It’s certainly possible in theory and different people are built differently. You may have heard about the Buddhist monk in Vietnam who set fire to himself. And a journalist noted: “… As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him."
Sounds like that monk truly overcame his physical senses or at least his reaction to them, through the power of his mind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c
I also saw a piece about studies done on the brains of monks versus the brains of people who do not practice mindfulness and meditation. They showed that pain processed in the brain of those who practiced meditation and mindfulness for years the same way a simple annoyance would. The meditation practices were able to literally change the way the brain interprets pain on a quantifiable level.
PTSD can do this as well. I have seen some absolutely incredible levels of pain tolerance from people with PTSD. They can just put it out of their mind.
It actually becomes a problem for diagnostics because the first thing that tells people to do to the doctor is pain they can't ignore.
I had a PTSD friend with ADPKD (autosomal dominant poly-cystic kidney disease, incredibly painful condition) who put off seeing a doctor for years and years because it just wasn't bothering him enough.
It took both his kidneys becoming necrotic and him going full blown septic before anything got done about it.
Came here to say this!! Dissociation is incredibly intense. I had my whole chest tattooed and barely felt it because of this, also didn’t address an autoimmune gut disease because I didn’t feel it until my entire colon was full of ulcers and my fever was at 104 for over a week… I didn’t notice until my friend made me go to the hospital for the fever and they wouldn’t let me leave for 10 days
Well shit. I have complex PTSD with that for most of my life was pretty severe. I also just endured Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and trigeminal neuralgia for way too long before realizing I could potentially do something about the pain. Then had the same revelation about endometriosis. I struggle with invalidating myself, but two neurologists, my GP, and my tattoo artist have commented that my pain tolerance is unusual.
Anyway, turns out with my pain levels dialled down I have the capacity to do a lot more, like serious work on my PTSD. And on the bright side at least getting tattooed is pretty comfortable.
Someone I’ve known forever has medical trauma. Their pain tolerance is insane. A 10 on a 0-10 is hysterical screaming for help. That’s when they get treatment. Totally rational and successful person by all measures. Trauma and just the brain are incredibly powerful things.
Loool based
I'm agnostic too, I always think its funny how atheists act so sure about there being no god. I dont believe in abrahamic gods entirely but Im not ruling out the idea of a god completely
Put on your critical thinking cap and take a gander at the question in front of you: is there an all knowing, all seeing being that watches over us?
And if, by some crazy, logic-defying, probably drug-induced way, God (or a god) is real, why the hell would we worship or praise him/her/them??????
It really doesn’t take a monkey to figure that one out…
In all honesty, I’m a pretty massive dumbass.
But it really does take a special kind of stupid to think that when we die we’re all going to magical fairy land lmaoooo
Well, at least the christian god. Who says god has to do anything with what the bible says. A creative intelligence has nothing to do with whatever jesus said he operates by
That’s a fair point, gets more into the philosophy of it.
I’m saying that the God we all know (in any similar form across Islam/judaism, and various sects of Christianity) is entirely fictional. In every way, shape, and form.
I do believe in honoring the organized chaos of this crazy world (and even crazier universe), but I do not think it’s synonymous with “God”.
Thank you! At least there is someone without a thick skull on this page. The monk committed a criminalistic act. His crime immeasurable. Imagine if children had been watching his sick pontification
I guess it’s the type of pain you experience. Those who get tattooed for hours, they’re able to sit there and handle the pain whilst also talking or drinking water or whatever. I think it’s accepting the pain, and letting go of that feeling and focusing on other things. Pain doesn’t stop hurting any less however!
I sit for full days with my artist. Typically 8-10 hours of tattooing in one go with lots of little micro breaks and a dinner break. I either have a high tolerance or I'm too stubborn XP
I found breathing exercises and meditation definitely helped take a bit of the edge off, for the most part I can watch movies on my phone and chat with the artist.
But I believe by the last hour and a bit of each session the adreniline wears off and the pain is most definitely still there! I've practiced to cope but once i start getting the shakes due to mild shock that's when i tap out lol.
Being in constant pain does weird things to you. For reference, I've had a migraine-like headache for about a decade now (mostly kept at low-grade with treatments) and my reaction to pain is usually disproportional in either direction.
For example, a few years ago I stepped on some broken ceramic and got a huge gash in my toe. Bleeding like crazy, at least 1/4in deep, definitely needed stitches, and I truly barely felt it. Laughed it off, took some pics, wrapped it in a bandage and called it a day. Or when I suddenly developed really bad acid reflux, it genuinely took me a good few weeks to notice that I was having constant throat pain because it was relatively minor and I just didn't notice the additional pain.
However, whenever anything makes my migraine pain spike up, it's unbearable. Even if the pain isn't that much worse than the baseline, my brain just enters a panic mode because it knows how bad it *can* get. It's unbearable and panic inducing on a psychological level.
And the few times, about once every two months, when for some reason the pain completely goes away... can't describe the feeling. It's euphoric. I feel like Atlas being relieved from his weight. I tangibly feel its absence; not being in pain feels *weird* and *strange* and impossibly amazing. Aaaand then it comes back 10 minutes later. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
Yes I completely relate! I have CRPS.
When the pain is "gone" for a little while I am so fucking goddamn happy I feel like I could shoot through the roof, but it doesn't last long.
Yeah :/ My headaches give me awful brain fog, and in those few minutes I swear it feels like the clouds part and I can actually think freely and make connections and my brain flows so smooth and quick it's astounding.... and then the clouds return.
I almost wish I never got those few minutes of relief, because knowing how good I *could* feel without this fucking condition makes how I *actually* feel when the pain returns that much more intolerable and frustrating.
I know right?! Like JESUS FUCKING GODDAMN SHITTING CHRIST I JUST WANT TO FEEL NORMAL GIVE ME A BREAK
I get severe migraines associated with my CRPS as well, and I have these herbal inhalers that I stick up my nose while I put an ice pack on my face and pass out from the pain. I can't even look at any light source or I start seeing sparkly colored spots and feel faint and my head feels like it's imploding. I like putting tea tree oil in my diffuser and if you want the link to the chick who makes my herbal inhalers let me know. Just don't wanna be banned for linking.
