Physical Pain: Good thing or bad thing?

[Misanthrope]

suppose you feel very sad, numb, for no particular reason. You feel like hitting yourself real hard and the physical pain calms you down somehow, you think that besides the obvious physical injuries this could cause negative effects, or would you consider this a normal mechanism to be used from time to time?

Well?

 

[rahvin]

it's probably not a normal way of dealing with the problem. i'm not an expert, but i can speak from first-hand experience: it certainly does the trick, to inflict yourself physical pain to subtract attention from other kinds of hurt or numbness, and i suppose that if it's kept within certain limits it could be considered a solution that works, regardless of social stigma. however, i understand it's a sign of a nihilistic/narcissistic perversion, and as such not completely sane.

i guess that, to a degree, we all fall under some sort of psychosis or neurosis. if it doesn't fuck too much with our level of satisfaction or the way we deal with daily life, it's possible that finding a solution could be more invasive than just leaving it be.

anyway, i'm sure the bleeding hearts around here will chastise this abnormal behavior as soon as they get online, and i suggest we move this discussion to another forum.

 

[Hitori]

I think we all do it to some degree or another- if I'm upset, I may stop eating, stop sleeping, drink in excess- do things that I know certainly won't make me feel better, but it's a way of punishing myself (or perhaps in a subconscious way, others) for whatever I (or they) did wrong. other people do the opposite: sleep too much, eat too much- it depends, but still, there is self-damage involved in all of it.

as for intentionally hurting myself, I haven't. only once when I was very extremely upset, I was grabbing a crystal ball very hard in my hand and accidentally broke it, cutting my hand. I had to go to the hospital and had stitches, but in a way it helped put things in perspective... It was unintentional though and I haven't ever actively hurt myself.

 

[hyena]

since it can be safely said that i'm not a bleeding heart, here's my comment:

although inflicting pain to oneself might work as a distraction technique, it's curing the symptoms and not the causes.

just as with everything else, if your psychological ailment is minor (say, you're upset over an uncharacteristically bad grade at school) and you use self-inflicted pain as a response (for example, you punch a wall until your knuckles bleed to get rid of the anger) then it's perfectly understandable. if it's just a far-fetched (but still sane) reaction, probably you can achieve the same results through socially acceptable and less hazardous behaviour: for example, you could practice a contact sport such as kickboxing, or embark on intensive strength workouts such as bench pressing which engage your muscles and produce endorphines in the same way.

on the other hand, if you use pain as some on-the-fly cure for a malaise that never goes away it's a bit like trying to fight cancer with analgesics alone. toxic analgesics, as it happens, because pain after all is not good for you. the point is understanding when your psychological state needs a cure instead of a distraction, and act accordingly.

 

[Siren]

I agree with hyena on this.

To be honest, i don't think it's a healthy thing to do. It might do the trick for a while, (or in some forms it might even be common as Hitori said), but let's face it, it's not something healthy or nice. Inflicting pain upon yourself and hurting yourself physically shouldn't be disregarded as something unimportant, because it's not a good thing, and because of the potential to gradually turn to something uglier. And as hyena already said, if you're having psychological issues it sure isn't curing anything, just covering it up for a while. So my opinion is you should seek to find a cure for the real cause.

 

[Thanatos]

I agree with hyena on this.

just because she voted for you in the awards thread

 

[Siren]

just because she voted for you in the awards thread

Get back in the kitchen Luis. I believe you still have some dishes to wash. *grabs the vase*

 

[MagSec4]

Siren, you chauvinist pig, we're reporting you to social services!

C'mon Thanny, let's go out for chocolate icecream, you don't have to take that abuse.

 

[Siren]

Go back home Mags.. Stop meddling in our private life, before you suffer the consequences, you nosey bastard.. We were fine before you appeared, you're a bad influence for my poor Luis.

 

[AtTheGates2099]

Stomach aches come natural. other than that I don't care too much for pain. Never tried self infliction and don't want to. Apparently I'm able to cope with mental pain on a calm level, or so I've been told.

 

[Salamurhaaja]

I'm sure you will start slashing your wrists and drinking each others blood soon too.

