Pain:a natural warning, but is it necessary?

Pain is just weakness leaving the body.

If someone were to hit you, but you don't feel pain, you wouldn't care if they hit you 1000 times, would you? Since it does not hurt.
But, your body will end up with bruise, or worse, ruptures.

Pain is there as a "warning". That way you wouldn't do whatyou just did.

Pain is the bodies way of telling us to ease up on whatever we are doing. If it is heavy lifting the joints show signs of pain to tell you to ease the f*** up. Same as rooting for your favorite team, throat hurts. Pain can be subsided by adrenaline, but that is only triggered in life or death moments.

Pain and pleasure are, ultimately, two sides of the same coin. Where pain is a warning for our conscious that there is damage, and pleasure is, of course, the feeling of ecstasy we feel during carnal activity or relaxing motions (E.x. Message).

Since the nerves for pain and pleasure are quite similar, and in some cases the exact same, they can begin to feel pain after a certain threshold has been cleared. However, in this, some people can mentally ignore or completely change the feeling(s) they receive from pain, to be pleasure. Whether or not this is due to childhood trauma or a simple fetish, would be from one individual to another.

On the note of mental anguish, where a few of the replies have stated that it would be a warning that there was something wrong, I'll go a bit farther and, in hopes to answering the initial question, explain what I know.
For mental pain, there are an extremely large variety and consistency with each variation, as well as a more attenuated feeling felt by each specific individual.
For instance, depression can be caused by both a chemical imbalance and a psychological or emotional trauma that the individual either fails to cope with, or refuses to cope with. An example of this would be, if a husband, who has loved his life for years on end, watches his wife die in front of him, suddenly loses the will to live and kills himself, it would have been external stimuli which influenced the decision in himself. However in the case where the depression is a chemical imbalance, the feelings the individual in question feels, may actually be due to malformed tissue, lack of proper nutrition or exercise (Yes both eating habits and physical exertion affect mental stability and serenity), or a simple matter of one organ producing too much melatonin or not enough seratonin(Along with a host of other chemicals). In this case, where the afore mentioned items come into play, a various amount of psychological effects can be seen.
A standard and widely encountered issue would be depression. Depression can range from simply seeing the world as a sullen place, and not feeling well, towards a more cynical and devastatingly provocative perspective which can force a person into bodily harm and suicide due to feelings that people shouldn't have to cope with in the first place, let alone be able to cope with.

Another widely known psychological disorder, which can be both genetic and chemical in nature, is a disorder known as schizophrenia. In the case of schizophrenia, there is a rather large area to cover diction wise, so I'll give the basics of what I know, and see if it helps. Schizophrenia can start as neurosis, a state of heightened anxiety and nervousness, which varies as often as not. From here, it can easily be treated with counseling or medication. However, if the neurotic person begins to expose themselves to difficult situations, or, as has been proven through extensive study, the excessive use of marijuana can also affect a neurotic person and force them towards a state of schizophrenia. (I'll leave this as a base explanation as I still need to get to the point)
Schizophrenia is, most commonly, an auditory hallucination, however more severe cases can have visual and sensual hallucinations, and in some of the far off cases, complete lack of control over the ability to define "this" world from the one in which they 'perceive'. (In short schizophrenic pain would be the lack of control over one's self and all the other explanations are above as well)

A note on physical pain; physical pain, like when the skin has torn open or a bone has broken, is meant to notify the brain to an issue in the system therein. So, in the case of people with nerve issues, like a pinched nerve or so, the nerve in question would feel extremely painful and the pain would 'roll' up and down the limb, or specific area in which the nerve that is pinched or otherwise affected, and the area that the nerve is in control of would become numb over time, and eventually lose feeling completely, and in the case of severe cases in the limbs, loss of motor control or an extreme lack of dexterity is often noted.

