4 ms·

My wife said something similar about morphine: "Did you know your hand hurts really bad while you are just standing there right now? You have no idea until you

My wife said something similar about morphine: "Did you know your hand hurts really bad while you are just standing there right now? You have no idea until you have morphine and it gets instantly better."

SapphireSun 12y ago
That's really interesting. I imagine nociceptors have a baseline firing rate but your brain tunes it out because it's just noise. If you switch that off, the current filter system would get whacked out of balance, you'd feel awesome, but when it switches on again, baseline firing would be a salient input for a bit and you might notice it? Of course, long term up/down regulation of various receptors occurs too, but I've never heard of this particular effect before though it sounds plausible to me.
- api 12y ago
  I wondered a while back if (theoretically) taking some kind of non-harmful but pain stimulating compound might not make you feel awesome the rest of the time, and might even be good for you by recalibrating your inflammatory response and such.
  - nvader 12y ago
    See: spicy food.
    - api 12y ago
      I was thinking of something more systemic, but that may be an example.
  - sjf 12y ago
    BDSM has been shown to improve mental health in a number of ways. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jsm.12192/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jsm.12192/abstrac...
- xanderstrike 12y ago
  If you've ever wondered why people on hard drugs like to take off their clothes when they're coming down, this is it. You can't handle the sensory overload of your t-shirt against your skin.
  - MichaelGG 12y ago
    Hard drugs isn't a category of drugs, but powerful opiates seem to be what's included anyways. I'm not aware of opiate users habitually taking off clothing. Other powerful drugs can make you feel cold, adding clothing. Some people really sweat on acid, which is probably a decent cause of taking off clothing.

SapphireSun 12y ago

That's really interesting. I imagine nociceptors have a baseline firing rate but your brain tunes it out because it's just noise. If you switch that off, the current filter system would get whacked out of balance, you'd feel awesome, but when it switches on again, baseline firing would be a salient input for a bit and you might notice it? Of course, long term up/down regulation of various receptors occurs too, but I've never heard of this particular effect before though it sounds plausible to me.

api 12y ago
I wondered a while back if (theoretically) taking some kind of non-harmful but pain stimulating compound might not make you feel awesome the rest of the time, and might even be good for you by recalibrating your inflammatory response and such.
- nvader 12y ago
  See: spicy food.
  - api 12y ago
    I was thinking of something more systemic, but that may be an example.
- sjf 12y ago
  BDSM has been shown to improve mental health in a number of ways. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jsm.12192/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jsm.12192/abstrac...
xanderstrike 12y ago
If you've ever wondered why people on hard drugs like to take off their clothes when they're coming down, this is it. You can't handle the sensory overload of your t-shirt against your skin.
- MichaelGG 12y ago
  Hard drugs isn't a category of drugs, but powerful opiates seem to be what's included anyways. I'm not aware of opiate users habitually taking off clothing. Other powerful drugs can make you feel cold, adding clothing. Some people really sweat on acid, which is probably a decent cause of taking off clothing.