Pain is only good for one thing, to tell you that you are still alive when you have
been very seriously injured. When you don't feel pain, you should be scared.

 

[King Chaos]

There's this fucked up disease some people are born with where they either have faulty or absent pain recepting nerves. There was a documentary about it and in it this kid bit his own tongue off while he was waiting to be interviewed cos he was nervous and he didnt realise his jaw clenched up on his tongue. God that must suck ass.

I hate feeling all kinds of pain, especially the from being punched in the face, Or falling back wards really hard. Aches are worse for me than stings... and I truy hate achy joints (Like sprains etc).

 

[ishkur]

i think you cant control this, you will feel pain in one moment or another, for one reason or another...
but i dont support causing pain to yourself some people say that it is better to feel pshysical than emotional pain and sometimes it is better...for example, people with a broken heart feel a lot of pain and they usualy cut theirselves i think it is stupid and as some of you said above, emotional pain remains consistant anyway.

in some way, we cause ourselves pain like someone said before (eating too much, or not eating at all..) but it is something you dont control it is like instinct or something like that...animals do it sometimes!

all you have to do is accept life...life is hard, life is unfair, life is ironic
if you dont understand this you will feel more pain that the ones that have in mind that life is a bitch.
all i have to say is: dont rush things, take a deep breathe, live your life...and the most important of all: THINK OF ALL THE GOOD THINGS YOU HAVE IN LIFE!! life sucks sometimes, yes; but nothing is all bad or all good. if youre feeling down with no reason, dont try to understand it. dont think of your bad lifetime and focus a lot more in your succesful lifetime.


----it cant rain all the time----

 

[Misanthrope]

This is all helpfull advise but you guys missed 1 rather important point. Ill elaborate.

Sometimes certain things that get me upset can trigger the physical and sentimental state i described ( numbed down and apathetic on the sentimental side, physically weak, somnolient ( sp? ) and generally odd on the physical side ) but those are odd events.

But this is different: is like i get like this before anything even happens to me. Everything could be ( and has been ) on the up and up in my life, no mayor conflicts, everything working and i still suddenly get like this with the slightest ( or not at all ) provocation and only THEN sentimental problems start to appear. So while all this might work on the first case, it doesnt works because half the time i dont even know why i am feeling like this, and whatever reason i can come up with feels more like a result and not a reason.

 

[ishkur]

hmm sometimes i feel sad with no reason too..
but this works for me: i try not to think of sadness and not trying to understand why i feel that way.
get some distraction, meet some friends that can make you laugh..all those things work-for me, i repeat-

i dont know but i think that when you feel down because of nothing, its because youre idle...you do nothing with your excess of free time.
try to study the situation, and maybe you will see that most of the time that you feel sad with no apparent reason is because youre doing nothing...when you are busy, interacting with friends, and keeping your mind active those feelings dont attack you that easy.

 

[Lost To Apathy]

maybe you were reminded of something in the past that made you sentimental, it happens.. and a little violence never hurt. :/ just punch something.. and breathe. relax. that's just something unresolved maybe that you are reminded of, like in a conflict with someone. make peace with yourself.

 

[Misanthrope]

maybe you were reminded of something in the past that made you sentimental, it happens.. and a little violence never hurt. :/ just punch something.. and breathe. relax. that's just something unresolved maybe that you are reminded of, like in a conflict with someone. make peace with yourself.

I have way too many conflicts with people, it would take me years just to take not of them all. That usually doesnt gets to me anymore, hence, the nick: i remplaced increased frustration from literally hundreds of failed human relationships for an overall more tolerable cynicism towards all mankind.

 

[Lost To Apathy]

Yeah.. I am the same. But I meant being reasonably satisfied with yourself, even though life and people can suck in general. There's nothing to be done about it, so I just ignore it.. or think: This will pass, I'll be ok. Like if you had an argument, there is no need to feel bad about it afterwards, it's just life. Dunno if I make any sense, but that's my way.

 

[ishkur]

agreed

 

[Jagoda]

can you imagine life without pain?