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The Wisdom of Psychopaths
In this engrossing journey into the lives of psychopaths and their infamously crafty behaviors, the renowned psychologist Kevin Dutton reveals that there is a...
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What do you do when you’re stressed out? Talk to friends? Listen to music? Have a drink, or eat some ice cream? Or maybe practice yoga? These things are all pleasant options, and they’re obvious, effective ways to deal with stress. Chances are that you would not even think about doing something like, say, cutting your arm with a knife until you draw blood. Yet inflicting pain is exactly what millions of Americans – particularly adolescents and young adults – do to themselves when they’re stressed.
This is called nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), and it most commonly takes the form of cutting or burning the skin. Traditionally, many doctors, therapists, and family members have believed that people engage in NSSI primarily to manipulate others. However, recent research has found that such social factors only motivate a minority of cases and usually represent cries for help rather than coldhearted attempts to exploit caretakers. Although there are many reasons why people engage in this kind of self-injury, the most commonly reported reason is simple, if seemingly odd: to feel better. Several studies support the claim that self-inflicted pain can lead to feeling better. For example, Schmahl and colleagues scanned the brains of people with a history of NSSI during a painful experimental task designed to mimic NSSI. They found that the pain led to decreased activity in the areas of the brain associated with negative emotion. The reality of this effect provokes a perplexing question: How could self-inflicted pain possibly lead to feeling better?
One possible answer to this question is that some people are simply hard-wired to like pain. Although NSSI is associated with an increased pain threshold and tolerance, people who engage in NSSI still report feeling pain and, furthermore, report that this pain is unpleasant. Moreover, if these people are hard-wired to like pain, it is unclear why they primarily engage in NSSI when stressed or why they stick to moderate self-injury (e.g., cutting the skin) rather than severe self-injury (e.g., limb amputation).
Another possible answer is that these people want to punish themselves and that they simply like punishment. It is true that self-punishment is a commonly reported reason for engaging in NSSI; however, by definition, punishments increase negative emotion and make a behavior less likely to occur in the future. Thus, self-punishment may motivate some of these people, but self-punishment cannot be the reason that NSSI reduces bad feelings. During NSSI, something else must accompany the negative emotion associated with self-punishment and pain. Exciting new research now suggests that this “something else” is the relief that occurs when something that causes acute, intense pain is removed.
To illustrate this effect, imagine that one morning you visit the doctor for a routine check-up, and later that afternoon the doctor’s office calls to inform you that you’re in the advanced stages of cancer and have weeks to live.... Now imagine that the doctor’s office calls back five minutes later and tells you that they mixed up your lab work with someone else’s – you’re actually in good health. You would not immediately go back to how you felt before the first phone call; rather, you would feel extreme relief, lasting for hours or even days. Note that it was not a reward (e.g., winning the lottery) that made you feel better, only the introduction and removal of something unpleasant.
New research suggests that the introduction and removal of physical pain may have a similar effect. Tanimoto and colleagues found that fruitflies avoided odors associated with the introduction of a shock, but approached odors associated with the removal of a shock. Similarly, Bresin and colleagues found that the removal various forms of experimental pain were associated with a reduction in negative emotion in people with no history of NSSI. This relief effect was particularly strong for people who had higher levels of negative emotion. This latter finding may help to explain why people with higher levels of negative emotion are more likely to engage in NSSI: they have more negative emotion to reduce, and thus more relief to gain. Using biological measures, Franklin and colleagues obtained similar effects in both people with and without a history of NSSI. These new findings are especially interesting because it turns out that both general negative emotion and pain-induced negative emotion are processed in the same brain areas. This means that pain relief and emotional relief are essentially the same thing. Indeed, it was recently shown that pain relievers like acetaminophen also relieve emotional pain.
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19 Comments
Add CommentWith hair falling over the shoulders.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn the soft
chirping of
the new day
there's a delicate
quietness, and
even a fantasy,
like a velvety
flight in the
sound of a word.
Francesco Sinibaldi
What about the individuals who dissociate when they cut (as many do)? Does that process interfere with the experience of pain, or does the biological process of pain still occur, thus allowing the relief described in the article? Does dissociation provide some sort of anesthesia?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo when you beat the crap out of someone... you're doing them a favor?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI went through a period of cutting myself about two years ago when I was experiencing some strong negative emotions. It began spontaneously, there was a sharp knife on the table, it seemed a good idea at the time..... and,to tell the truth, it still does.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAfter that first instance I realised that it relieved acute emotional pain, so I continued to do it. I was careful and I would not describe what I was doing as "self-harm" since there is no doubt in my mind that the emotional relief was worth the, relatively minor, physical damage.
As a mature person with a science background I may have been in more control than some but I can't help feeling that my judgement would be matched by many others. My point is that in some circumstances, this may be the best option. If you don't understand that, then you have probably never been where I was emotionally at that time.
Psychotherapy and counselling are not there when you need them and the skills they teach are slow to develop and require the kind of resolve that is hard to muster in the depths of negative emotion. As for anti-depressants, no thanks. Despite our increasing knowledge of brain chemistry they are still a blunt instrument and in my observation, cause as many problems as they resolve.
I suppose that this comment will be removed as an encouragement to self-harm but it's the truth and might be of value to the author if no-one else.
Have you ever considered exercise?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAt the time I am talking about I was probably averaging an hour or more of pretty intense exercise every day. Being in a far better frame of mind now, I have decreased that and no longer feel any urge to cut myself.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy basic point is that to judge all cutting behaviour as self-harm is wrong. It can be a useful adjunct to managing acute emotional distress.