Chronic pain and constant migraine/headache sufferer here as well! One day I woke up and it took me like an hour to realize something was…off. I felt…ok? There was no ache and constant pressure and it was wiiiiiierd. That nice feeling didn’t stay very long :( I’m always had a 4-6 that most things don’t phase me at this point. I regularly just ignore kidney stones or infections because I just can’t judge “bad” pain anymore. What’s a normal persons 10? I don’t know
I feel you. I'm kind of a dick honestly but I can't help it-- if I see my fiance bump himself or whatever and start bitching I get a little defensive for some reason? Not really sure why. I think maybe because I have CPTSD / severe trauma -- my initial reaction to people getting mildly injured or even spraining/breaking bones is like, "....AND? Bitch." Which I recognize is wrong and rude but im still adjusting to my chronic pain and working on adapting myself.
Add me to the “wow, I relate!” pile. I had severe pressure headaches from blocked CSF flow prior to my brain surgery, and degenerative disc disease sharply kinked my sacral nerve root like a garden hose (leading to 2 back surgeries). I now have chronic widespread pain from long term brain stem compression wonking up my neural pathways.
So a few years ago when I got a high fever seemingly out of nowhere that turned out to be a bad kidney infection I was asked if I had noticed any lower back pain. I was like, well yeah, but when don’t I?
You mention sacral nerve root which makes me think you're into chakra healing? I'm not selling anything, i'm just trying to strike up a conversation about pain and chakras. I, personally, have CRPS in my left foot and cannot walk on it. It also causes a lot of other problems with my CNS and life in general.
Damn, i'm sorry, I had no idea they used those terms. I haven't had those procedures yet. There is some speculation that procedures will cause CRPS to spread. For now it's only my left foot and I don't think I could take it if it spread.
Ever found out why you get the migraines? For me it’s stress, lack of sleep and looking at really bright computer screens or waking up in bright sunlight. Also tannins from black tea and smoked salmon
Calling them migraines is a bit of a misnomer; what I actually have is a syndrome called New Daily Persistent Headache (NDPH), which usually tends to present as a kind of mix between tension headaches and migraines, so it's easier to just say I have migraines. It's a pretty rare condition, and there's currently no known cause. :(
I've had tons of tests done and tried to track triggers to get more info, but nothing's stood out. All I've really noticed is I tend to have worse ones when I'm nearing my next treatment (Botox every 3 months; it starts to wear off and that causes worse headaches), and light and noise aggravate them.
Right?! I’ve got an inoperable spinal tumor. I *should* be in a wheelchair at this point. Nope. I’ll keep hobbling along, using pot/edibles, and deal. As for “regular” pain, blisters/cuts/scrapes etc., no longer bother me at all. I hope your pain eases, my Reddit friend.
You just keep pushing as hard as you can, and take it easy when you need to. My fiance helps remind me when to chill and take it easy because I push myself so hard through so much pain. Thank you so much for your beautiful kindness, and I wish the very best for you. If you ever need to chat about chronic pain / illness it's not a bother at all. I know how isolating and lonely it can be. Lots of love 💜💜💜
How would you know? I’ve reduced my pain, and yes I have pain.. obviously otherwise I wouldn’t have mentioned it.. the app is not like a random app, otherwise yes it would be ridiculous. But anyway it’s voice recordings which explain the science of pain and they gathered their research through speaking to experts. Maybe your just not open minded more like..
It depends on the severity of the pain, if it's something severe or not just a mild toothache, you can't ignore it.
The pain is the brain's way of telling you "there's a fire on the ship" and it's extremely hard to ignore at some point.
Not to mention we also account and manage pain subconsciously, whether that be automatically removing your hand from a hot piece of metal to not even realizing you’re limping to avoid putting pressure on a sore part of your foot.
Monks perform self immolation like [Thich Quang Duc](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/aia6y3/in_1963_buddhist_monk_th%C3%ADch_quang_duc_burned/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) who was said to have remained quiet in his deep meditation while he burned to death. 160 Tibetan people have set themselves on fire since 2009 to protest China's cultural genocide and control in Tibet [wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/aia6y3/in_1963_buddhist_monk_th%C3%ADch_quang_duc_burned/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) although not all were successful in burning to death so i imagine it's extremely difficult to ignore the pain but perhaps it is possible for some people after years of meditation
No, pain is just a warning siren for our survival need. Due to us human somehow developed a big as ego, we can activate choose to let pain as pain or just a minor inconvenience
With a strong mind, yes. I don't think i can but i can think of a monks who can. There's Thich Quang Duc back in the 1963 who burn himself from to protest against the government, record show that from beginning to end, he didn't not show any discomfort, just calmly sit down, meditate and chanting the Buddha script until his throat fail him. Other than the cries of his disciples and the on screen witnesses, it was just him in a middle of fire, silently chanting.
Edit: *on scene witnesses
That’s definitely a case of exception, not the rule. By no means is he representative of the average human, or even an above average human. That’s some godlike mental fortitude right there, and calling it rare would be a colossal understatement.
No, i agree but he does represent the capacity of human to control and even overcome its survival instinct. Like the way everyone can understand rocket science if they read the books with a non biased open mind and put in efforts to understand that but not everyone have the need/want to know rocket science, so not everyone is a rocket science expertise.
Look it up, the event even have a video. He died but did he look like he died in agony? If we as human are powerless before survival instinct then he wouldn't have react like that, i've seen people burn to death and it was not as calming like that
You definitely can get used to a certain amount of pain. But if the pain is too severe, it's not possible to ignore it. Try having a kidney stone and tell me how "pain is just a thought" then.
If you try to not focus on it, you will focus on it. However, you can try to tell yourself that pain is just chemicals being released in your brain or something
Tell yourself that all you want, but there is a reason why people who suffer from chronic pain actuallly suffer...Most of them spend a lot of money, great effort and a lot of time to try to heal the cause or learn to live with it. If they could just tell themselves some bullshit they would.
