why rubbing your abdomen when you have pain (and some other types of pain) produce a mildly soothing sensation?
In: Biology
If you have some sound in the background, it can be (somewhat) drowned out by someone talking to you.
The brain can only pay attention to so many inputs at once.
Caveat – there are actually times where touch can worsen pain by irritating an area that is very inflamed.
Humans are basically hard coded so that those types of touches (tummy rubs, hugs, cuddling, etc.) feel good and relieve stress. The pain probably feels less intense because your body is releasing dopamine which makes you feel better
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