On the note of evolution for pain, I believe that pain has evolved the way it has, for us to perceive it as vividly and explicitly as we do, because if it were not so we would simply ignore the area in question until such a time as we deemed it appropriate. Humans are not necessarily lazy, however, along with the pleasurable affects of sex, without the feeling of pleasure or pain, we would have very little to live for. Pain is learning. Pleasure is rewarding. (When I say 'along with the pleasure of sex' what I mean here is, if we, as human beings, did not have the sexual gratification that we get when we fornicate, we simply would not do it, or we would do it when it was instinctually required. Which would cause havoc to our birth rates (not that we need them any higher as is) as the human mating system is actually far more flawed than people are led to believe. Humans have one of the lowest pregnancy ratios in the animal kingdom, and the only reason we are as virulent as we are currently, is because we have the beautiful feeling of ecstasy during and after copulation)

Hope this was interesting to someone. I'm off to divine whether or not I'm as insane as people think.

---Also, any apologies for any misinformation, my mind tries to get things out in a jumble and, although I understand what's written(typed) here, someone else may not because of how scattered my thoughts are, so feel free to question me, or inform me of any issues with my facts or wording---

You, my friend, really have thought about this thouroughfully.
Thanks for your insight.

+Rep

Doesn't explain why I'm a masochist much, but hey, I'll admit to being one! :D

Kind of wandering away from Masochism, (not being one) I think that pain is important to feel around a young age. And I mean psychical. Now don't go home and beat your kids or your bratty neighbor, but Pain is important to be somewhat used to for the future, in case something bad actually happens and they just drop and faint. Sort of like a collective memory. The only reason I want to feel pain is to keep on building a tolerance to it, that way in emergencies, coupled with adrenaline, I can keep on doing whatever is necessary to survive.

Emotionally, it is required to grow up in my opinion. Heartbreaks and disappointments are when young so when you are older, it doesn't screw you hard in the ass as it would if you had no similar experience.

If you start a hot bath, get in, and gradually raise the temperature, you wouldn't notice the heat until it burned.
If you get into a hot bath immediately, your nerves, connected to your skin, would scream messages to your brain that this is bad and damaging the particular area.

Pain is a primal instinct for survival. Why do you think zombies can be so scary and take a whole clip of ammo sometimes? Because they don't have the instinct for survival, only to hunt and eat, to fill their bottomless pit of a stomach. They have no natural instinct for survival, therefore they do not feel pain.

Pain is a survival mechanism. The reason why it's in the form of electrical nerve pulses is so that the person will be 'forced' to act, to stay away from the source of pain. As pain can lead to bodily harm and even death, humans avoiding pain at all costs enabled them to survive for as long as we can remember.

Come to think of it, I suddenly remember this one movie where there are supersoldiers with their pain/nerve receptors removed, to increase their efficiency in combat. True, it does make for a powerful weapon, but it's a double-edged sword. Should you be mortally wounded, you wouldn't know it because you don't feel the pain of the injury.

You answered your own question. Pain is a survival tool.

It is inconveniant though: if we didn't feel pain, we could go so much further physically and mentally when it came to combat situations, like war.

But at the same time, without pain, if you had to undergo a major operation and were in the process of recovering from it, or if you became mortally wounded, there's no pain to tell you that something's not quite right. By the time you realise you could keel over.

Aha, on the note of masochism and sadism I can give a subtle and brief explanation of both, from both a personal view anf psychological text view.

On the note of masochism; Masochism, in most forms is the feeling of gratification formed when one loses control of oneself and leaves himself or herself to the orders and structures placed upon them by another person. In this case, a shortened terminology would be that following orders is bliss. A directly related idiom would be 'ignorance is bliss'. The connection here being that in order to go through life one must have a certain appreciation for order and, more often than not, those of higher inttlect find themselves in a plethora of confusion due to life's great and lovely ability of being random. So when someone submits themselves, it is as if they are allowing a part of their pains and worries go, and that the faults of life are faults not of their own design but of the one who has accepted the submission.

