[guerrilla]

> You aren't "made to feel anything", it's a two way street. You have someone who says something negative, and you have the choice to listen to it or disregard it. That's a choice

Right, this is why we can choose not to feel the pain of being punched in the face.

No.

[ben_w]

I get your point, but would also like to add that to a certain extent (and variable by person) pain from physical injuries can be influenced by psychology.

There was a time I was cycling at night down a half-finished cycle route, the kerb separating it from the guided busway had been placed but not the tarmac, but I couldn't see that at night (I had a light but it still wasn't visible).

I tried to leave the cycle path, bounced off the surprise rise of the kerb, and it hurt before I hit the ground. Picked myself up, stopped thinking about it, went on to the cinema, watched the film, when the lights came up I realised quite how badly I'd been grazed.

Sometimes I can switch the pain off on purpose, sometimes I can't. The dichotomy isn't even just with regards to physical pain, it's also a sometimes-yes-sometimes-no with emotional distress, so I can go into a "public performance" mode on a stage and goof about no trouble, but I can't seem to shake my deep dislike of mere phone calls.

People are weird, I'm a person therefore I'm weird. :)

[johnnyanmac]

>bounced off the surprise rise of the kerb, and it hurt before I hit the ground.

Sounds like a form of phantom pain. I don't know the exact term but it is a well studied phenomenon. one that, AFAIK, isn't fully understood.

But yes, your brain can very much lie to you. Just look up how much post processing your brain will do to help you see the way you see.

>Sometimes I can switch the pain off on purpose, sometimes I can't.

yeah, we have chemicals in our body to do that. It doesn't turn off pain automatically because it is in fact a good thing to realize when you're bleeding out of your leg. It only turns that off for you semi-voluntarily if your brain involuntarily determines (again based on other chemicals) that GTFO is more beneficial to survival than tending to your wound. I'm not going to say it's impossible to train these excretions of chemicals. I will argue that this is probably something you can train for years to do and fail, though.

There's so much about our bodies that still eludes the brightest minds. Even a function as basic as sleeping and why and how it benefits us is still not fully in our understanding.

[FireBeyond]

That's not a psychological response, that's adrenaline. It numbs the pain response because in fight or flight situations, it's a distraction. It's not a choice, and it's fleeting and transient, a few minutes to twenty minutes.

[ben_w]

> a few minutes to twenty minutes.

How about minus one second and plus 169 minutes? (It was the first of the Hobbit trilogy).

[mvncleaninst]

You're taking the word out of context and using a different definition of it

[ravishi]

You're literally "made to feel" certain ways. During your formative years someone was shouting you suck and generally acting as you're a burden and unwanted? You'll feel that shit for the rest of your life no matter what you "decide to think". It becomes ingrained in you. It becomes who you are. You can work on it like GP said and improve the situation but don't act like it's trivial or just a change of perspective. It isn't. It's like your body needs healing after a fractured bone. Your mind also needs that time and setting.

[mvncleaninst]

I'm not saying that trauma isn't real, I'm saying that it doesn't have to impact your prospects in life. You don't have to let it define you. There's a capacity to sidestep it

Here's a personal example: having abusive family members tell me I won't be successful or independent, being hurt by it but knowing in the back of my head that I would get out of there. It's hope

And I get it: not all trauma is equal here, but if I have to choose one extreme I'd prefer the one that gives people some shred of agency