For example, I cut my arm and I immediately feel pain. Pain is there to notify me that something is wrong or that I’m injured, but now that I’m aware and that I’ve taken care of it (say poured some disinfecant and wrapped it up) why do I still feel that pain. Why can’t our brain know that the wound is not dangerous anymore?
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Look up something called the smoke alarm principle by anthropologist Randolph Nesse. Essentially, our body overreacts to certain things (pain when nothing is imminently dangerous, vomiting when what we consumed isn’t actually poisonous, etc.) because the cost of underestimating something serious is much greater than the cost of the overreaction.
Akin to a smoke alarm, as the name suggests. Meant to warn you of a fire in the most dangerous sense, it also goes off just by slightly burning toast. This burnt toast won’t kill you or destroy the house, but the alarm detected some smoke and that’s all that matters. Better to overreact than underreact.
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