High pain tolerance, ok, but why?

[Anonymous]

I forgot to mention –

I have no tolerance to headaches. As soon as I start to get a headache I take Excedrine right away. My headaches get so bad that I can not do anything.

Also if a pressure system is coming into town I get really bad headaches.

I will even wake up in the AM not able to tolerate light or do anything. I’ll find out that a pressure system can in over night.

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[agnoscet]

@jen … tly…

I didn’t read the thread other than the first post. I took 10 years of kali training, and my oldest son took 5 years of tae kwan do. I say ‘took’ because it was serious. No, serious. ‘Took’ a beating for the most part :o)

I taught escrima and kali for 20 years. My sons do not cry, but they can be provoked. I’ve got the bruises to prove it.

We’re all ADD, and all mastered the art we chose. Mastered.

My youngest is fearless. He scares me in his ability to pick up and deliver. He reminds me of my younger self. Hopefully, he will pick up algebra as readily.

Um….

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[Anonymous]

It’s so strange that I came across this post tonight, as I’m sitting here, awake and in pain with a toothache. I’ve noticed that I do seem to experience pain different than others may but I don’t believe that my threshold for pain is greater, just that it’s difficult to localize the pain. This damned toothache is the best example I can think of to explain my theory; while I call it a toothache, it’s almost impossible to know which tooth is hurting as I don’t have a broken tooth or a missing filling and it’s almost impossible for me to localize the pain. Therefore, my “toothache” is really more of a “whole-right-side-of-my-mouth-ache”. As such, it’s tough to use topical analgesics meant to numb toothache pain. I have to believe that just as focus and concentration are in short supply to us ADD ers, the ability to localize pain may also be something we are deficient at as well. perhaps it is somewhat easier to tolerate pain when the area of pain is so non-specific? I mean……you know where the pain’s at but it seems to radiate out from the true source, if you know what I mean. As for this toothache….I probably would’ve gotten myself to a dentist if I didn’t have a better-than-average tolerance for pain so, in my case it’s not so much a benefit of ADD as it is a curse. It’s good to see it mentioned here as I wondered if the whole pain tolerance thing was related to my ADD. It’s so much easier to accept the condition known as ADD when I understand it better. Now if I could only accept the pain of this toothache so I could get a little sleep!! )

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[Anonymous]

Two examples for me:

I had bad foot pain for some time, couldn’t walk barefoot on hard surfaces, very painful. Tried orthotic inserts, foot massage etc but nothing helped. Was going to go see a foot doctor but balked at the $150 to get in (not covered by provincial health care plan). Finally dug out a book I have on Trigger Point Therapy and realized that the cause was knots in the muscle (trigger points) on the sides of my calves, various causes such as sitting with legs crossed, a lot of sitting, etc. Started working the trigger points with a theracane (hard stick like a rolling pin but narrower), which was painful on the calves and within a day or so the pain in my feet went away.

I dismissed the pain because I couldn’t figure out where it was, but it was debilitating all the same. I rarely go to see the doc unless it’s really bad.

Second example:

I used to do zen retreats of 7 days in length. You can’t move during the seated meditation and the activities are mandatory, formal and quite strict. I would get backaches within hours that lasted for the whole retreat. One time I took a kneeling bench instead of my cushion, and eventually the usual backache developed into something worse. I got relief by pressing my thumb into the muscle that runs from the top of the pelvic bone to the bottom rib on the side, while walking. By the time the retreat was over, I knew exactly what shape the muscle was and where it was, but had no clue what it was or how to treat it. I got home and looked it up in an anatomy book and went on the internet to see what exercises I could do for it. Trigger Point Therapy helped too (self-massage).

A lot of physical pain is referred pain, the symptoms are in one place but the root cause is somewhere else. That and my tendency to keep working through pain or discomfort is what keeps me from going to the doctor since I can’t tell her where the pain is. I did follow up on the back pain some years ago, was referred to a physiatrist (sp?) who is a doc with additional training in the body, and she did some testing and xrays and it all came up normal. She said “keep doing what you’re doing”. GRRRR I was still in pain. It took years for it to diminish and it still bites me from time to time. I take muscle relaxants and avoid doing certain things. There were certain yoga postures (straight arm cobra pose) that made it worse.

As for toothaches, I have had several sinus infections and they masquerade as a bad toothache in the upper jaw, since some of the sinus is very close to the nerves of the upper teeth. I went to the dentist both times for xrays and they sent me to the doctor for antibiotics. Next time I will just go to the doctor first.

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[nellie]

I have also always had a high pain threshold but not keen on the experience of pain either way- just thought it was because I kept getting beat up as a kid so was seasoned- no idea it could be associated with my “special brain.” LOL the stuff you learn in this forum!

During labour with my first child I had the mistaken belief that drugs were a bad idea so told the nurses no epidural for me. After a “long” 14 hours and extreme exhaustion and still no baby one of the nurses asked “now why exactly don’t you want an epidural?’ I confessed “i’m afraid of the needle!” I’ll spare the description of my tearful, exhausted, plaintiff wailing! Anyhow the kindly nurse said ‘”ok that’s it – I’ve had two & I survived” and swiftly hauled me off ( well gurneyed me off) to wherever the resident needle probing guru was and all ended well some hours later. Pain forgotten by the time the little wonder emerged. Otherwise who the heck would go through that again!?

Well Fast forward a couple of years and me delivering #2 – I walked into that hospital with arms outstretched saying “ok where are the drugs – I want drugs…”

This time they were all business and kept telling me “but you’re tolerating the pain so well.” Me: “I don’t care – give me drugs!” Well I did eventually get an epidural but ended up with complications. I think I could have tolerated more pain but the idea of the potential discomfort was enticing enough to avoid it altogether and go for medication.

