Benign pain: what it is and what it is for

What if you were told that self-inflicted pain can actually be an effective coping mechanism to reduce negative or unpleasant emotions? Sounds a little strange, doesn't it? Well, this is what a recent study by researcher Ashley Doukas and her colleagues suggests (2019), published in the journal Emotion.

In this article we will see in detail what this research consisted of, what its results and conclusions were, and also what it said about benign pain (this type of pain we will explain) a previous experiment.

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What is benign pain?

A new research, from 2019, published in the journal Emotion and directed by Ashely Doukas, suggests that This type of pain is involved in the regulation of our emotions.

Thus, according to this study, benign pain consists of a type of physical pain, which could help us reduce distress and other psychological symptoms. It would, therefore, be a strategy for regulating emotions.

But what do we mean when we talk about benign pain (always according to this study)? We refer to part of the psychological phenomena behind

non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors (NSSI in English). These behaviors are generally carried out by people with some type of mental disorder (for example anorexia, depression... However, according to this study that talks about benign pain, these behaviors are also developed by a part of the population that does not suffer from any disorder mental.

The reason for these behaviors? It has always been thought that these people (those who have some type of mental disorder) commit these acts because they want some type of pain that prevents them from feeling the emotional pain they suffer, which is why they cause this pain classified as pain benign.

However, the research we are talking about suggests that beyond this reason lies the following: regulate extreme emotional states. This statement is supported by the author of the study, Ashley Doukas.

Thus, as has been observed in this research, there would be a part of the healthy population (the “control” group) that would use this benign pain to counteract certain negative emotions. This benign pain is not always caused by oneself, and could also include sensations of cold, heat, or harmless pressure (as used in the experiment). Specifically, this group reported a reduction in negative emotions after receiving a painful stimulus.

What did the experiment consist of?

In the research we told you about that tried to explain the reason for benign pain, the The researchers proceeded as follows: they exposed 60 participants to images disturbing, and They offered them two types of cognitive strategies, as well as two physical strategies, to deal with negative emotions. produced by said images.

Participants were told they could reduce that negative emotion in different ways:

• Thinking of a different image.
• Changing the meaning of the image in your mind.
• Self-administering a painful shock.
• Self-administering painless electrical stimulation.

Results

The results of the research on benign pain were as follows: 67.5% of participants chose, at least once, self-administration of painful shock.

There were 16 trials, and in these, participants chose the painful shock between 0 and 13 times (on an average of 2 times per participant). The same participants rated the painful stimulation strategy as equally effective as others, in order to regulate the distress they felt when viewing the unpleasant images.

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Conclusions

Ashley Doukas, the author of the study, hopes, based on these results, that people who engage in this type of self-harming behavior will be destigmatized, since, According to her, benign pain would be another way to regulate negative emotions. From this point of view, it is true that there are self-harming behaviors that are very harmful to oneself, but Then there are others, carried out by a group, that hide a “good intention” behind them, and that is the self-regulation.

This study may seem a bit bizarre to us: who can say that self-harm is good? But we should not stay with the superficial part; What Doukas implies, with her research, is that there are very negative self-harming behaviors, of course, but that there are others that would not be so bad, because in reality the pain that is caused is not to harm oneself, but to regulate an unpleasant internal state, as one's own coping mechanism.

Doukas, in her study, suggests that we think about when people get intense massages, which “hurt” but at the same time are pleasant, or when we put hot sauce on tacos. In these situations we are causing ourselves “benign pain.”

Other investigations

In research prior to the one mentioned, the following procedure was carried out: the participants in the experiment were exposed to sitting alone in an empty room for 10 minutes.

They were ordered not to sleep, read or use mobile phones. But they were allowed one thing: self-administer, at the desired frequency, painful or painless electrical stimulation.

What happened in this experiment? The results showed how 60% of the participants decided to self-administer, at least once, the painful electrical stimulus. How many times was the stimulation administered? This number ranged from 0 to 69, with an average of 13, which is a lot.

That is, they preferred to feel pain than to be bored. As in the previous experiment, benign pain, in this case, acted as a self-regulatory strategy to reduce negative emotions, such as boredom.

Healthy pain?

As a result of the research explained, we can ask ourselves (as Doukas did)Where are the boundaries between “healthy” pain and “unhealthy” pain??

According to her, not so much in the pain itself, but in the mechanism to produce said pain; Getting a cut is not the same as getting a cramp, for example. Thus, perhaps the limit is found in the way that pain is inflicted.

Its importance in the face of self-harming behaviors

Ashley Doukas insists that benign pain is part of non-clinical populations, and for this reason it does not stop giving the importance it deserves to self-harming behaviors in patients with some mental pathology, because these are very serious cases. But she differentiates it; They are not the same actions nor do they have the same purpose.

Doukas aims, through her research, and through future research that has as its object of study benign pain, treatment options can be expanded for people with behavioral self-harming The goal is for them to be able to use “healthier” mechanisms and, for example, instead of burning or cutting their skin, they can use some type of non-harmful electrical stimulation.

Doukas speaks, to make these treatments possible, of TENS (electrical stimulation devices), devices that are frequently used in the field of physiotherapy. The author encourages eliminating stigmas and opening minds, especially health and mental health professionals.

Bibliographic references:

• Doukas, A. M., D'Andrea, W. M., Gregory, W. E., Joachim, B., Lee, K. A., Robinson, G., Freed, S. J., Khedari-DePierro, V., Pfeffer, K. A., Todman, M., & Siegle, G. J. (2019). Hurts so good: Pain as an emotion regulation strategy. Emotion. Advance online publication.