despite some malicious rumours circulating, I am actually pretty well-educated, relatively polite, mostly courteous, and often respectful, with very strong morals and ethical boundaries, but I still swear like a fucken drunken sailor.

Despite what many may think, swearing isn't only used by the ill-educated, uncouth, morally corrupt dregs of society, or just for abuse or offence purposes.

Swearing is also used by the funny, entertaining, clever, and wittier echelons of society, and swearing is a great attention-grabber and ice breaker in many situations.

Swearing can indeed be used to attack, abuse, and offend people, but swearing can also be used to help engage, encourage, and motivate people.

Swearing is neither good nor bad on its own; rather, just as with most things, it's the context in which swearing is being used that can be either good or bad.

Fuck Me!

I often use colourful language in both private and public conversations with many people, including those on social media, to either emphasise a point, grab their attention, or just to lighten the mood and have some fun.

However, over the last few years, I have had more and more official complaints from some uptight pompous twats who dislike my swearing in any context.

They say in their complaints that any swearing used at any time is both unacceptable and unprofessional for a physiotherapist, and that it shows a lack of integrity and intelligence.

Well, I call fucking bullshit on that.

I'm going to show you how swearing can be a sign of even greater intelligence and intellect, as well as being positive and affirming, and can actually help us connect and work with other people better.

But to start lets take a look at the long, prestigious, and noble history swearing has, and how it has been part of our culture for as long as we have been communicating.

Fuck Sake!

When you look into the history of swearing, it really is fucking fascinating.

The English language is a bastardised amalgamation of many other languages, such as Latin, Greek, Dutch, Arabic, Norse, Spanish, Italian, and even Hindi; however, most of our swear words originate from our German cousins, with old Germanic words like arsch, scheissen and ficken not needing much translation even these days.

The reason that these words were and still are deemed offensive, crass, and unintellectual dates back to William the Conqueror when he took control of Britan back in 1066 after the famous 'Battle of Hastings'.

During William's reign, the country was heavily divided by language, with the new noble classes speaking either French or Latin dialects, and the conquered commoners speaking the more traditional Germanic-English dialect.

This split in class and language still remains today, with swearing still often being deemed as low class and often called ‘vulgar’, which coincidentally is a word derived from Latin meaning ‘of the common crowd’. 

It also explains why these words have acquired their power to offend, as they were seen by the so-called higher classes due to their prejudices that the language and vocabulary of the nobles was elevated and cultured, whilst that of the commoners was distasteful and bad.

Fuck That!

But swearing alone isn't 'bad', it's the context it's used in that can be.

There were, and still are, times when swearing is actually considered to be one of the most noble and honourable things a person can do. For example, have you ever wondered why we call telling the truth or promising a pledge to be 'swearing an oath'?

Well, this dates back to the Middle Ages, when priests and knights would turn the air blue using language that would make a seasoned prostitute blush as they literally swore at God to prevent them from breaking a vow or pledge.

And this is still practised in some places today, with people cursing at God to grab his, or her, attention to their pledge.

So, despite swearing often being seen by many who are religious as bad, Christianity was actually heavily invested in swearing a lot, with many of its monks, priests, and bishops swearing quite literally at God.

In today's society, many now think swearing is a sign of low morality and intelligence, not that of noble knights and pious priests.

However, yet again that's fucking bullshit

Some research here shows individuals who can name more swear words have a broader vocabulary and higher IQ levels than those who can't, refuting the common assumption that swearing is a sign of low intellect.

When done at the right time, in the right situation, swearing can be really fucking creative, imaginative, and funny as fuck.

Swearing at the right time in the right situation can capture attention, invigorate the sluggish into action, emphasise a point, and more importantly, make dull, boring topics and discussions like most fucking physiotherapy ones tend to be, a little more interesting and entertaining.

Swearing has also been linked with perceptions and impressions of more honesty and trustworthiness, as discussed here and is something I believe in, as these days I don't trust any mutha-fucker who doesn't drop a fuck or a C-Bomb now and then.

Fuck It!

Even more interesting are the positive effects swearing can have on our ability to tolerate pain.

