from neurological point of view, why self inflicted pain hurts less or doesn’t hurt at all?
In: Biology
Probably something to do with attention distribution. We have a finite amount of attention we can pay towards things (our working memory, think like computer RAM).
If you are focusing on a task (e.g. popping a pimple, pulling out an ingrown hair etc.) then your attention is mostly distributed towards making sure you do it right, rather than focusing on the pain – which makes it feel worse.
This is a tactic Navy Seals etc. use in torture training, or people who take ice baths, they perform a complex mental task like counting backwards from 300 in sets of 3 (300, 297, 294 etc.) so their attention is taken away from the pain and towards their mental task.
Also if you can mentally prepare you can incur an adrenaline dump which numbs pain
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