Is there a level of pain so great that you just stop feeling and pass out from it?

[AlienGirl]

Or is it as I fear, and the capacity for pain is infinite? Tiptree said that there was a level of pain where she felt herself being annhilated by it when she had her first heart attack, which makes me think that my dark suspicion is correct and there is no upper limit to pain, as there is to heat; but others have said at some point you faint, or dissociate, or leave your body, and there is an inbuilt mercy in the nervous system that prevents pain from being too bad.

I don't know. I have been through hard labor (for more than a day), and I have had the entire inside of my mouth burnt to hamburger that not even morphine could soothe, and I have had my skin get eaten by necrotization, and I suspect that none of that is the worst pain there is and that every day I am alive brings me closer to the day when I will end up in that infinite ego-caustic sort of pain that Tiptree described, and that terrifies me.

Can anyone out there answer this? Is anyone else stuck with fears like that?

Tucker

[UndertheOcean]

1. Yeah , pain is scarier than death itself.

But morphine does ease the pain even if it doens't completely take it away ? please tell me its so ..

[everythingsxen]

2. Mmmmmmmmmmmorphine

/drool

[AlienGirl]

3. I was on Fentanyl patches and liquid morphine, and still hurt really, REALLY bad

[Mojambo]

4. Dude. You're totally freaking me out.

Worst pain I ever felt was from a toothache, if you can imagine that. Nearly 12 continuous hours of the most excruciating pain I've ever felt. Hydrocodone didn't make a dent in it. I actually contemplated suicide.

I would have given anything to be knocked out or rendered unconscious.

[billyskank]

5. Yes, you will pass out from too much pain

But it is a lot. Back in the bad old days when they did amputations without anaesthetic patients would frequently pass out from the pain.

[madrchsod]

6. a heart attack

been there done that and the pain is something that is hard to describe

[VespertineIconoclast]

7. There is a difference between pain threshold and pain tolerance.

Pain threshold is the minimum amount of stimulus that evokes the sensation of pain and pain tolerance is the greatest amount of painful stimulation that an individual is able to tolerate. Pain threshold is pretty similar among most people, but pain tolerance varies wildly in people. For example, you and your friend both stub your toe. Both of you perceive the pain, but your friend may cry bloody murder and you may not react at all to the stimulation.

Though this paper may a little specialized and esoteric, I think it gives good incite into what pain is and how we experience it. http://www.rila.co.uk/issues/full/download/70b2aba002bb412ea6ca3a79926d7a4d875111.pdf

[knitter4democracy]

8. I've passed out from pain.

I had a ten years of horrible, chronic appendicitis, the last year of which was hell. We don't know why it didn't rupture, but it sure hurt like hell. Many times, it dropped me to the floor, and I got pretty good about crawling around my house. A couple of times, I passed out from the pain, losing time.

Waking up after my surgery this fall, though, in which they removed my right kidney because of a tumor and everything around it and even three inches of rib (the tumor was too big to get it out without cutting off the end of one of my ribs), was scarier. I couldn't breathe well, and it hurt amazingly badly. Amazing pain.

I can't take narcotics. They don't work on me except to give me the side effects. I know pain, and it can be horrible. There is a limit--we do pass out if it gets too bad.

[rug]

9. Have you been in GD again?

[sarge43]

10. ......

:spray::applause:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. Years ago, I tore a tendon in a dance class, and

I momentarily passed out from pain.

[AlCzervik]

12. i had a gallbladder attack about 15 years ago, it hurt more than giving birth

and when i did give birth i go no medication--none, zero "You're too far along now for that, it will slow your labor" When i had that gallbladder attack i did in fact pass out and i woke up in the hospital.

[flamingyouth]

13. Some of the bladder pain I've had recently has made me almost black out

Before I had the tumor removed, it was just unbearable and nothing could relieve it. It was worse than kidney stones, the worst migraine headache ever and even the spinal headache I got when a steroid injection punctured my dura. Lately it's come back, though not quite as intense, and I can kind of check out from it.

[nini]

14. There is a limit

your mind will make you pass out when you've reached the limit where it is unbearable.