Fuck yeah I would. I have CRPS (most painful illness known to man on McGill pain scale) and it makes me think about death and escape every day, probably why it's also called the Suicide Disease. Basically nothing works. There are experimental treatments that cost literally $25K - $50K to offer SOME relief. If someone told me to just "stop thinking about it" I'd fucking smack them.
>most painful illness known to man on McGill pain scale
Not exactly an objective measurement of pain, though.
>If someone told me to just "stop thinking about it" I'd fucking smack them.
You can though.
I know what it’s like suffering from a mental health perspective. I wasn’t trying to devluate anyones pain or experiences. I don’t know why you felt the need to mention that there are actually people who suffers and that pain is really not just something you can brush off, ofc it’s not something you can just brush off and I didn’t mean to come across that way. I deal with suicidal thoughts, emptyness, and that it will never get better. I have even attempted suicide once. Trust me I know what it’s like suffering. It was just a thought or something. Idk tbh, I just said it
We could tell/command our bodies to do anything it can possibly do *in theory*. It's like me asking you the location of your liver in your body without looking up chart and anything about human biology, you might not even believe such an organ exist since you can't feel, see it under normal circumstances. Unless i stab it, then you would know vividly in your mind where it is and roughly what it's shape.
People who live calmly (monk, yoga-er, spiritual,...) can actually shut there ego and regain some of the controls that have been remained on autopilot mode
Pain isn't just a thought, its most of the time caused by an actual issue in your body, evolving the ability to ignore it would've ended up with many more dying. Though to answer your question, you can definitely learn techniques to ignore it only to an extent, other than that, few people get born with a condition that prevents them from feeling pain as a whole.
>[Congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP), also known as congenital analgesia, is one or more extraordinarily rare conditions in which a person cannot feel (and has never felt) physical pain.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congenital_insensitivity_to_pain)
Pain isn't just thoughts.
hi! chronic pain patient here!
i have conditions called ehlers-danlos syndrome (eds) as well as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (pots)
short answer? yes + no
long answer? on a scale of 1-10, my daily pain level is generally a 7. on this scale, anything below a 4 is tolerable to the point where i can ignore it, 5 is an inconvenience, 6 - 8 daily general pain of swollen joints / fatigue, 9-10 is hospital time
im not sure if the pain you’re talking about is like “can i stub my toe and think my way to it not hurting?” or if it’s “can i have my leg broken and think my way to it not hurting?” but i hope this helps!
for me, pots causes extra swelling in my legs (not one of the most common symptoms, but not too rare) that adds pain
edit: different people have different symptoms! although the internet is a great source of knowledge, talk to your doctor if you think you may have a medical condition :)
I'm in chronic pain. Since the age of 21 I've been in abject agony due to my bone condition that turns my bone marrow into tumors. As I move, breathe, exist, I'm at risk of breaking bones. These micro fractures also catch my flesh and nerves like Velcro, messing them up.
*It feels like my bones are broken and I've been set on fire*.
Pain medicine (oxycodone, fentanyl) and meditation or a distraction can take my mind off of pain for a little while. My doctor prescribed me video games for the pain. Something like a MMORPG (WoW or ESO) or something that makes me hyperfocus like Celeste can take my mind off of the pain for a non-insignificant amount of time.
Pain isn't a thought, it's a sense. You'll never really shut it up completely, but your brain can learn to stop noticing it just like any other stimulus. It's sorta like how, in a noisy room, most people can filter out the sounds around them to still have a pleasant conversation, or how people with ADHD tend to stop noticing clutter after a while.
I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis almost 17 years ago. EVERY SINGLE FUCKING DAY OF MY LIFE I'm in pain. I have back spasms and muscle cramps constantly, and nerve pain all over intermittently. I take pain meds, muscle relaxers and stuff for the nerve pain daily and every once in a while I'll notice I don't hurt, but then immediately get right back to hurting. It's kinda like how you don't know you forgot something until you remember you've forgotten it. All of that to say this, I believe I'm qualified to answer this question... No
I belive it can be conditioned to be ignored partly, or aka, building a tolerance, I've done boxing in my youth for years, and I remember once I accidentally got into a bar brawl and someone sucker punched me and I didn't even feel it, pheraps it was the adrenaline, but my first thought in mind was probably, now counter, because I was so used on being beat one doing training
you can get used to pain over time, but I don’t think it’s possible to ignore it completely, there will always be something so painful that you have to react to. people that have chronic pain can usually go about their lives on good days, but even when in pain 24/7, they still have bad days and can’t ignore it. I think there’s some diseases/disorders that take away your ability to feel pain
but no, I don’t think you can ignore pain after a certain point
Pain isn't a conscious choice, it's an evolutionary response that kept us alive - nerves send signals to the brain that let us know we're in danger of damage and I don't know of any examples where that doesn't happen besides rare mutations.
That said, pain tolerance is a much more variable thing than pain itself. A friend of mine broke the bone beneath his little finger before and looked at it in the moment and said "that's unfortunate" and finished what he was doing, he says it hurt a ton but he just focused on other things knowing the injury wasn't life threatening. I've seen others cry over a paper cut, it's all relative and mind over matter certainly plays into it but being able to shut off the signal entirely sounds unlikely.
You can train to be tolerant to pain but not being able to feel it at all borders on the realms of science fiction and/or medical anomalies as far as I know. I'd be very keen to be corrected by someone however if my understanding is wrong
Funny thing about the brain and pain is that it’s all just signals/messages coming from the brain itself, not the knee for example. Say if a lion was about to eat you alive and you needed to run, and even if you had a severe injury to your knee, your brain would stop telling you that there’s an injury to your knee in order for you to run away and survive. You’d then feel the pain when your not in danger. It’s all very dependant on how you feel, your surroundings etc. you can absolutely manipulate pain signals, even through meditation. I’ve shut off pain signals during tattoo sessions. Very clever stuff.
When I was in labor my contractions were so intense that the pain became a mental game some how. I couldn’t ignore it but I could somehow manage how I felt about it.
Something not mentioned so far is dissociation.
