High Pain Threshold?

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I have a high pain threshold for pretty much any injury except to my eyes and testicles.

In fact I yearn for the day when I am weak enough to get a sprained ankle or a broken arm.

Best I've done so far is get a broken toe... I hate being invincible.

Extremely high pain threshold.

I delivered all 4 babies without pain medicine, and the last 3 I delivered at home naturally. For one only my husband was present, the other 2 we had a midwife (she was late for the one that my husband delivered)

When I say I have a high pain threshold, NT people think I'm bragging or saying that I'm superwoman or something. I have to explain to them it's not usually a GOOD thing.

I regularly have a bruise or cut or something on my body that is noticeable and I have no idea how I got it. I bang and bump things and don't notice the pain so just keep moving. Then the mysterious swelling or bleeding or brusing... people regularly think I'm nuts for not remembering how that happened.

Another problem - not knowing when to seek medical care. I waited far too long when I had a kidney stone - it was huge and had blocked off my entire kidney and I was in so much pain. Finally went to the ER and they couldn't believe I had been dealing with it because it was so bad. They thought the ambulance brought me in but it didn't. I walked in.

The dentist - I waited so long with an infected tooth that the dentist was shocked. You know it's bad when others in the office stop what they're doing and all "have to see this". They come in and gasp and say it's the worst they've ever seen. Yes it was painful but I honestly considered not going even on the day I finally went! I thought I was being a big baby and they would tell me it was nothing and wonder why I came in there. I just couldn't judge it. Then when they made such a big deal about how bad it was - I felt so much more embarrassed because I felt so stupid. ANYONE would have known it was time to go get help weeks before, apparently.

I broke my foot last Sept. Walked on it about a half block back to my house, up 2 flights of stairs and into the bathroom where I ran cold water on it It was already swollen and many different ugly colors. I told everyone it hurt but would be okay and just wrapped an ace bandage on it. After a week it still did hurt so I reluctantly let my husband take me to an outpatient clinic where we paid just for one xray. I was feeling embarrassed that all the fuss was for nothing and they would send me home with a laugh about me being a baby and it was only a sprain but no, it was actually broken. I was told most people would have fallen down on the spot and had to be carried right away to a doctor or hospital instead of walking home and waiting a week.

When I was a teen I hated smoking more than anything and started this stupid game where I dared friends to put out their cigs in the palm of my hand. If I didn't flinch they had to not smoke the rest of the day. Many agreed and I did it - never flinched. It actually burned my hand and after seeing the damage visually, I decided to stop but I was easily able to deal with the pain. It scared many of them. :\

I have to agree with others here on the scalding hot baths - me also. I love them and didn't realize any thing about them until my husband came in and touched the water. He yelled. He could not even put his hand in and I was fulling submerged and just fine. He was alarmed. I think that's a good way of describing most everybody's reaction to me - alarmed.

At the dentist - they can pretty much do whatever they want to me and I can handle the actual procedure, but I can't handle being put back in the chair - the laying back, the bright light - I have panic attacks just thinking about it and I have to take valium before I go. I let my teeth go terribly until I met a dentist who finally understood. He's agorophobic himself and so his his wife so he 'got me' immediately and he prescribed valium. I have never taken it except to go have work done on my teeth. I take a half of one (a very low dosage) just to go for an exam even when I know that no work will be done yet. Just being in that chair.... and I really really like and trust my dentist too! It's not even that.

In some ways it seems that you're stronger than many people but it's just an embarrasment and I always second guess myself a million times when something is hurt.

I have a higher pain tolerance for bone pain than anyone I've ever met, but I've always just attributed that to the fact that I was born with a genetic bone disorder called Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) that makes my bones break like glass. It's the same thing that Samuel L. Jackson's character has in Unbreakable. I really don't know how many bones I've broken in my life, but at this point, it's well over 100.

