# Pain or no pain? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 31, 2017, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-or-no-pain/800287 "2017-10-31T15:25:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-or-no-pain/800287/1 "2017-10-31T15:25:47Z")
Sorry if this has been polled before - I’m sure it has, but can’t find it in the Dope archives: Simple poll: You have the option of feeling pain (as you do now, a normal body and nervous system,) or never feeling pain in your life again. The drawback of not feeling pain is that you would not be able to detect many warning signs of illness or injury in your body. ---
**Author:** ![somepumpkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@somepumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/somepumpkin)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-or-no-pain/800287/2 "2017-10-31T15:36:51Z")
I have time for the pain. Another pertinent quote; “The trick… is _not minding_ that it hurts”. I say all this as a healthy dude. If I were chronically in pain, I may answer differently. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-or-no-pain/800287/3 "2017-10-31T15:43:33Z")
Yes. Pain is a warning system. Do you really not want to feel the appendix that’s about to burst? ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-or-no-pain/800287/4 "2017-10-31T16:37:52Z")
I’m in chronic pain. I took the no pain option. Yes, there are risks with that, but currently chronic pain, although a symptom of medical conditions, as completely changed my life. I’d like to reverse that. ---
**Author:** ![Marlonius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Marlonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlonius)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-or-no-pain/800287/5 "2017-10-31T16:44:59Z")
There are a number of well-documented cases of people who couldn’t perceive pain. It was a bad ending for them. Without the pain, they didn’t have enough sense to avoid injurious behaviours and incidents. Example cite: [The curse of the people who never feel pain - BBC Future](http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170426-the-people-who-never-feel-any-pain) ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-or-no-pain/800287/6 "2017-10-31T17:05:43Z")
> [@Marlonius](#): > > There are a number of well-documented cases of people who couldn’t perceive pain. It was a bad ending for them. Without the pain, they didn’t have enough sense to avoid injurious behaviours and incidents. Being born without the ability to sense pain, people with CIP struggle to learn what is injurious to their bodies. Parsing the OP very carefully, he appears to ask whether we want pain stricken from our lives from the present into the future, but not extending into the past. IOW, if you’re already an adult with normal sensitivity pain, you’ve learned very well over the past few decades what’s injurious to your body, so if pain is eliminated you’ll certainly fare better than someone with CIP. You already know to lift with your legs instead of your back, and not to (literally) bite your tongue, and not to touch a hot stove. Nonetheless, eliminating pain would remove your ability to detect curable conditions which, if not treated, will probably truncate your life - things like cancer, strokes, heart attacks, various infections. IMHO, this seems like a bad trade. I’d rather have best odds for a long life with occasional pain directing me to fix what ails me. If pain becomes incurable and intractable, it’s usually a sign of something that’s likely to be fatal in the near future anyway, so I would probably die soon whether I sensed the pain or not. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-or-no-pain/800287/7 "2017-10-31T17:39:25Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Being born without the ability to sense pain, people with CIP struggle to learn what is injurious to their bodies. Parsing the OP very carefully, he appears to ask whether we want pain stricken from our lives from the present into the future, but not extending into the past. IOW, if you’re already an adult with normal sensitivity pain, you’ve learned very well over the past few decades what’s injurious to your body, so if pain is eliminated you’ll certainly fare better than someone with CIP. You already know to lift with your legs instead of your back, and not to (literally) bite your tongue, and not to touch a hot stove. > > Nonetheless, eliminating pain would remove your ability to detect curable conditions which, if not treated, will probably truncate your life - things like cancer, strokes, heart attacks, various infections. IMHO, this seems like a bad trade. I’d rather have best odds for a long life with occasional pain directing me to fix what ails me. If pain becomes incurable and intractable, it’s usually a sign of something that’s likely to be fatal in the near future anyway, so I would probably die soon whether I sensed the pain or not. Right, thanks - I don’t mean people who have never felt pain and don’t know what it feels like (I doubt we have any Dopers here with that condition,) but rather, Dopers who have felt pain like any normal person throughout their life, and asking if they would like it eliminated from their lives - along with the risks of eliminating that ability to sense pain. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-or-no-pain/800287/8 "2017-10-31T21:48:06Z")