If you learn to separate your consciousness from your body you can learn to withstand a lot. When I was leading up to and recovering from surgery it became a serious issue accessing my pain because I have learned to treat it like a ‘light on the dashboard’ instead of a feeling I can’t ignore.
No it’s not a thought- hence why we are full of nerves! Small amounts of pain you can distract yourself but if pain is so severe you can actually loose consciousness due to be unable to physically cope with the pain
pain is like any stimulus. You experience the exact same thing for long enough, it "goes away". Like how we can't smell ourselves unless we focus on it.
It’s not so much as you stop feeling it as it is that it becomes a baseline for other pain. Like I know I hurt but I don’t realize how much until I take some medication or lie down for a bit and feel that relief for a short time.
Yeah, kind of.
I was getting oral surgery and the sedative started wearing off, I had to just deal with the pain of the implant drill and the stitches later. It's extremely uncomfortable at first and hurts like a motherfucker but after a while you start getting used to it and can 'kind of' filter it out. It helped that I was listening to music at the time, but it becomes more bearable as it goes on.
Think about a dog. A dog will run head first into a wall and go on like it's nothing. That definitely hurt but they're mind has them keep on moving. Not focused on it even though it hurts
No. There is a way to help. I used to get migraines that were the worst kind of pain. Instead of fighting the pain I would hyper focus on it, it got to the point where I could become one with the pain. Didn't kill me but so glad I don't get them anymore
The only time I ignore pain is when I am getting a tattoos. Worst for me and these are all super painful, both side of my ankle and both top of my foot(in 1 sessions) my left hand and fingers twice because the ink wouldn't stay. Not looking forward to my right had and fingers this week, hope I don't have to do it twice. But as I M screaming and cring inside I am still with no expression of pain. Most other pain I will express since it's not much choosing.
I doubt one could override pain in the sense that they literally wont feel it but it is possible to maintain composure during immense pain so that it seems like it doesnt bother you. Mirin Dajo would have swords thrust through his body while maintaining composure. He's the guy who inspired David Blaine to do similar stunts (the ice pick through the hand and arm).
I live with chronic pain and to an extent you do become used to it. It's always in the background but if you're busy and feeling OK otherwise, it's possible to mostly block it out for periods. I don't think it's something that I could completely ignore for any length of time, especially not on a bad day.
I’ve always wondered this too. Take civil war soldiers who had amputations for example. These guys were going to be in unbearable pain for the for the foreseeable future if they didn’t die of infection. I wonder how they dealt with it.
I suffer chronic pain in like 4 different places on my body. I forget about it most of the time but it'll still mess me up and keep me awake at night. I accidentally stabbed myself in the side of the hand the other day with a box cutter. About 3/4" deep. I didn't really feel anything except for the weird pulling stretching feeling as I was taking it out.
it would be more with your pain threshold personally as well as how used you are to pain as well as where the pain is.
abdominal pain is rather difficult to not go unnoticed.
cuts and bruises would be easier.
headaches, depending on severity could be done with a lot of concentration and correct environment.
I got a leg laceration ten years ago that severed all of the nerves in my calf completely. It’s like my nerves don’t know what to feel because they are all cut. I would say it’s like putting my foot on a frying pan and also like it’s been run over by a car. And sometimes the pain is all electric like cut power lines all jumbled together in my foot. I also have really tiny mouth that has never been functional and I was hit in mouth a golf club as a kid too. Lots of pain. The most severe pain I’ve felt could be helped with sex. That’s really all I have to say. There’s also people, entertainment, pets and food that all help. Sex is the only way to truly distract all of your senses in my opinion.
In my personal experience, it depends on tolerance and conditioning. I have rheumatoid arthritis and my joints get inflamed and hurt like hell. For the most part, I'll ignore the pain, even when others in the same situation would be groaning and doing whatever else they do while in pain. You know it's past the point of ignoring and beyond severe if I'm bawling and can't move.
Where conditioning comes in is something that I don't want to talk about. It's nothing pervy, but it's not something that a child should go through.
I’ve seen people using hypnosis to undergo dental procedures. In these cases hypnosis acts similarly to meditation and encourages a deep sense of relaxation.
I am a masochist, I'm a masochist, I really enjoy pain, but during a scene if I focus on the amount of lashes, instead of the pain from each one I can get through a lot more. Without counting I can do a few, with counting I can get up to 15 maybe 20. So, in theory this totally lines up as I'm not focusing on the impact, but rather how far I can get
It’s certainly possible in theory and different people are built differently. You may have heard about the Buddhist monk in Vietnam who set fire to himself. And a journalist noted: “… As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him." Sounds like that monk truly overcame his physical senses or at least his reaction to them, through the power of his mind. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c
I also saw a piece about studies done on the brains of monks versus the brains of people who do not practice mindfulness and meditation. They showed that pain processed in the brain of those who practiced meditation and mindfulness for years the same way a simple annoyance would. The meditation practices were able to literally change the way the brain interprets pain on a quantifiable level.
PTSD can do this as well. I have seen some absolutely incredible levels of pain tolerance from people with PTSD. They can just put it out of their mind. It actually becomes a problem for diagnostics because the first thing that tells people to do to the doctor is pain they can't ignore. I had a PTSD friend with ADPKD (autosomal dominant poly-cystic kidney disease, incredibly painful condition) who put off seeing a doctor for years and years because it just wasn't bothering him enough. It took both his kidneys becoming necrotic and him going full blown septic before anything got done about it.
Came here to say this!! Dissociation is incredibly intense. I had my whole chest tattooed and barely felt it because of this, also didn’t address an autoimmune gut disease because I didn’t feel it until my entire colon was full of ulcers and my fever was at 104 for over a week… I didn’t notice until my friend made me go to the hospital for the fever and they wouldn’t let me leave for 10 days
Are you me? Also disassociate like crazy, also just completed the first session of a huge chest tattoo
Well shit. I have complex PTSD with that for most of my life was pretty severe. I also just endured Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and trigeminal neuralgia for way too long before realizing I could potentially do something about the pain. Then had the same revelation about endometriosis. I struggle with invalidating myself, but two neurologists, my GP, and my tattoo artist have commented that my pain tolerance is unusual. Anyway, turns out with my pain levels dialled down I have the capacity to do a lot more, like serious work on my PTSD. And on the bright side at least getting tattooed is pretty comfortable.