I work as a special effects fabricator/make-up artist. One morning, as I was carrying my make-up case and a few boxes to my car, I heard my back pop a few times and I collapsed on the floor of the underground parking garage of my apartment. I just laid there for a couple of minutes and then reached for my phone, called my boss and told him I'd hurt my back and I'd be a little late to set. Then I simply got up, gathered my things and drove to set, where I worked for 12 hours with my back hurting the entire time.

I figured that I'd probably broken something, so 2 days later I went to see my doctor. After the x-ray, he led me over the computer and showed me where 3 of my vertebrae had collapsed in on themselves. So I had literally worked a 12-hour set day with 3 crushed vertebrae.

Here's the commercial I worked on with a broken back. I was pulling those heavy silicone arms on and off of the actor all day:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKsOY15OVSA[/youtube]

I remember one day when my roommate saw me break my foot. He watched me as I just closed my eyes, "swallowed the pain" and suddenly looked at him all calm and collected, as though nothing had happened. I'll never forget how his eyes got all wide in amazement and he said, "Dude! That's seriously some crazy ninja sh_t you just did!"

Last edited by Owendust on 26 Apr 2010, 5:39 am, edited 1 time in total.

I totally understand this. With me, it's mysterious broken fingers and toes. Back in March, I broke my right index finger and everyone at work thought I was crazy because I had no idea how I broke it.



For me, this is the worst part of it having a high pain tolerance. It's hard to know when I'm really hurt and actually need medical attention. I always feel like they're gonna tell me that I'm worried about nothing.

My pain tolerance is about a 7/10. When I am upset it's about a 12/10.

I have heard of this condition called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis, it's different than just having a high tolerance to pain, these people don't feel pain at all! I have heard that it is common in autism, but only 1 in 125 million (or something) people have it, so I don't really see how it could be common in autism. Even if everyone who had it had autism as well, it still couldn't be common.

My pain threshold is maybe above average... my tolerance is high however. Combine that with my wounds healing faster than normal I'm basically Wolverine!

Wolverine is Awesome!

Id say I have a pretty high tolerance.

ha= yep, me too. freakishly so.
it also may cross over to weird physical experiances- being squeezed really tightly, or sat on, too, feels comforting and...lovely (not in a sexual way- and i know im not the only one with this).

though obviously- lightly brush my arms and i will CRY.

its all the usual- weird physical experiance thing. but yes. i am slightly.... steely (flourishes cape)....

More like the opposite. Although I do have tattoos & have given birth without drugs.

I'm pretty sure Tony Attwood's book mentions this is common among Aspies. Or something I read said so anyway.

I don't have it, though.

I have a high tolerance to pain but threshold is normal.

I'm a bit weird. I know I have an extremely high pain threshold but a very low tolerance of the thought of pain. For example, when I gave birth I had no pain relief at all because the (terrible) labour pain never reached a high enough level to over rule the fear of the (slight)pain involved in having an injection.

Same here. Natural childbirth, needles - no problem. I cry like a baby over a paper cut, though. My son (aspie) has an extremely low threshold for pain, but my daughter (NT) is so unaffected by pain that for a while we thought that she had that rare condition of pain insensitivity that someone mentioned earlier, but she hasn't bit through her toungue yet so I think we're alright .

For some forms of pain I can not tolerate much but for other forms of pain I can tolerate a lot.

Once as a teenager I just pulled glass spinters out of my hand and then did some DIY binding up and left it at that. It hurt but I just got on with it.

I have 8 tattoos, and I have had tattoo artists, other customers in the shop, etc. mention that I have a high pain threshold---because I don't grimace, make faces, squirm, etc. Though the tattoos hurt, it's not the same kind of pain to me that I find really uncomfortable. My most painful tattoo is a large tribal cross that runs across my chest over my sternum, and down my chest, over my stomach, and around my navel. It took a long time to get it, and I didn't flinch or anything. I found it relaxing. However, a wrinkle in my sock, or a rubbing shirt tag, can be very uncomfortable.