To increase my threshold of pain - why cutting might help

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090817142859.htm

A study shows that physical pain and social pain are regulated by the same regions in the brain and perhaps the same receptors. It is supported by human experiments that if a person is sensitive to physical pain he is also sensitive to social pain.

By cutting oneself and getting used to physical pain our tolerance to social pain might also increase.

Its all based on genetics, but we do have some control over which genes are expressed based on environmental cues.

 

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I doubt thet are THAT heavily interconnected.

I can get smacked against a concrete floor while moshing, laugh, and get up. But I really really don't take social rejection well.

 

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I've heard that women have a better tolerance for pain then men do, but men have a higher pain threshold.

Does anyone know if there is a gender study related to pain?

 

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DRZion: "By cutting oneself... " blah blah

Cuts don't hurt enough. If you're going to go through with this, please get a head-whacker.

 

Or ask someone to punch you in the kidneys.

 

and then call the cops, have them arrested, and sue them!!!! I love how your mind works :cheers:

 

Except it doesn't seem to work like that. Cutting often increases over time. You have to learn how to deal with emotional pain in emotional terms, sooner or later. Cutting may be the best possible compromise in situations, for example, where a teenager is still in the house with a sexual abuser and has not been believed. Cutting may create a way of containing and controlling things in a terrible situation. But after that the learning to deal with social stress will have to be gone through from step one.

Also even if cutting did increase tolerance for social pain, that's not really a solution either. We need to learn how to reduce social pain, to not tolerate it. This will involve some other process than cutting which acts very much like a pain killer. It overloads the brain in those areas and gives a kind of switch to the person. But it is not addressing the problem.

 

When someone causes themselves pain , they are either nuts or stupid! Which are you?

 

Very helpful. You should be a counselor. The truth is, and ask any health professional to confirm......cutters are neither stupid nor nuts. REally, ask a psychiatrist or psychologist. They are neither stupid nor nuts. They have figured out a way to manage their emotions. There are better ways, sure. Then ask the health professional of your choice if your reaction is helpful. Then ask them if they think most people cause themselves pain.

I am always amazed how easily people avoid seeing similar patterns in themselves when they toss around judgments like 'you are nuts' 'you are stupid'.

 

They do it because they have lost all feelings and they need to feel something strong, love has been lost by them.

 

Ive never looked into it... but thats the firs logical esplinaton ive herd of why "cutters" do that to therselfs.!!!

 

Exactly. I can not fucking stand when people say shit like 'You're nuts' or 'What a spoiled brat'.

I have done it, occasionally, not because I was nuts, spoiled, or prioritized my own problems over those of anyone else. I did it because right then and there, I needed to be calm and rational again.

 

I am sorry if I said something that disturbed you but I did follow up with a better expanation didn't I?

 

Nah, you didn't, and my post was not directed at you, just people with that attitude in general.

 

Oh, OK then.

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orleander who knows. Pain is a hard one to judge (wether physical or emotional), the only assessment tools we have for pain are to simply ask the pt to rate it out of 10 with 1 being ready to go partying and 10 meaning its so bad you want me to kill you.

Different groups are more likly to say different numbers wether they have a fracture of the femor or hit there finger with a hammer. Older men are MUCH more likly to say "oh its just a 2" for instance because of the social attiudes that "we dont complain". Older women are more likly to say "just a bit" (which drives the ambo's mad because they want a number to compare before and after giving penthrox and morphine)

People who are depressed are more likly to rate there pain higher except sometimes they dont, they actually wont tell you about it at all (for instance people who "Cut")

Then there is another group who will say 10 for a papercut. Thats not to say there arnt some peopl for whom the 10 was acurate (for instance someone whos just been injected with narloxone which is out compeating the bodies own anagisics) but if they arnt pale, sweety and tachicardic they arnt at a pain score of 10

 

oh then there are the groups who experiance emotional pain as physical, for instance people from asian cultures are more likly to present with abdominal pain than depression

 

What about the other way around?

He just needs to cut deeper!

 

Instead of cutting yourself... why not have some fun hurting yourself?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCCESo8_k74

 

Not that I'm a cutter, but there seems to be some kind of connection that might mean physical toughness leads to social toughness. Its always best to cure the source, and it is best to address the problem. Sometimes its best just to wait it out, and for that you need defenses. Cutting is probably not the best way, since you can get plenty of pain and endurance from good ol exercise.

Like this! Kids hurting themselves on camera promotes both social bonding and physical toughness.