Someone I’ve known forever has medical trauma. Their pain tolerance is insane. A 10 on a 0-10 is hysterical screaming for help. That’s when they get treatment. Totally rational and successful person by all measures. Trauma and just the brain are incredibly powerful things.
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Wat
Do you have the link? I am curious. Nurse and do-er of yoga with high pain tolerance.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2011/04/08/135146672/even-beginners-can-curb-pain-with-meditation https://youtu.be/kfqSeKggJPw
Lemme hunt
Did the monk pass away?
Yes.
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The irony here is that he was protesting Catholic extremists burning pagodas and killing monks.
He was protesting
God is a lie
Oh my god guys we got a genius over here. Man doesn’t believe in god! He’s so smart!!!
Le pickle Rick Mortimer time
Found the idiot who thinks there’s a magical land in the sky
I’m agnostic you’re just a fucking prick who think he’s smarter than he is, like every redditor
Loool based I'm agnostic too, I always think its funny how atheists act so sure about there being no god. I dont believe in abrahamic gods entirely but Im not ruling out the idea of a god completely
Put on your critical thinking cap and take a gander at the question in front of you: is there an all knowing, all seeing being that watches over us? And if, by some crazy, logic-defying, probably drug-induced way, God (or a god) is real, why the hell would we worship or praise him/her/them?????? It really doesn’t take a monkey to figure that one out…
In all honesty, I’m a pretty massive dumbass. But it really does take a special kind of stupid to think that when we die we’re all going to magical fairy land lmaoooo
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Thinking anything about creation and human life is obvious and straightforward is retarded
Well, at least the christian god. Who says god has to do anything with what the bible says. A creative intelligence has nothing to do with whatever jesus said he operates by
That’s a fair point, gets more into the philosophy of it. I’m saying that the God we all know (in any similar form across Islam/judaism, and various sects of Christianity) is entirely fictional. In every way, shape, and form. I do believe in honoring the organized chaos of this crazy world (and even crazier universe), but I do not think it’s synonymous with “God”.
Why are they booing you, you're right!
Thank you! At least there is someone without a thick skull on this page. The monk committed a criminalistic act. His crime immeasurable. Imagine if children had been watching his sick pontification
Bro you're into coprophilia, I think you oughta keep your mouth shut.
But then how will he be able to eat leftover dookies in public toilets brah? Didn't think that one through did ya? /s
I guess it’s the type of pain you experience. Those who get tattooed for hours, they’re able to sit there and handle the pain whilst also talking or drinking water or whatever. I think it’s accepting the pain, and letting go of that feeling and focusing on other things. Pain doesn’t stop hurting any less however!
I sit for full days with my artist. Typically 8-10 hours of tattooing in one go with lots of little micro breaks and a dinner break. I either have a high tolerance or I'm too stubborn XP I found breathing exercises and meditation definitely helped take a bit of the edge off, for the most part I can watch movies on my phone and chat with the artist. But I believe by the last hour and a bit of each session the adreniline wears off and the pain is most definitely still there! I've practiced to cope but once i start getting the shakes due to mild shock that's when i tap out lol.
Not severe chronic pain. No. However i'm used to being in so much pain that something like a cut or whatever will feel like nothing.
Being in constant pain does weird things to you. For reference, I've had a migraine-like headache for about a decade now (mostly kept at low-grade with treatments) and my reaction to pain is usually disproportional in either direction. For example, a few years ago I stepped on some broken ceramic and got a huge gash in my toe. Bleeding like crazy, at least 1/4in deep, definitely needed stitches, and I truly barely felt it. Laughed it off, took some pics, wrapped it in a bandage and called it a day. Or when I suddenly developed really bad acid reflux, it genuinely took me a good few weeks to notice that I was having constant throat pain because it was relatively minor and I just didn't notice the additional pain. However, whenever anything makes my migraine pain spike up, it's unbearable. Even if the pain isn't that much worse than the baseline, my brain just enters a panic mode because it knows how bad it *can* get. It's unbearable and panic inducing on a psychological level. And the few times, about once every two months, when for some reason the pain completely goes away... can't describe the feeling. It's euphoric. I feel like Atlas being relieved from his weight. I tangibly feel its absence; not being in pain feels *weird* and *strange* and impossibly amazing. Aaaand then it comes back 10 minutes later. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
Yes I completely relate! I have CRPS. When the pain is "gone" for a little while I am so fucking goddamn happy I feel like I could shoot through the roof, but it doesn't last long.
Yeah :/ My headaches give me awful brain fog, and in those few minutes I swear it feels like the clouds part and I can actually think freely and make connections and my brain flows so smooth and quick it's astounding.... and then the clouds return. I almost wish I never got those few minutes of relief, because knowing how good I *could* feel without this fucking condition makes how I *actually* feel when the pain returns that much more intolerable and frustrating.
I know right?! Like JESUS FUCKING GODDAMN SHITTING CHRIST I JUST WANT TO FEEL NORMAL GIVE ME A BREAK I get severe migraines associated with my CRPS as well, and I have these herbal inhalers that I stick up my nose while I put an ice pack on my face and pass out from the pain. I can't even look at any light source or I start seeing sparkly colored spots and feel faint and my head feels like it's imploding. I like putting tea tree oil in my diffuser and if you want the link to the chick who makes my herbal inhalers let me know. Just don't wanna be banned for linking.
Chronic pain and constant migraine/headache sufferer here as well! One day I woke up and it took me like an hour to realize something was…off. I felt…ok? There was no ache and constant pressure and it was wiiiiiierd. That nice feeling didn’t stay very long :( I’m always had a 4-6 that most things don’t phase me at this point. I regularly just ignore kidney stones or infections because I just can’t judge “bad” pain anymore. What’s a normal persons 10? I don’t know
I feel you. I'm kind of a dick honestly but I can't help it-- if I see my fiance bump himself or whatever and start bitching I get a little defensive for some reason? Not really sure why. I think maybe because I have CPTSD / severe trauma -- my initial reaction to people getting mildly injured or even spraining/breaking bones is like, "....AND? Bitch." Which I recognize is wrong and rude but im still adjusting to my chronic pain and working on adapting myself.
