Not Feeling Pain

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Hi, I feel pain weirdly. Sometimes I feel pain like any normal person would but others it seems like there is a glitch in my system and I am used to finding random bruises on my body. I will now give some examples:

1. One day I thought I had some tape stuck to my finger and tried to take t off in the dark. Turns out it was the edge of a cut I somehow got in my sleep and I was opening it. I only felt the pain when I switched a light on and saw what I had done.

2. I have chemically burnt my mouth from accidentally eating too many sour sweets. I only realised when suddenly had the pain hit and my memory is a bit fuzzy on this but I think there was blood. My mum suspects this is why I can't taste sour things properly anymore.

3. I used to be in a parkour park and was unable to get down properly. As a result I dangled down, leaving my poor wrists pressing into the concrete several times. I noticed two small lumps and told my teacher who thought it was nothing and it only stung so I kept on doing the same thing. About half an hour to an hour later I look back at my wrists and the lumps are massive and have changed colour. Turns out I had made my synovial fluid leak out in both wrists. I think at that point I suddenly felt the pain.

4. Last one but when I was a baby I was sick and my mum took me to the GP. She thought I might have an ear infection but the GP that that was unlikely as a kid my age would be howling if that happened. Nevertheless he checked and apparently I had one and if I remember correctly, it was really bad.

Do any of you also not feel pain properly, either not feeling it at all in some cases, at lower levels or all the time? Mine isn't consistent at all so I'm just interested.

This isn't something I personally have experienced, but, yes, an under-sensitivity to pain is one of the many sensory issues an autistic person can have. (So is a heightened sensitivity to pain.) Some relevant info can be found here and here.

However, if your under-sensitivity to pain is only intermittent and unpredictably so, then it might be caused by something other than just an autism-related sensory issue. You might want to see a neurologist about this.

Is under-sensitivity to pain really that much a problem?

I can feel normal pain sensations and sometimes I feel "under-sensitive" pain though. I believe that's more based on perception.

Being under-sensitive to pain means you can't "hear" your body when something is wrong.

I was stomped in the head repeatedly during an attack several yrs ago, and in another incident experienced a spike driven into my thigh. I felt no pain either time. Paper cut? I become a big baby.

A couple years ago I got a kidney stone attack that was very painful. So I can still feel pain and "hear" my body most of the time.

I'm not mad at mine so for me I wouldn't say it is a problem, it's just weird because every now and again I look down to see I'm bleeding or something, having no idea of what happened to cause it. Idk if I framed it as a problem because that wasn't the tone intended. I just found it interesting and wanted to hear about others experiences because I don't really have that irl.

I'm sorry those things happened to you and hope your recovery was good and yup, paper cuts suck.

thx. The doctors for both events were genuinely surprised I felt nothing (and that I didn't die or end up seriously maimed).

[quote

I can feel normal pain sensations and sometimes I feel "under-sensitive" pain though. I believe that's more based on perception.[/quote]

I'm not mad at mine so for me I wouldn't say it is a problem, it's just weird because every now and again I look down to see I'm bleeding or something, having no idea of what happened to cause it. Idk if I framed it as a problem because that wasn't the tone intended. I just found it interesting and wanted to hear about others experiences because I don't really have that irl.[/quote]


that happens to me too.
I'm pretty clumsy and tend to slice open my left hand finger tips when chopping if I'm not careful. So I keep my knives exceptionally sharp. This means when I do cut myself the slice is clean and straight and the pain less. I did slice off 2/3 of the skin on a right hand knuckle in a freak knife accident once- just liquid band-aided it, put a finger splint on to allow the skin to fuse back, and it healed in a few days. No pain with that one either.

My aspie daughter commonly comes in and refers to some part of her body which "hurts a bit" and she had put a tooth right through her lip or scrapped her skin almost to the bone which blood everywhere. No tears like a typical kid, just a very high pain threshold.

Dr. Attwood wrote:
"The child or adult with Asperger's Syndrome may appear very stoic, and not flinch or show distress in response to levels of pain that others would consider unbearable. The child's attention can be drawn to a bruise or a cut but the child can't remember how it happened. Splinters may be removed without concern, hot drinks consumed without distress. On hot days warm clothing may be worn, or on freezing winter days the person may insist on continuing to wear summer clothes. It is as if he or she had an idiosyncratic internal thermostat.

