Do you hide your pain?

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I am embarrassed to show if I am in pain. I don't know why. I can separate my body from my mind when I am in pain. I can smile, speak in a normal voice and even joke around. It has happened that I have not received adequate care from my doctors because it appeared that, by my behavior, an injury was minor. It really was a serious injury that, even a year later, I have not recuperated from and am about to undergo a second surgery for it. If I had been more insistent, complained more or cried, I know I would have gotten better care quicker, and could have probably avoided this second surgery.

My husband, who also has Asperger's, is the same way. When he is in pain, he curls up in bed and withdraws. When he was in the hospital and his appendix was about to burst, the nurses and doc's thought he was comfortably resting. Knowing him as I do, though, I knew he had withdrawn due to pain. After I let them know this, he had his surgery in the nick of time.

My son's roommate just fell a couple of days ago in a store, broke his tibia in two places, dislocated his ankle, tore ligaments and tendons and broke some bones in his foot. He didn't cry out and didn't show pain. He only stated matter-of-factly that he was in pain. He also has Asperger's.

I am wondering if any of you also don't like to show pain or discomfort?

"You know you just can't hide when you're crippled inside."
Emotional pain I can hide, but physical pain I cannot.

Maybe the two of you are hypo sensitive to pain. I'm jealous, I'm very hypersensitive to pain.

I don't see the point in crying out in pain. I don't want to bother people if I don't have to.

No, I definitely feel it, but I don't like to show that I do. I am actually hypersensitive. I don't like to be touched because it hurts like a bruise when people touch me. When I get dental work done, I have to have 4 shots of novacaine instead of everyone else's one because my nerves are hyper.

But I used to work with a girl who once said, "What is pain anyway??? Just another sensation." I thought then that she was right. So I think of that when I am in pain and I can sort of compartmentalize it.

I like to hide when I'm in pain too (physically), I prefer to curl up in bed and make out I'm tired
If I'm not already in bed then I come upstairs and lay on my bed so I'm on my own and can try and deal with it myself
Whereas emotional pain I tend walk away and be on my own, I dont like people hanging around me asking me whats the matter etc. cause I find that just makes things worse................................

I can relate. I get different reactions to different kinds of pain, too much or too little. To the point where doctors and others ignore me when they should not.
I don't think the word, "compartmentalize" is anywhere near correct for what I do. That's a different kind of defense mechanism. I think we need a whole new language for stuff that's outside the NT experience.

It's odd... The more pain I am in, the more I try to hide it. If I am in minimal pain, I tend to show it as being agonizing.

nope. when someone even barely taps me my immediate reaction is to say "ouch!". I had a teacher smack me on the sholder during class for no reason, I said "Owww!" and got told to shut up for being a baby, I'm assuming. Oh well. I envy those who can hide pain or don't feel it.

Try being a female and having dysmenorrhea or endometriosis, then you'll understand why some people scream out in pain.

Yer, I coulda died at the age of 8 due to apendicitis. Silly doctor

I'm not sure actually... never thought about it. I think I show it in severe cases, but people say I just look really angry. Actually, that makes sense really... I know I feel the pain, but I sort of view it more as a an irritation/annoyance.

I probably just have a high tolerance for it, and never really felt like making a big deal out of it. Like when I was bit by a dog in the face as a little kid. I didn't even flinch, then went to analyze why my hand was orange/red with clear lumps in it. And when I ripped my AC ligaments in high school football I just kept playing the rest of the season... which was a horrible idea.

Side note: I just now realized that people probably accused me of whining and faking it when I used my shoulder as an excuse after that season... and they would cite how other players did what I did and were fine after two weeks. That always irritated me... because apparently all injuries are identical, and if you were really hurt you would have a cast or something dumb like that. People are so morbidly stupid sometimes...well... a lot of the times.

profanity works for me... I usually just 'suck it up', and keep going. Doesn't make it hurt any less...

My father has an incredibly high tolerance for pain. When my father went to the ER one doctor working that nite was a relative and he told my dad later he couldn't believe my dad's ability to tolerate pain. I didn't inherit that as I can't stand alot of physical pain.

Last edited by Pook on 09 Mar 2009, 9:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm highly insensitive to pain. Sometimes if it's really bad, I'll know that something is wrong, but I can't figure out what for some time. I also hide emotional pain. It's always felt really unnatural for me to sit and cry about things.

I have the same "problem". One time I fell down the stairs and got a huge gash in my leg, about 3 inches long and 1/2 inches deep. I told my younger brother to get the neighbors to help while I called my mom and put a bandage on the cut. When my neighbors got to my house they refused to believe I needed stitches because I didn't seem to be in pain. When I got to the emergency room I screamed when they took the bandage off(The bandage was made out of a sterile pad and duct tape, I couldn't find the gauze.) because of all of the leg hair that got pulled out.
Another time I got a paper-cut and was yelling because it hurt so much.

I remember when I was little that paper cuts, hang nails, scrapes, stubbed toes---all those little things seemed to be excruciating. I remember crying all the time because stuff hurt. I couldn't stand to play with my brothers because they always teased by pulling my hair, or doing something that hurt me, but didn't usually hurt others. They all thought I was just a cry-baby.

Those minor pains almost feel good now in a way. I hide more severe pain. When I have mental anguish or depression, I just talk about it a lot--too much probably. I have had excruciatingly bad pain--the kind where you wish you were unconscious--but even then I couldn't scream or even complain. It took my breath away and I wasn't able to say anything. The doctors could only tell by my blood pressure that I was in pain.