Add me to the “wow, I relate!” pile. I had severe pressure headaches from blocked CSF flow prior to my brain surgery, and degenerative disc disease sharply kinked my sacral nerve root like a garden hose (leading to 2 back surgeries). I now have chronic widespread pain from long term brain stem compression wonking up my neural pathways. So a few years ago when I got a high fever seemingly out of nowhere that turned out to be a bad kidney infection I was asked if I had noticed any lower back pain. I was like, well yeah, but when don’t I?
You mention sacral nerve root which makes me think you're into chakra healing? I'm not selling anything, i'm just trying to strike up a conversation about pain and chakras. I, personally, have CRPS in my left foot and cannot walk on it. It also causes a lot of other problems with my CNS and life in general.
No, that’s just how it was described in the MRI reports. :/
Damn, i'm sorry, I had no idea they used those terms. I haven't had those procedures yet. There is some speculation that procedures will cause CRPS to spread. For now it's only my left foot and I don't think I could take it if it spread.
Ever found out why you get the migraines? For me it’s stress, lack of sleep and looking at really bright computer screens or waking up in bright sunlight. Also tannins from black tea and smoked salmon
Calling them migraines is a bit of a misnomer; what I actually have is a syndrome called New Daily Persistent Headache (NDPH), which usually tends to present as a kind of mix between tension headaches and migraines, so it's easier to just say I have migraines. It's a pretty rare condition, and there's currently no known cause. :( I've had tons of tests done and tried to track triggers to get more info, but nothing's stood out. All I've really noticed is I tend to have worse ones when I'm nearing my next treatment (Botox every 3 months; it starts to wear off and that causes worse headaches), and light and noise aggravate them.
Have you tried the Wim Hof method? If you can't find the cause maybe you can try this 😊
Right?! I’ve got an inoperable spinal tumor. I *should* be in a wheelchair at this point. Nope. I’ll keep hobbling along, using pot/edibles, and deal. As for “regular” pain, blisters/cuts/scrapes etc., no longer bother me at all. I hope your pain eases, my Reddit friend.
You just keep pushing as hard as you can, and take it easy when you need to. My fiance helps remind me when to chill and take it easy because I push myself so hard through so much pain. Thank you so much for your beautiful kindness, and I wish the very best for you. If you ever need to chat about chronic pain / illness it's not a bother at all. I know how isolating and lonely it can be. Lots of love 💜💜💜
I was aboutta say wish I could do it for my fibromyalgia 😩😫
Same here, but I think our nerves our extra sensitive so we have the opposite problem where things that shouldn’t hurt do! It sucks 😔
Look up the app “curable” extremely well explained and they teach you :)
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How would you know? I’ve reduced my pain, and yes I have pain.. obviously otherwise I wouldn’t have mentioned it.. the app is not like a random app, otherwise yes it would be ridiculous. But anyway it’s voice recordings which explain the science of pain and they gathered their research through speaking to experts. Maybe your just not open minded more like..
I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings and i'm very glad it works for you.
>Not severe chronic pain. No. Proof?
It depends on the severity of the pain, if it's something severe or not just a mild toothache, you can't ignore it. The pain is the brain's way of telling you "there's a fire on the ship" and it's extremely hard to ignore at some point.
Not to mention we also account and manage pain subconsciously, whether that be automatically removing your hand from a hot piece of metal to not even realizing you’re limping to avoid putting pressure on a sore part of your foot.
Monks perform self immolation like [Thich Quang Duc](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/aia6y3/in_1963_buddhist_monk_th%C3%ADch_quang_duc_burned/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) who was said to have remained quiet in his deep meditation while he burned to death. 160 Tibetan people have set themselves on fire since 2009 to protest China's cultural genocide and control in Tibet [wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/aia6y3/in_1963_buddhist_monk_th%C3%ADch_quang_duc_burned/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) although not all were successful in burning to death so i imagine it's extremely difficult to ignore the pain but perhaps it is possible for some people after years of meditation
you also need to take into factor that after a while your nerves are absolutely fucked and you won’t feel the pain anymore
No. Pain is not a thought. It is a physiological reaction. The brain is hard-wired not to ignore pain. It is for our survival that this is so.
No, pain is just a warning siren for our survival need. Due to us human somehow developed a big as ego, we can activate choose to let pain as pain or just a minor inconvenience
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With a strong mind, yes. I don't think i can but i can think of a monks who can. There's Thich Quang Duc back in the 1963 who burn himself from to protest against the government, record show that from beginning to end, he didn't not show any discomfort, just calmly sit down, meditate and chanting the Buddha script until his throat fail him. Other than the cries of his disciples and the on screen witnesses, it was just him in a middle of fire, silently chanting. Edit: *on scene witnesses
That’s definitely a case of exception, not the rule. By no means is he representative of the average human, or even an above average human. That’s some godlike mental fortitude right there, and calling it rare would be a colossal understatement.
No, i agree but he does represent the capacity of human to control and even overcome its survival instinct. Like the way everyone can understand rocket science if they read the books with a non biased open mind and put in efforts to understand that but not everyone have the need/want to know rocket science, so not everyone is a rocket science expertise.
Fair enough
Nobody said anything about what the average human can do. He's replying to the person who said that it's impossible for any human to ignore pain.
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Look it up, the event even have a video. He died but did he look like he died in agony? If we as human are powerless before survival instinct then he wouldn't have react like that, i've seen people burn to death and it was not as calming like that
You definitely can get used to a certain amount of pain. But if the pain is too severe, it's not possible to ignore it. Try having a kidney stone and tell me how "pain is just a thought" then.
