ELI5- why is there “good” pain (like rubbing a sore muscle), and “bad” pain? Why do they feel different?

Question

ELI5- why is there “good” pain (like rubbing a sore muscle), and “bad” pain? Why do they feel different?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Your body learns to like certain tastes, smells, sensations or other stimuli if you feel good afterwards. Alcohol might not taste good at the start, but once your brain learns to identify the taste with its effect, it begins to taste good. Cracking knuckles, rubbing sore muscles, kinky sex stuff… all those are pains the body can learn to love quite easily.

PS. I’d use different examples if I was actually explaining this to a 5yo.