In the case of physical submission and sublimation which leaves permenant marks, there is often, although not always, a childhood trauma associated with the requirement for bodily harm to make someone orgasm. An example of this would be that a young girl is abused by her father or uncle, and over time, finds that her only release is to hand herself over to her abuser, after a while the abuser would leave and the girl would feel empty, until such a time as they found a mate in which would treat her similarily. Now in this example there is an extreme setting here, although I say it is extreme, it is, unfortunately, not all that uncommon.

Another example would be that a young boy or girl would be left alone and neglected, or in the case of some children, had been relieved of their parents at an early age, and find themselves wondering what their worth in life is, and seek to find pleasure in being useful for the pleasure of the one who would mark and mar their body. (Note: This explanation can also lead one to become a person who is lonely and through constant questioning of their life's values, have found that the reasons for their earlier pains of neglect were due to them being 'bad' or not being provocative or aggressive enough, which often leads oneself towards being sadistic, and in some extreme cases homicidal)

Now, although sadism is 'the opposite' of masochism it is often not so different in cirumstances as the ones a masochist may come from, however it is the train of though the person would go through to become who they are.

Now, in both cases external stimuli can also influence a person towards either side. An example of this would be a child watching their parents fighting, and the father pushing or throwing the mother around, and a male child may see this as an example of what he should become, or find that because he didn't stop it he deserves the same. A female child may find that it is also how she should act, or she may become sadistic in the hopes of overcoming the weakness' she may have sen in her mother. In both cases they may seek to avoid meaningful relationships altogether, and only seek relations that end with carnal satisfaction and a note at the door, so to speak.

I also forgot to mention that, in going towards the more drastic side of masochism, where the joys of the pain and pleasure leaves marks that are permanent, is that in some cases the individual may also have numb nerves. I mentioned nerves in my last post and pain being one of the most formidable feelings in the body, can often be misunderstood by the brain. Another explanation for a small amount of masochists is that when they were young, they had a disease which affected some of the brain tissue, and when the cellular repairs were finished the pain and pleasure receptors were switched, or one was damaged beyond repair (Also an explanation towards those few who feel pain regardless of how they confront the pleasures of the flesh). Another explanation would be a head injury or severe concussion at a young or early teenage year age, which can also have cellular damage which results in swapped or non functioning receptors.



Aha, it is an offshoot of one of the many things I try to summarize in the why's and how's of my life, and life in general. You are more than welcome to any thoughts you require of me.

When I was a kid, I split my head open on the coffee table and had to get stitches. Maybe explains a lot :D

Offtopic:
Goddamn, I'm tired of all the girls in my life being submissive virgins! When the heck am I gonna find someone who isn't afraid to throw me down onto the bed and rape me by force!? D:

Lol! I know right? Although I like that kind of stuff, I also enjoy the girls that are really aggressive and then become submissive in certain situations, or are really shy about various things. Watching angry or prideful girls blush is awesome.

On the note of having hit your head, I've had a similar experience, several times, as a kid. I was hyperactive, and one of the worst hits to the head I've received, that I can actually remember, is running towards my home's porch, which had a large pillar made of brick in the middle, separating the two entrances (It was a duplex), and I was running towards my house, looked behind me to yell to a couple of other kids that I'd be back in a bit, and then turn my head towards the front of my body, and was knocked unconscious. Turns out I had ran headlong into the brick pillar. Woke up two days later with a pounding headache and a bag of peas on my face. Ow.

actually our fail safe system has a few flaws in it.
1.when we do get badly hurt and loose a good bit of blood, we get tired, this is the fail safe saying it needs to do a repair, but it has a high fail rate nearly 100%.
2. pain is painful because either we are causing a bit of damage to ourselves, or we are about to get hurt again, like if we get burned our body will send pain signal when we enter a room that is too warm and could cause burns.
3. our body will use pain to keep us awake when one of the best things to do is sleep, it is trying to keep the body safe while doing repairs and repairing things is never a nice process.
those are my thoughts if you don't like them, don't. if you do you do.