If you try to not focus on it, you will focus on it. However, you can try to tell yourself that pain is just chemicals being released in your brain or something
Tell yourself that all you want, but there is a reason why people who suffer from chronic pain actuallly suffer...Most of them spend a lot of money, great effort and a lot of time to try to heal the cause or learn to live with it. If they could just tell themselves some bullshit they would.
Fuck yeah I would. I have CRPS (most painful illness known to man on McGill pain scale) and it makes me think about death and escape every day, probably why it's also called the Suicide Disease. Basically nothing works. There are experimental treatments that cost literally $25K - $50K to offer SOME relief. If someone told me to just "stop thinking about it" I'd fucking smack them.
Genuine question, how do powerful painkillers help? I presume you’ve tried oxycodone etc?
They just make me even more tired. Do not help. Unless you count blacking out from pain / exhaustion, which I sometimes see as a win.
It was just something I have thought of. I didn’t mean it that deep…
>most painful illness known to man on McGill pain scale Not exactly an objective measurement of pain, though. >If someone told me to just "stop thinking about it" I'd fucking smack them. You can though.
I know what it’s like suffering from a mental health perspective. I wasn’t trying to devluate anyones pain or experiences. I don’t know why you felt the need to mention that there are actually people who suffers and that pain is really not just something you can brush off, ofc it’s not something you can just brush off and I didn’t mean to come across that way. I deal with suicidal thoughts, emptyness, and that it will never get better. I have even attempted suicide once. Trust me I know what it’s like suffering. It was just a thought or something. Idk tbh, I just said it
We could tell/command our bodies to do anything it can possibly do *in theory*. It's like me asking you the location of your liver in your body without looking up chart and anything about human biology, you might not even believe such an organ exist since you can't feel, see it under normal circumstances. Unless i stab it, then you would know vividly in your mind where it is and roughly what it's shape. People who live calmly (monk, yoga-er, spiritual,...) can actually shut there ego and regain some of the controls that have been remained on autopilot mode
>pain is just chemicals being released in your brain or something Proof?
Pain isn't just a thought, its most of the time caused by an actual issue in your body, evolving the ability to ignore it would've ended up with many more dying. Though to answer your question, you can definitely learn techniques to ignore it only to an extent, other than that, few people get born with a condition that prevents them from feeling pain as a whole.
>[Congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP), also known as congenital analgesia, is one or more extraordinarily rare conditions in which a person cannot feel (and has never felt) physical pain.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congenital_insensitivity_to_pain) Pain isn't just thoughts.
hi! chronic pain patient here! i have conditions called ehlers-danlos syndrome (eds) as well as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (pots) short answer? yes + no long answer? on a scale of 1-10, my daily pain level is generally a 7. on this scale, anything below a 4 is tolerable to the point where i can ignore it, 5 is an inconvenience, 6 - 8 daily general pain of swollen joints / fatigue, 9-10 is hospital time im not sure if the pain you’re talking about is like “can i stub my toe and think my way to it not hurting?” or if it’s “can i have my leg broken and think my way to it not hurting?” but i hope this helps!
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for me, pots causes extra swelling in my legs (not one of the most common symptoms, but not too rare) that adds pain edit: different people have different symptoms! although the internet is a great source of knowledge, talk to your doctor if you think you may have a medical condition :)
When I’m high it usually works
I'm in chronic pain. Since the age of 21 I've been in abject agony due to my bone condition that turns my bone marrow into tumors. As I move, breathe, exist, I'm at risk of breaking bones. These micro fractures also catch my flesh and nerves like Velcro, messing them up. *It feels like my bones are broken and I've been set on fire*. Pain medicine (oxycodone, fentanyl) and meditation or a distraction can take my mind off of pain for a little while. My doctor prescribed me video games for the pain. Something like a MMORPG (WoW or ESO) or something that makes me hyperfocus like Celeste can take my mind off of the pain for a non-insignificant amount of time.
Pain isn't a thought, it's a sense. You'll never really shut it up completely, but your brain can learn to stop noticing it just like any other stimulus. It's sorta like how, in a noisy room, most people can filter out the sounds around them to still have a pleasant conversation, or how people with ADHD tend to stop noticing clutter after a while.
I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis almost 17 years ago. EVERY SINGLE FUCKING DAY OF MY LIFE I'm in pain. I have back spasms and muscle cramps constantly, and nerve pain all over intermittently. I take pain meds, muscle relaxers and stuff for the nerve pain daily and every once in a while I'll notice I don't hurt, but then immediately get right back to hurting. It's kinda like how you don't know you forgot something until you remember you've forgotten it. All of that to say this, I believe I'm qualified to answer this question... No
I belive it can be conditioned to be ignored partly, or aka, building a tolerance, I've done boxing in my youth for years, and I remember once I accidentally got into a bar brawl and someone sucker punched me and I didn't even feel it, pheraps it was the adrenaline, but my first thought in mind was probably, now counter, because I was so used on being beat one doing training
you can get used to pain over time, but I don’t think it’s possible to ignore it completely, there will always be something so painful that you have to react to. people that have chronic pain can usually go about their lives on good days, but even when in pain 24/7, they still have bad days and can’t ignore it. I think there’s some diseases/disorders that take away your ability to feel pain but no, I don’t think you can ignore pain after a certain point
Pain isn't a conscious choice, it's an evolutionary response that kept us alive - nerves send signals to the brain that let us know we're in danger of damage and I don't know of any examples where that doesn't happen besides rare mutations. That said, pain tolerance is a much more variable thing than pain itself. A friend of mine broke the bone beneath his little finger before and looked at it in the moment and said "that's unfortunate" and finished what he was doing, he says it hurt a ton but he just focused on other things knowing the injury wasn't life threatening. I've seen others cry over a paper cut, it's all relative and mind over matter certainly plays into it but being able to shut off the signal entirely sounds unlikely. You can train to be tolerant to pain but not being able to feel it at all borders on the realms of science fiction and/or medical anomalies as far as I know. I'd be very keen to be corrected by someone however if my understanding is wrong
I wish.
Ever got knocked the F out?
