Do you have trouble recognizing physical pain?

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It's not that I don't feel pain, or that it doesn't affect me.

I have a lot of chronic and acute pain as a result of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disorder of collagen that results in almost all my joints being able to slip or fall apart.

But I'm just as likely become annoyed and irritated with everything, or depressed, or start doing something compulsively, than I am to recognize I hurt and should do something about it. This doesn't seem to be a problem with others with Ehlers-Danlos. Is it a unique problem? Is it AS? Something else?

I can tell when I am in pain because I can feel it. I am not sure if I understand the question though.

When I was little, I was this way. Imagining some of the pain I didn't feel was when a dog bit me on my right cheek and I had to get stitches when I was a baby or when I got stung by a whole beehive of bees. I remeber when I was little and I fall off of swings and slides and get right back up without remorse. Sigh:these days I've changed and feel physical pain.

For me, a sudden pain is easy to recognise, because it startles me. But any ongoing pain is something I get used to, and I can be unaware of it as well. People who know me well will often ask "Do you have a headache?", because I'm acting as though I do, even though I'm not aware of it. (I tend to get a lot of headaches.) I've basically learned to tune it out, just as I've been forced to learn to tune out many sensory issues. I think this is the same type of thing you're describing.

Hi, My daughter does this, If she falls and there is blood she knows she's hurt but a ear infection, feeling sick because a cold is coming on, she can't tell me. She normally gets very angry and acts out before I can work out what is wrong with her. She also concentrates on smething else or goes to fairy land. Cha x

When I was a kid I would fake pain so I could leave school (I love school but I hated my peers - they were cruel), but when it came to actual pain I...dunno....I remember being amazed that my best friend could talk about her head hurting or her stomach hurting, I wondered how she knew these things, like they were magic or something.

I guess it didn't help that my mom didn't take our hurts seriously, so I was shushed so often when I was in actual pain that I just thought that everybody always had pain and it wasn't a big deal.

Certain pains sent me over the edge though: having to get shots, and having to go to the dentist (we had a very bad dentist when I first started seeing him at the age of 9). We later found out that it takes me twice as long to get numb, but that idiot never would listen to me (but I don't think I was able to speak clearly or coherently about such things anyway). We finally switched dentists when I refused to open my mouth for the idiot dentist (which was a big deal, as it probably meant I would be punished later), but it was just too painful and I was done with him.

To this day, I have a problem going to the doctor or the dentist. I've become pretty good at communicating, until I'm in a medical office, when I completely shut down. It's frustrating to the point of tears, not to mention the fact that I know that I'm not going to be able to afford whatever it is that they're going to want to do anyway.

_________________
Diagnosed with High Functioning Autism well into adulthood.
It's never too late to get a diagnosis.
Hell, I thought I was just weird.

i can (obviously) come off as really abrupt and my tone can sound sharpish, so feel free to ask me to clarify

I don't typically recognize small cuts and scraps, I usually end up dripping a decent amount of blood before someone else comments that I’m bleeding.

I got a 4cm slice in my scalp as a kid and did not notice. I spent 5 mins arguing with a terrified swimming lesson instructor who would not let me back in the pool. Yet i think that type of shock is normal.

For internal pain i can often recognize that i don't feel right but identifying what hurts and how badly is difficult.

When i got appendicitis, which is supposed to be pretty painful, I spent the morning hiking without complaint. Luckily the guide started to ask questions about why i was hunched over and could not stand up straight. I was rushed into surgery that night, only to have the doctor say that my appendix had torn a number of times before and the only thing keeping it together was scar tissue. Apparently i should have been in a decent amount of pain when it tore.

When working with my hands as well, people often comment that what i'm doing should be painful. Yet something like walking barefoot over sharp gravel or hot asphalt, I'll probably complain more than most.

When I'm busy with some physical task I don't seem to pay attention to things like pain. I'll be taking my bath and notice scratches and cuts and have no idea how or when I got them. Funny thing is I've never really noticed being clumsy, but the proof is right there.

I think I have trouble recognizing pain, or at least identifying where it is and how bad it is. I have chronic headaches and I'm not sure I've experienced a time I was completely pain free.

I have EDS as well and I don't really understand your question but here's my bit.

I don't *act* like I'm in pain even though my pain is severe and requires around the clock pain medication...I don't have pain behaviors although I will avoid things that cause me pain.

My mom, who I have wondered if she is on the spectrum, does exhibit pain in the form of sighing and stuff which I do occasionally but not all the time. I had an assessment done and it's shown that I cope with pain much better than the average person.

I don't know if this is what you're looking for?

I see what you are asking... I don't think most Aspergians are like that...

I am... to an extent... I register pain... but unless it becomes debilitating...I can ignore it. I don't think I process it (mentally) the same way as NTs do. It registers as damage... but not as the screaming and whinging thing that NTs do.

Example: My Significant other and I used to be an over the road trucking team. At the end of her hours (you can only drive so much a day), I managed to break my hand. I drove, with a boxer's fracture, the double clutch straight truck, through manhattan and to a hospital in Jersey on a broken hand. The bone was shifting from time to time... it was uncomfortable. I am advised that I should have been weeping and unable to do what I did...

a lot of times I dont feel pain until I see the injury. like when I was younger I would ride my dirt bike in the woods and I would get little cuts from riding through thorn bushes. I wouldn't even feel it till I took my gloves off to see all the little cuts on my knuckles