I have no need to be a martyr , I’m happy to take any medicine for a headache, back ache, whatever – as long as I remember where I put the bottle:-)

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[Anonymous]

I’ve got a doozey: my appendix burst and I didn’t know it. (Fortunately, my Table of Contents survived unharmed. ; }) I was working late one Friday, and took a taxi home. I felt like my belt was tight, and didn’t feel like eating. I woke up in a cold sweat about half an hour later, and spent the whole night vomiting, sweating and freezing. In the morning, when I could barely stand up, my wife called an ambulance (I had resisted until then). My appendix had ruptured on the ride home from work, and nearly killed me.

I was septic and missed 3 months of work. On the plus side, it was the best rest I’d had since becoming a lawyer and I had an antibiotic IV attached for over a week. Took up baking as a hobby and learned how to make some awesome cookies. Yaay happy near death experience.

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[Anonymous]

Also, just remembered–I’ve had 3 cavities completely destroy 3 teeth, I mean blown out like there was tiny little dynamite. I didn’t feel a thing. The only reason I went to the dentist was that food kept getting stuck. He was a family friend, and he even said, “you really should have felt something. You should get that checked.”

Yeah–hard to follow up with your condition when you condition means you cannot follow up on things.

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[cherryberryblossom]

…….i dont know if we have a high intolerance for pain or if we are so stubborn that we wont quit no matter what?

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[allan wallace]

Heh, there may well be something to that! I didn’t endure pain to be a martyr either, but I did put up with it if I had to! I played Aussie Rules footy for a whole season with a broken scaphoid ( a bone in the wrist). I knew that if I’d gone to the doc’s I’d have missed a lot, if not all of the season, and I loved playing footy too much to consider that. On the Monday after the last game I went and got an x-ray, and ended up needing a bone transplant from my hip as well as a screw to hold my wrist together. I still have a broken bone in my hand that happened 20 years ago that I never bothered to go and get fixed as I took the cast off after a couple of days, and there are a host of other things that I never got around to getting attended to….putting up with discomfort seemed to be less hassle than the alternative…

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[cherryberryblossom]

allan, you are a true ADDEr lol.. man, that is stubborn hahahahahaha, but i remember hurting my finger and just working through out the day cause i didn’t want to be docked pay and it would be a hassle to go to the doctors ect… later i found out it was actually broke lol

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[phoenixmagicgirl]

I train in the art of Bujinkan Budo Taijustu. I’m very flexible, I don’t know if that has anything to do with a high pain tolerence, but I do know that being flexible helps!  I remember one time where ome of the guys I was training with sat me down on the floor and intentionally pulled my arms back to dislocated my shpuldets..My sensi sitting next to me who is in his mid 50′ s and not as flexible as me was tapping out quite quickly. I on the other hand felt no pain whatsoever, it actually felt good! LOL. The guy who was pulling on my arms said that if he had pulled it anymore he would’ve dislocated my shoulders.

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[Robbo]

The thing about physical pain is the adrenaline it makes our glans squirt into our blood streams. It’s yet another high for us, isn’t it?. When a persons brain does not make the regular amount of dopamines, when we would normally get a “reward” for a job well done. We tend to feel like we’re missing out on that something that other folks always seem to be talking about. Feeling good about self, when they seem to have achieved some sort of success in life.

I wonder if I just haven’t been satisfied with the amount of dopiness/dopamine  my brain gets when I do something well.

Which comes first, the dopiness or the dopamine?

Body piercing is a quick and sometimes fun way to get a quick shot of that junk. Yep, it’s junk you guys. We’re junkies!!! lol.

Dope junkie! Yep, I’m talking to you man.

You think you’re so tough. But you’re just a dope phene like the rest of us. Got “the disease called more” just like those drunks down on 25th street… When I was a pre-teen growing up in Utah. We used to put a dime in the bus thing and go downtown to get foot long hot dogs n listen to all the crazy stories the drunks used to come up with.

They always wanted money for a cup of coffee. Or they had a sick mom and needed to catch a bus to go rescue their moms. I bet some of them had sick moms too. But we always knew they would be spending whatever we gave them on wine.

That’s us.

There but for the grace of God go I.

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[Patte Rosebank]

I remember Dr. Jain saying that all addictions are really the same addiction:  to dopamine.   Drugs, caffeine, cigarettes, alcohol, risky behaviour, sex, over-eating, junk food, over-exercising—those are just the methods of getting your dopamine fix.

It’s an interesting concept.

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[Robbo]

I wonder if Dr. Jain’s ever gonna come back here n “weigh in” like he used to do?

We need plenty of heavyweights  in our corner…  huh?

Just in case it gets windy.

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[Patte Rosebank]

@Robbo, why am I not surprised that you have piercings?

Physical pain doesn’t just boost your adrenaline.  It also releases a rush of endorphins.

 

I have a couple of tattoos, and I remember the pleasant buzz of endorphins that kicked in after the artist had been working on me for a while.

In fact, the tattoo parlour warned me to have something to eat about half an hour before coming in for my appointment.  Because if I didn’t, the rush of endorphins would make me pass out.

 

Fast-forward to the day I had the drainage tubes removed, a week after my panniculectomy, last summer…

When the nurse removed the first one, YEOWCH!!!  And then, I felt a sudden rush of chills and shakes and wobbliness, and she quickly put me into the chair and applied a cool washcloth to my head.

I said, “I think I just found out why they tell you not to get a tattoo on an empty stomach.  That’s a hell of an endorphin rush.”

The nurse was impressed.

She was even more impressed when I turned the air blue, as she removed the second drainage tube.  This time, I was okay.

“Mythbusters” was right.  Swearing *does* raise your pain threshold!

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