Aspies and pain

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Is it an aspie trait to seem to have either a high pain tolerance or to feel pain differently then other people? I seem to be able to shrug off things that most people would be screaming over masochism excluded, and I'm just wondering if its an aspie trait?

don't know if its a trait, but i have a high pain tolerance too

I doubt it, aspies are far more sensitive to tactile sensations, such as rough wood, than most people. I find getting shots to be unbearably painful, actually.

I have a pretty high pain tolerance - once I didn't even notice when I stapled my own finger - but certain types of pain like squeezing or crushing pain I have never found uncomfortable.

When I fractured three toes the night before my big vacation to the Smoky Mountains, I knew that if I went to the emergency room or urgicare, someone would make me stay home. So I simply went on vacation as planned. Only time I took a pain reliever while on vacation was the day on which I got a headache.

When I got home from vacation and hobbled into work, my startled bosses immediately reacted with, "Oh no ... you can't come back to work until you go see a doctor."

The doctor prescribed a strong painkiller which I was allergic to, so I simply shrugged my shoulders and took an Excedrin at the times he had recommended I take the prescription.

My dad told me growing up that distance runners learn how to endure pain, and I had been a distance runner in high school, so that helped keep me going in the Smoky Mountains while injured.

I've had my nipples pierced a few days ago which everyone says is like unbearable and it was nothing to me, also I've walked on a broken ankle before. The funny thing is a tag on a shirt is unbearable to me. *shrugs*

I have a quite high pain tolerance, especially pain caused by coldness and pain caused by minor injuries to the skin like scrapes and paper cuts. Getting shots or having my blood drawn rarely bothers me.

I go both ways with pain, certain things most people can deal with I find difficult to take but most things that cause a lot of discomfort to others really don't bother me much, or sometimes at all.
I've always taken bumps and knocks here and there and not even realised it until the next day when I would have a huge bruise and my mum would think I had been beaten up, even though I couldn't for the life of me think how the bruise got there. She knew I wasn't getting hit by anyone but it was always weird that I got bruises the way i did.

More recently I've found that in kickboxing I can take an absolute hammering and just laugh and smile it off. I mostly laugh because i'm amused that someone has gotten past my defence the way they have, or that my defence has been so pathetic I laugh at my own actions. I guess the laughing is part of my problem with expressing myself emotionally, but if i'm just going to keep laughing and smiling every time I get hit it will be interesting to see how an opponent in the ring will take it.

I have touch issues sometimes when I hate certain things others barely even realise they're doing (as do many other aspies from what i've read) but overall I have a high pain threshold and I find certain kinds of pain to be very pleasurable (tattooing especially).

Oh yeah, I forgot about broken bones.

I broke my ankle into 3 pieces last year and didn't realise it was broken so i drove home on it in some pretty bad pain. It wasn't painful enough to stop me but it wasn't very nice either.
After xray's and consultations a specialist told me that my ankle had been fractured many times before, and completely broken once before aswell. I realised that as an 11 year old I had broken my ankle and not realised it. It was bruised and swolen for more then 6 months but I never told anyone and I just continued with my life the same as always with some discomfort in my ankle whenever I put weight on it for those few months.
I ran on it, and did all sorts of crazy things on it not knowing it was broken and it eventually just fixed itself.

Yes. It's caused by opiates.

Many autistics have a higher tolerance for pain due to high levels of opiates due to undigested proteins from gluten and dairy foods. If you go on a gluten-free/dairy free diet, your pain sensitivity should become normal after a week or two.

Someone punched me on the arm a bunch of times till I got a big bruise and it barely hurt. I went on the gluten-free/dairy free diet and two weeks later I punched myself in the arm and it hurt 20 times more than it ever did before. Then I took a bunch of probiotic formulas and now I no longer need the diet. It is likely that an overgrowth of yeast and/or bacteria in the intestines inhibit the enzyme (called DPP-IV) that digests gluten and dairy. Taking DPP-IV enzymes (similar to lactose intolerant people taking lactase enzymes) should help but probiotics may be able to cure the problem. It's important to treat it because opiates cause a lot more problems than a higher tolerance for pain.

Gluten-opiate connection and enzymes to treat it - http://www.kirkmanlabs.com/products/enz ... ec230.html
Scientific studies - http://www.autismndi.com/news/default.a ... ow=Studies

zendell wrote:

I restate something I said in an earlier thread.... if gluten caused opiates to form, nobody could work at Walmart (mandatory drug tests) and people would be mainlining Cinnabons and forgetting about heroin. I had surgery recently, they fed me plenty of gluten containing foods, trust me, NOTHING worked to dull pain until I hit the morphine button.

I doubt you're a neurochemist, and I'll state catagorically I'm not a neurologist, but has it occurred to anybody that the "disconnect" between brain sections that seems to be an observable difference between autistic and "normal" brains may have something to do with pain tolerance? You don't "feel" pain in your finger, you perceive it there. You actually FEEL pain in your brain. If you didn't, people with severed spinal cords would still react to pain in the limbs. The difference in our brains is far more likely to explain something like this. Yes I have a high pain tolerance, so does my wife and so do my sons. I put it down to neurology and evolutionary advantage. Pain tolerance would have helped my ancestors survive. Now if you'll excuse me my side hurts and I think I'll got dose up on some gluten...

i have a very low pain tolerance though when it comes to pain from compression (squeezing) i can take anything... you can squeeze me till my eyes are bugging out and i wont be in pain...

I believe my tolerance to pain is average, or possibly even below average. The difference is in how I react to it - I accept pain and have learned to enjoy it to some degree. For example, I have a tradition of standing in snow barefoot after a blizzard. It's the intense pain (and aftermath) which gives me a rush - it feels great once I'm inside and warming up again.

I have very high pain tolerance, but very low tolerance to physical irritation (tags, wrong clothing, wrinkled socks, ect...).
One of my coworkers thought it was funny how I reacted when 3 of us got attacked by bees. The two of them (both men) were yelling and flailing their arms whenever they were stung. However, I didn't want to provoke the bees more, so I walked slowly and reacted very little, even when several were in my hair. When I did get stung several times, instead of shouting, I said quietly "Aww. I just got stung."

Even when I was a little kid, I could tolerate all kinds of bruises, cuts, sprains. But if my sock was twisted in my shoe and I couldn't seem to fix it just right, I would nearly be in tears.

Gluten and casein (from milk) break down into gliadorphin and casomorphin. In most people, an enzyme called DPP-IV breaks these peptides down into amino acids. However, a few people (most autistics and a few NTs) have a problem with this enzyme and can't break them down into amino acids. If the person also has a leaky gut, they leave the gut and make their way to the brain.



You laugh and question my credentials but I have tried it and know that it works. I have taken gluten to relieve pain numerous times. It works (although with only some types of pain). Say something else is more likely all you want, but I cured this problem which proves your view is wrong (at least in my case).

I'm noticing that you haven't looked into any of the things I mention. You seem to disagree simply because it doesn't agree with your beliefs.

Zendell, you're hilarious, and not in a good way.