Why do these behaviors feel good?

Factual Questions
1

Hi SD,

Why do the following behaviors feel “good” for certain people?

  1. Squeezing blackheads or removing ingrown hairs
  2. Picking at nails
  3. Cleaning underneath nails (sock lint, etc.)

Do these straddle the line between grooming activity and anxiety or nervous behavior?

I’m sure there are others…my theory is that people enjoy watching a foreign or unwelcome body being removed, in the same way that the removal of a splinter makes you feel better immediately. Regarding number 2, I hypothesize that people participating in this activity enjoy pressure and release associated with this action. Is this pressure/release mechanism something exhibited in other behaviors?

Can anyone give their thoughts on the origin or reason for these actions?

Thanks,

Dave

2

They all have survival value, so evolved a sensory association with well-being. At the extremely mild end of the scale of orgasmic experiences.

3

The reason why the feel “good” is that because doing these activities, at least for many people, releases certain brain chemicals that trigger feeling good in the brain.

As to the evolutionary reason why grooming behavior makes people feel good, I assume that those early humans that groomed themselves received some reproductive benefit from doing so.

4

This. I believe things like that release a small amount of endorphins. This is also why when you hurt yourself, like bump your elbow, you automatically start rubbing it. The rubbing releases these chemicals and begins pain relief.

Another thing that does it, ironically, is pulling your own hair a bit when it hurts like a bitch when someone else does it.

I have a theory that this is also why some people get “hooked” on getting tattoos. In my own experience after the initial outline is done and the color fill in is started enough endorphins have kicked in to turn the experience from painful to pleasurable.