There can be a hypo- and hypersensitivity to pain (Bromly et al. 2004). The low threshold for some types of pain and discomfort can be a frequent source of distress for the child whose reaction can be judged by peers as being a ‘cry baby.' However, children with Asperger's syndrome are more likely to be hypo- than hypersensitive to pain."

Dr. Attwood continued:
"One of the most worrying aspects for parents is how to detect when the child is in chronic pain and needs medical help. Ear infections or appendicitis may progress to a dangerous level before being detected."

Source: Asperger's, Pain Perception, and Body Awareness

In my particular case, I have a high pain threshold. I do feel pain but not in the intensity that others feel it. I do not think this was always the case. I suspect that my hyposensitivity to pain came about from all the physical abuse from my peers when I was in Junior High School.

Lol same here! I have one now, as a matter of fact.

I'm really sorry to hear that. I think sometimes extreme forms of physical trauma can cause our bodies to "shut off" our pain response, it's not really an autistic thing necessarily.

I'm a big wuss when it comes to pain. I would never get a tattoo for that reason.

I thought I had a completely normal pain threshold until I had jaw surgery for an orthodontic overbite. The surgeon split my jaw sagital and brought it about a centimetre forward then fixed it in place with titanium clips. I was told beforehand that it can be quite painful afterwards.

When I woke up I was in ICU because my jaw was wired shut (this was expected). The nurses kept putting the morphine button into my hand and telling me to press it. I was dazed so it didn't sink in. I wasn't in any pain. Twenty four hours later I was in a normal ward as the surgeon undid my jaw so I could talk and drink. Once I realised the effect when I pressed the morphine button (pleasant sleep), I pressed it more often.

I was given oxycontin and antibiotics (as a precaution) upon discharge. When I got home I took the oxycontin once but I didn't like the way it made me feel so I didn't take any more of those. I wasn't in any pain anyway, my jaw just felt a bit stiff.

I went back to the city to see the surgeon a week later for a checkup. He asked me how I got there and I said I drove. He said, "But you can't take oxycontin and drive!" I replied that I only took one because they made me feel sick. He asked what did I do for pain? I answered nothing because there's no pain, only stiffness. Yep, he looked at me like I was weird.

TMI, heh. I guess I don't feel pain as much for the more serious stuff.

I find the whole pain threshold topic fascinating ... I’m also hypermobile ... I wrote this a few years back ...
Sensitivity to pain and temperature. As for feeling pain and temperature, well that gets even more interesting. When it comes to injuries, reactions to extreme heat/cold, pregnancy/labour/childbirth etc, the pain threshold can make for some interesting experiences, and in some cases, our health and safety can be at grave risk.
There are severely autistic/severely intellectually impaired people who have little or no perception of pain caused by direct impacts caused by falling from heights or out of fast moving vehicles until there is serious tissue damage. Some do not feel high temperatures from boiling water or hot surfaces such as irons or hot plates – again until tissue damage has occurred. Some do not feel terribly bothered by most injuries and just keep right on working with the task at hand. One man, when very anxious, manually extracted four lower front teeth overnight. Some do not seem to need anaesthetics when sutures are used after surgical procedures, yet these same hypo-sensitive people can also be seriously hyper-sensitive to textures of fabrics(usually fine or silky) or subtle noise or even reflected light. Others are easily over-stimulated by light reflecting off shiny surfaces(visual sensitivity). This can provoke a panic response in some due to intense anxiety and distress.
I have an extraordinarily high pain threshold it would seem. Many of us appear very stoic in response to pain that others would consider unbearable. Removing my own splinters as a child was never a bother for me, in fact I quite enjoyed it – must be the nurse in me! I refused all offers of pain relief in labour, opting for mind over matter!
Some can be oblivious to broken bones, dislocations. Ear infections(of which I had many as a child) or appendicitis, may go undetected until reaching dangerous levels. There can be no indication of significant pain and detecting it can be dificult for parents. Sometimes the signs may simply be that the child or adult appears a little unlike their usual self. There are some quite extreme cases reported, such as mentioned earlier.
We may wear summer clothes on a freezing winter’s day, warmer clothing in the summer. For many, our internal thermostats are anything but average!
Parents who are aware that their child shows minimal response to pain tend to become quite vigilant for any signs of discomfort and/or illness. This is certainly the case in my family. Teaching children to report pain wherever possible, is important.