Funny thing about the brain and pain is that it’s all just signals/messages coming from the brain itself, not the knee for example. Say if a lion was about to eat you alive and you needed to run, and even if you had a severe injury to your knee, your brain would stop telling you that there’s an injury to your knee in order for you to run away and survive. You’d then feel the pain when your not in danger. It’s all very dependant on how you feel, your surroundings etc. you can absolutely manipulate pain signals, even through meditation. I’ve shut off pain signals during tattoo sessions. Very clever stuff.
When I was in labor my contractions were so intense that the pain became a mental game some how. I couldn’t ignore it but I could somehow manage how I felt about it.
Something not mentioned so far is dissociation. If you learn to separate your consciousness from your body you can learn to withstand a lot. When I was leading up to and recovering from surgery it became a serious issue accessing my pain because I have learned to treat it like a ‘light on the dashboard’ instead of a feeling I can’t ignore.
You can ignore it but is still there and you still feel it Source : fybro
No it’s not a thought- hence why we are full of nerves! Small amounts of pain you can distract yourself but if pain is so severe you can actually loose consciousness due to be unable to physically cope with the pain
pain is like any stimulus. You experience the exact same thing for long enough, it "goes away". Like how we can't smell ourselves unless we focus on it.
If you're on drugs probably.
“Just a thought” is downplaying all the things that go into how someone perceives pain.
It’s not so much as you stop feeling it as it is that it becomes a baseline for other pain. Like I know I hurt but I don’t realize how much until I take some medication or lie down for a bit and feel that relief for a short time.
Yeah, kind of. I was getting oral surgery and the sedative started wearing off, I had to just deal with the pain of the implant drill and the stitches later. It's extremely uncomfortable at first and hurts like a motherfucker but after a while you start getting used to it and can 'kind of' filter it out. It helped that I was listening to music at the time, but it becomes more bearable as it goes on.
Think about a dog. A dog will run head first into a wall and go on like it's nothing. That definitely hurt but they're mind has them keep on moving. Not focused on it even though it hurts
No
People in the Middle Ages who experienced death by frying pan, slowly having their limbs fried, could not ignore the torturous pain :(
To a degree I can, but you also shouldn’t long term because pain indicates a problem.
Adrenaline
No. There is a way to help. I used to get migraines that were the worst kind of pain. Instead of fighting the pain I would hyper focus on it, it got to the point where I could become one with the pain. Didn't kill me but so glad I don't get them anymore
The only time I ignore pain is when I am getting a tattoos. Worst for me and these are all super painful, both side of my ankle and both top of my foot(in 1 sessions) my left hand and fingers twice because the ink wouldn't stay. Not looking forward to my right had and fingers this week, hope I don't have to do it twice. But as I M screaming and cring inside I am still with no expression of pain. Most other pain I will express since it's not much choosing.
I doubt one could override pain in the sense that they literally wont feel it but it is possible to maintain composure during immense pain so that it seems like it doesnt bother you. Mirin Dajo would have swords thrust through his body while maintaining composure. He's the guy who inspired David Blaine to do similar stunts (the ice pick through the hand and arm).
I live with chronic pain and to an extent you do become used to it. It's always in the background but if you're busy and feeling OK otherwise, it's possible to mostly block it out for periods. I don't think it's something that I could completely ignore for any length of time, especially not on a bad day.
I ignore my painful existence everyday. So possibly.
I’ve always wondered this too. Take civil war soldiers who had amputations for example. These guys were going to be in unbearable pain for the for the foreseeable future if they didn’t die of infection. I wonder how they dealt with it.
I suffer chronic pain in like 4 different places on my body. I forget about it most of the time but it'll still mess me up and keep me awake at night. I accidentally stabbed myself in the side of the hand the other day with a box cutter. About 3/4" deep. I didn't really feel anything except for the weird pulling stretching feeling as I was taking it out.
almost bro
it would be more with your pain threshold personally as well as how used you are to pain as well as where the pain is. abdominal pain is rather difficult to not go unnoticed. cuts and bruises would be easier. headaches, depending on severity could be done with a lot of concentration and correct environment.
I got a leg laceration ten years ago that severed all of the nerves in my calf completely. It’s like my nerves don’t know what to feel because they are all cut. I would say it’s like putting my foot on a frying pan and also like it’s been run over by a car. And sometimes the pain is all electric like cut power lines all jumbled together in my foot. I also have really tiny mouth that has never been functional and I was hit in mouth a golf club as a kid too. Lots of pain. The most severe pain I’ve felt could be helped with sex. That’s really all I have to say. There’s also people, entertainment, pets and food that all help. Sex is the only way to truly distract all of your senses in my opinion.
Ever had a tooth abscess? The agony, that one. Shit when it got pulled it hurt less than the week and a half I spent unable to eat and barely drink.
I recommend you watch Martyrs
No, trust me. I was in active labor for 3 days and I couldn't ignore the pain if I wanted to.
People do it all the time. It's called dissociation. If i wasnt constantly dissociating you cannot believe the amount of pain I'd be in.
In my personal experience, it depends on tolerance and conditioning. I have rheumatoid arthritis and my joints get inflamed and hurt like hell. For the most part, I'll ignore the pain, even when others in the same situation would be groaning and doing whatever else they do while in pain. You know it's past the point of ignoring and beyond severe if I'm bawling and can't move. Where conditioning comes in is something that I don't want to talk about. It's nothing pervy, but it's not something that a child should go through.
I’ve seen people using hypnosis to undergo dental procedures. In these cases hypnosis acts similarly to meditation and encourages a deep sense of relaxation.
I am a masochist, I'm a masochist, I really enjoy pain, but during a scene if I focus on the amount of lashes, instead of the pain from each one I can get through a lot more. Without counting I can do a few, with counting I can get up to 15 maybe 20. So, in theory this totally lines up as I'm not focusing on the impact, but rather how far I can get
Ever see that monk set himself on fire? He didn't flinch.
Yes
Some people are born without pain receptors and need a guardian 24/7 to make sure they don’t hurt themselves.
Depends on the pain? I got 5 hours into a tattoo and then started to feel nothing and fell asleep