I knew a girl who couldn't get drunk (bottle of vodka and no effect), she had to fake it sometimes not to look alcoholic. She said she wasn't the only one in the family.
Was her name Marion Ravenwood?
A woman who doesn't feel pain
41–50 of 99 posts
Re: A woman who doesn't feel pain
#42I'm baffled by the fact she only realized it when she was 65. I understand that when you were born like that it might just be normal, and maybe you don't put too much thought into it, but it's just... Didn't she ever wonder why other people scream like crazy when they touch a hot pan, hit their head, and she doesn't? Didn't other people realize in those 65 years that she doesn't have any reaction when it happens to h…
I would certainly have died as a child... given the stuff I enjoy doing, the lack of pain would probably have manifested as a feeling of total invincibility. I'm pretty sure therefore, I'd be dead.
Though it does lead you to wonder just what the limits are of how much the body could tolerate before it breaks in the absence of pain.
Re: A woman who doesn't feel pain
#43Re: A woman who doesn't feel pain
#44I knew a girl who couldn't get drunk (bottle of vodka and no effect), she had to fake it sometimes not to look alcoholic. She said she wasn't the only one in the family.
And the opposite where you get drunk without drinking: Auto-brewery syndrome, also known as gut fermentation syndrome
Re: A woman who doesn't feel pain
#45For some insight into the value of pain, and the hazards of being without it, Pain: the Gift Nobody Wants (also published as The Gift of Pain) by Paul Brand & Philip Yancey is a fascinating read.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pain-Nobody-Wants-Paul-Brand/dp/006...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gift-Pain-Hurt-What-About/dp/031022...
Re: A woman who doesn't feel pain
#46You don't understand how important a feedback signal pain is until it's gone. I dated a girl who had a brain tumor removed as a child. As a result of this she had an incredibly high tolerance for pain. I don't mean stub-your-toe tolerance. I mean beat-me-with-a-belt-so-I-can-feel-something tolerance. Obviously it made for some interesting fun. Eventually I had to stop dating her out of fear I was going to permanently…
I'm really curious... (I'm a sadist, but only with consent and permanent injury is a hard nope) did you try electricity? I've played with several folks with high pain tolerance, and electroplay really seems to "cut through" everybody's defenses. But it's not obvious how that would go, if the neurological signals are getting blocked...
Slightly OT, but since it's rare to talk with a self-identified sadist:
Do you think you'd experience the same thrill torturing(?) a masochist as you would a non-masochist?
Re: A woman who doesn't feel pain
#47I don’t think that this is a good thing to have. Leprosy patients lose their fingers because of lack of pain.
I know that's part of it, but there's got to be something more going on with leprosy patients. Random bruises and scratches do not normally fester until things start falling off, even if you ignore them.
Re: A woman who doesn't feel pain
#48House MD had an episode about this condition in 2007: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0917153/
You would think a friend might mention it - I would think a close friend must notice a complete lack of pain response.
Re: A woman who doesn't feel pain
#49I'm baffled by the fact she only realized it when she was 65. I understand that when you were born like that it might just be normal, and maybe you don't put too much thought into it, but it's just... Didn't she ever wonder why other people scream like crazy when they touch a hot pan, hit their head, and she doesn't? Didn't other people realize in those 65 years that she doesn't have any reaction when it happens to h…
I read the same story from NY Times, which had a more detailed write up. She likely inherited the genes from her dad. "Likely" because they can't test her dad's genes since he's deceased. Her dad didn't really feel pain either, so growing up it was not that abnormal. Her son has a similar mutation but daughter doesn't. NY Times Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/health/woman-pain-anxiety...
Thanks, that clears it up some more. It also reads like at least her husband must have noticed, but apparently since reddit etc. wasn't a thing when they were younger they never felt the urge to make posts about it all over the internet and getting everyone's attention. ;)
Re: A woman who doesn't feel pain
#50I don’t think that this is a good thing to have. Leprosy patients lose their fingers because of lack of pain.
I know that's part of it, but there's got to be something more going on with leprosy patients. Random bruises and scratches do not normally fester until things start falling off, even if you ignore them.
Paul Brand's book Pain: the Gift Nobody Wants (also published as The Gift of Pain), which I mentioned in another comment, deals with this at some length -- he worked in India and was a pioneer in leprosy understanding and treatment.