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Scientists find a strange connection between physical pain and positive emotions
How Pain Can Make You Feel Better
Seeded on Tue Nov 16, 2010 3:17 PM EST
Article Source: Science News, Articles and Information | Scientific American- Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.
- Public Discussion (2)
To illustrate this effect, imagine that one morning you visit the doctor for a routine check-up, and later that afternoon the doctor’s office calls to inform you that you’re in the advanced stages of cancer and have weeks to live.... Now imagine that the doctor’s office calls back five minutes later and tells you that they mixed up your lab work with someone else’s – you’re actually in good health. You would not immediately go back to how you felt before the first phone call; rather, you would feel extreme relief, lasting for hours or even days. Note that it was not a reward (e.g., winning the lottery) that made you feel better, only the introduction and removal of something unpleasant.
- 1 vote
#1 - Tue Nov 16, 2010 3:18 PM ESTI had always assumed that, in the cases of self-injury (SI), it was the resultant blood loss, not the cutting itself, that provided the "blissful" feeling that self-injurers report. As someone who has lost large amounts of blood (not through SI), you do feel kinda floaty and woozy right before you pass out or before the reality that you're bleeding to death hits you. There's also a strong mental component to SI - you imagine your troubles flowing out through the cuts you make, and that imagery can manifest itself physically. You'll physically feel relief.
As a disclaimer, this is just speculation - I've never engaged in self-injurious behavior. But as someone with disabling chronic pain, I do find the concept of pain making you feel better pretty silly. I guess it depends on the pain (or the cause). I know some people get a sexual thrill from it, and I can understand that, too.
I guess it comes down to control. If it's pain you can control, I can see how it could help. But is it the pain or the fact that you have control over it? I know that when I have control over my pain (via medication or other treatments), I am in a good mood. But when those treatments fail and I don't have control over my pain? Not good.
Sorry, that was kinda rambly. I'm just thinking out loud.
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