I'm sure you can all remember a time when you cracked your head on a low beam or stubbed your toe on a table leg. And I will bet my left testicle that you all jumped up and down whilst shouting and screaming a few fucking obscenities whilst furiously rubbing the painful appendage.

This common phenomenon of swearing when we hurt ourselves led one of my favourite researchers Dr Richard Stephens from Keele University, to conduct a study here into the effect of swearing whilst in pain, or as he calls it, 'emotional language'.

Legend has it he decided to investigate this after he heard his usually mild-mannered, swear-adverse wife use language during childbirth that he thought only battle-hardened shock troops would know.

In this study, Dr Stephens asked subjects to immerse their hands in icy buckets of cold water whilst remaining quiet, and he timed how long they could tolerate it for.

He then asked the subjects to repeat this process a second time 24 hours later, but now asked subjects to swear whilst in the icy water.

He found that the swearing helped the subjects keep their hand in the painful icy water for nearly twice as long as the first time.

Whilst it's not exactly clear how or why this works, it's believed that swearing and using taboo language triggers our natural 'fight-or-flight' responses, with increased adrenaline and other pain modulation hormones secreted that help us combat and reduce other painful stimuli.

However, a word of warning if you do like to drop a few fucks and shits when in pain, a follow-up study here showed if you do it too much, too often, the pain-relieving effects diminish, showing that again, you can have too much of a good thing.

Fuck Pain!

So should we be harnessing these positive effect that swearing has on pain?

I mean, after all, as evidence-based clinicians who try to help many people in pain, shouldn't we be trying to create that so-called 'window of opportunity'  to help people move and function better, that everyone keeps telling me I should care about when I criticise manual therapy treatments or some other silly gadget or gimmick that's said to help reduce pain?

How about the next time you go and reach for the massage cream, acupuncture needle, or neon coloured tape, you instead ask your patients to shout out a few fucks, shits, wanks, or bastards instead?

I mean it is, after all, a researched, citable, evidence-based, scientific pain-reducing intervention, and if I'm being honest its a lot simpler, cheaper, and far more likely to be effective than many of the other treatments done under the very thin disguise of opening a window of opportunity.

Now, of course, I am being fucking sarcastic here, and I am not suggesting or advocating the random, indiscriminate and inappropriate use of swearing.

I am just trying to show how swearing can have some positive uses and effects when used at the right time, with the right person.

I do understand that there are some very well-justified reasons, social constraints, and personal boundaries that we need to respect when it comes to swearing. For example, swearing in front of children is an absolute contraindication, although I know many parents tell me it's very hard to remember this all the time.

I think it's also good practice to use disclaimers just like movies and TV programs do at the start of blogs, podcasts, videos, or social media posts, just like I have done here, as well as on my profiles, to warn people before they continue that there may be some adult language used now and then. This gives people a warning and a choice to decide if they want to continue on or not.

We should also be mindful and careful about using swearing when talking face-to-face in front of new acquaintances who we haven't established a relationship or rapport with.

Adapting and tailoring your approach to the individual in front of you is paramount and key to successful outcomes, and sometimes swearing can put some people off if used too soon or too often in new relationships.

However, there is the other side of this coin in that swearing can also help break down social constraints and hierarchical barriers that may be preventing and impeding building a relationship with someone new.

Swearing can at times lower these barriers, allowing others to see you as more like them and therefore more likeable and trustworthy.

The skill and art here is knowing when, where, and who it's ok to swear in front of, and I don't have any firm rules other than to say if someone swears before you, then I think it's safe to say they won't mind you doing it... it's a bit like farting in that sense.

Fuck Off!

So in summary, swearing is a well-established and integral part of being human, allowing us to emote and express our feelings and can have both positive and negative implications.

Swearing has a rich and colourful history and is part of our culture and communication despite what some pompous pricks and pearl-clutching thunder cunts out there try to claim. 

Swearing is a natural, normal, and healthy aspect of being human, and I can't imagine going through life without doing it, and I have absolutely no fucking intention of fucking doing so... despite all the complaints

As always, thanks for reading... now kindly fuck off!

Adam