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lovingpet -> RE: Pain tolerance (5/26/2009 2:43:20 PM)
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Pain tolerance is a very interesting topic for me. It is wrapped around so many things for me. I have to have trust in both the person and their ability to handle both me and the implements they are using. I don't do well with inexperienced people because I can't focus on processing the pain, but need to be vigilent over safety and other basics that I don't have to be as concerned with. I have to know that person is a self controlled, disciplined person because, if I have already determined they can use the implements well, then they can also use them so well as to be to my detriment also. Trust and respect are huge in my ability to take pain.
Mood is an interesting one. I can have a similar mood have me unable to accept much pain or ravenous for it. It seems based on intensity of the mood. Some intense moods shut me down. Others awaken the beast. Still others, really don't seem to play into it at all. I think anger, sadness, fear, and being in pain for other reasons tend to increase what I can take or want to take. There is a threshold though. I guess it is a cathartic thing at that point. I can be aggressive, competetive with myself, or just plain horny and take much more than I would have guessed. Sadness can just get to a point where I shut down painwise though. Either I can't take it because I am so distracted or because I have become exaughsted. Being tired is a huge deciding factor in how much I will be able to take (too tired and even small things feel intensely painful). In all honesty, I haven't played fully rested, which is really concerning to me given my history.
Another thing to be considered is general pain tolerance. I have fibromyalgia. The current belief is that people with this condition are just more sensitive to pain and, therefore, have a lower pain threshold. I blow their theory out of the water. I am usually scolded by drs for not having come in earlier when I am sick or have injured myself. I nearly did permanent nerve damage because I had muscles seized up around it resulting in what I thought was a migraine because I had tried to deal on my own for so long. In a consentual pain situation, this becomes even more pronounced. I just seem to process it rather naturally partly, I believe, because I am so accustomed to dealing with pain on a daily basis. I have had to learn to push through it in order to do some of the simplest things some day. I have the added bonus of knowing if I can take enough pain during a session, then I will not deal with the day to day pain for as long as 10 days. I will have the yummy aches after, but those I don't even sense the same way most describe it. Despite the research, I have a very high pain tolerance and that translates into taking quite a bit regardless of other factors.
It is interesting to see how my thresholds ebb and flow though. There are days when the forces line up against me and I can barely stand a squeeze. Other days, I don't know what it would actually take to finally have me say it was enough. I need someone who can read my body and understands me well enough to know the difference and to keep control over a situation that I may let get well beyond what is safe. I don't think it has to be a battle to take more every single time or to even keep up to a standard level. I think it is the elements that work together to take me where I need to go in order to get benefit out of the session. Sometimes that is very little and mostly mental and emotional. Other times, it takes crushing amounts of all my partner has to take me there. It is about the destination, in this case, not the particular path to it.
lovingpet
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