When angry (consciously or unconsciously) it is normal to want to injure whoever or whatever we are angry at. But if who/what is not clear in our mind, or not available, or not safe to strike, we normally want to strike against who/what ever is nearest, often ourselves. Self injury is more common in those with weaker self control and judgment, such as adolescents. The activity commonly dissipates the anger, which may or may not recur depending on the cause.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPain doesn't make you feel better. It may distract you from worse bad feelings.
AnOther form of false entropy
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMartial artists have a method of stunning an attacker by hitting the Jugular vein with a finger. I discovered that this converts pain into pleasure and have termed the invention Post Sex, as it is so much more fun. Safe sex at last. And it means that surgical procedures can go on without the use of drugs if need be, and would be great for First Aiders in emergencies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRedRoseAndy - Striking the Jugular causes swelling and decreased blood flow from the brain. This causes long term damage as blood pools in the head. This also introduces blood clots to the heart. Dramatically increasing the risk of brain damage, stroke, heart attack and aneurysm isn't what I'd call safe.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo, absolutely not. "Beating the crap out of someone" is inflicting pain upon another person. If that person is a masochist sure, you might be doing them a favor, but that would be up to their discretion. NOT yours.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you enjoy beating people up, maybe you should try someone who likes getting beat up. Otherwise you are just being mean and committing assault.
Harm can be physical or mental, therefore it is still considered harm because of the physical injury involved. For you the mental relief must have been worth the physical injury and therefore a net gain in your point of view.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNSSI is a quick and short-term fix for relieving the pain of guilt or continuing the familiar events from chilhood (familiarity breeds contempt). Children from divorced parents (as me),with no parents,tragically violent childhood or other psychologically overwhelmingly heavy environments feel that they can escape the pain by taking the blame/the role of the pain inflicter (during our childhood we surprisingly consider to be one with our visual environment). By the time we are adolescents, we firmly believe that we are the only ones who play that role and with NSSI we affirm that sweet familiar/self-secure belief.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo it is not that we punish ourselves but rather we enjoy the security of self-inflicting pain. Punishment does not exist in nature, animals avoid pain simply because evolutionary they are conditioned to avoid the physical dangers usually associated with pain.
Blindboy you are in a challenging situation and I cant and neither should I or anyone else take up your right to feel your own pain. In my case I take up the hardest path of accepting the pain and its true message by letting it do as it wants; from there I can respond to the root of the situation.
Take care, TK
NSSI is a quick and short-term fix for relieving the pain of guilt or continuing the familiar events from chilhood (familiarity breeds contempt). Children from divorced parents (as me),with no parents,tragically violent childhood or other psychologically overwhelmingly heavy environments feel that they can escape the pain by taking the blame/the role of the pain inflicter (during our childhood we surprisingly consider to be one with our visual environment). By the time we are adolescents, we firmly believe that we are the only ones who play that role and with NSSI we affirm that sweet familiar/self-secure belief.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo it is not that we punish ourselves but rather we enjoy the security of self-inflicting pain. Punishment does not exist in nature, animals avoid pain simply because evolutionary they are conditioned to avoid the physical dangers usually associated with pain.
Blindboy you are in a challenging situation and I cant and neither should I or anyone else take up your right to feel your own pain. In my case I take up the hardest path of accepting the pain and its true message by letting it do as it wants; from there I can respond to the root of the situation.
Take care, TK
This sounds a lot like catharsis to me. Would any other sort of emotional outlet attending a game, crying over a sad movie, etc. provide release earlier in the cycle? Yes I know those are "girly' things. I am a girl. But doesn't anyone notice the link between young males and NSSI? Young males are the group of people undergoing all the emotional upheaval of adolescence at the same time they have the fewest acceptable emotional outlets? I realize that by the the time emotion has built to NSSi levels the lesser options probably wouldn't be sufficient. But if they were encouraged earlier in the cycle the pressure might not rise to that level of NSSI. In other words helping them find other emotional outlets would lessen the occurence of NSSi.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisExcept that the brain doesn't know this. Real brain activity proves that, in the short term, it does.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDidn't pay attention to the articel did you? At a time of their own chosing and with as little real damage as possible. Not when someone gets rid of his own pain by beating on them! Not that that kind of abuse wouldn't help provoke NSSI.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think this kind of experience (cutting yourself) shares the same feelings' array with tattoo, hard massage techniques and so on, I mean, pain, that triggers the increase of neuro endorphins' levels and finally, pleasure or, at least, relief. When somebody is cutting him/herself, unless it happen in the framework of a suicide attempt, it is unlikely to entail nerves or tendons damage because of the limited depth of the cut(s)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnyway, if you can choose, better you receive a good massage because, as far as I know, it results in less scaring-
This is old, I know, but the lack of insight of both the article and comments is just painful.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen's the last time you pinched your finger when you were in pain? Did you pinch harder when the pain got worse? Try amping up the pain x 10. Then keep it going steady for days on end. Distraction and Gateway theory. Cutting can also induce dopamine/endorphines.
Pain is bad, but complete numbness is the worst - emotionally, if not physically. Not just for a couple hours, or even a day, but weeks. You don't feel human. Feeling pain is a relief from the numb and reminds you you're human.
There's a plethora of other circumstances and reasons, but given this article is old, I don't delve into it here. Writing people off as grabbing attention or being manipulative is a convenient way to ignore an extremely uncomfortable and difficult to understand topic.