Does not being able to feel pain come with [ants in my eyes](https://masterofallscience.com/meme/S01E08/244536.jpg?b64lines=IEknbSBBbnRzIGluIE15IEV5ZXMgSm9obnNvbi4gRXZlcnl0aGluZydzIGJsYWNrLiBJCiBjYW4ndCBzZWUgYSB0aGluZy4gQW5kIGFsc28sIEkgY2FuJ3QgZmVlbAogYW55dGhpbmcsIGVpdGhlci4gRGlkIEkgbWVudGlvbiB0aGF0Pw==)? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-or-no-pain/800287/9 "2017-11-01T01:14:11Z")
Can I get the best of both worlds and have the sensation of something being wrong…just without it hurting so awfully badly? Suppose I feel no pain…and bust my ankle…and try to walk on it. Do I at least get a warning sensation? Hm, something’s wrong here? A tingle of alarm? It seems that the question implies total insensitivity to harm, and that seems unnecessary. That said, dude, I would accept total tactile anaesthesia – numbness of the skin – if it meant I didn’t have to suffer certain kinds of pain ever again. Physical sensation isn’t something I really care that much about. ---
**Author:** ![Marlonius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Marlonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlonius)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-or-no-pain/800287/10 "2017-11-01T14:24:46Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Being born without the ability to sense pain, people with CIP struggle to learn what is injurious to their bodies. Parsing the OP very carefully, he appears to ask whether we want pain stricken from our lives from the present into the future, but not extending into the past. IOW, if you’re already an adult with normal sensitivity pain, you’ve learned very well over the past few decades what’s injurious to your body, so if pain is eliminated you’ll certainly fare better than someone with CIP. You already know to lift with your legs instead of your back, and not to (literally) bite your tongue, and not to touch a hot stove. > > Nonetheless, eliminating pain would remove your ability to detect curable conditions which, if not treated, will probably truncate your life - things like cancer, strokes, heart attacks, various infections. IMHO, this seems like a bad trade. I’d rather have best odds for a long life with occasional pain directing me to fix what ails me. If pain becomes incurable and intractable, it’s usually a sign of something that’s likely to be fatal in the near future anyway, so I would probably die soon whether I sensed the pain or not. Good point, significant difference for sure. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-or-no-pain/800287/11 "2017-11-01T15:58:26Z")
I had a small stroke and lost most of the sensation of pain, to one degree or another, on my left side; fingers more than elbow and toes more than say hip. A lot of extra x-rays to see if things are broken, burns, cuts and other things. So yeah — I’ll keep pain. Too many things sound like a good idea at the time for me to pick none. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-or-no-pain/800287/12 "2017-11-01T16:48:35Z")
Pain is what reminds you you’re still alive. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-or-no-pain/800287/13 "2017-11-01T19:52:37Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Pain is what reminds you you’re still alive. So is pleasure. I suffer from multiple chronic pains, two of which are debilitating to the point of being life-changing. I’m already 72 years old, and would love to live the remaining years of my life pain-free. I’d be more than willing to not experience new pains, and to take my chance with new sources of pain. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-or-no-pain/800287/14 "2017-11-01T20:03:25Z")
I am a clumsy person. Part of this is due to being left-handed and part due to having poor spatial awareness like many/most people with ADHD do. The idea of not being able to feel pain is terrifying. Before too long I’d surely significantly injury myself without pain to keep me in line. ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-or-no-pain/800287/15 "2017-11-01T20:45:53Z")
I’ve felt excruciating cancer pain and never, ever, ever want to go through that again. I chose the no pain option and would take my chances with the risks. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pain-or-no-pain/800287/16 "2017-11-01T22:13:19Z")
I’ve been unable to feel anything skin-deep from about mid-calf on down for several years. It’s nice to be able to walk barefoot in the snow, but there aren’t any other benefits. I occasionally stub my toes or more serious injury without knowing it until I see that I’m tracking blood. Right now, I have a black toenail from something I ran into in the dark. If I could have it back, I’d take the pain.