Is This Possible? If So What Is It Called?

Not being able to feel pain=congenital insensitivity to pain

Ignoring pain=normal, we all do it from time to time

Liking pain=masochism

People definitely have different thresholds for pain. But from what you describe, perhaps this is a case of machismo? :)

I like some pain.... I won't go into detail. It is possible to feel pain differently , but I think he exaggerates.

Unless he's one of those people with a condition where he feels NO pain, he just has a high tolerance. I would ask him what his point is. ANY pain? Really?

I see in another question that you're 17. I'm suspecting your boyfriend is in the same age range. I think he's being silly. Being able to tolerate pain doesn't mean much and I just hope he stays out of trouble. (I'm thinking back to my stepson saying, "Do you think I could leap over the railing and land in the foyer?" And I said, "Can? Or should?" but he was already launching himself toward the ceiling fan....)

I know of two conditions for sure that can cause a person to loose feeing, feel no pain.

One is in connection with Diabetes then other is connected to Leprosy. Both are a type of nerve damage where the nerve endings no longer function. With Diabetes it is not uncommon for people to have limbs amputated to prevent serious damage farther down the road. And Leprosy...try looking it up, it's not pretty.

Now, if your BF is trying to impress you he's not thinking it though. To feel no pain is not a good thing. What happened if you nick yourself shaving? Or if you drop something on your foot? You'd never know there was real damage or not.

Next time he mentions it put on your worried act and tell him to go to a doctor, tell him about Leprosy and Diabetes and how you're worried for him. Maybe making him think he's worrying you and not impressing you might make him think a little and be more careful with himself.

Ditto the CIPA answers.

Also keep in mind that "pain" is merely a signal sent to your brain. Somewhere between the point of contact (hand on stove) - to the neurons, to the nervous system, up to the brain and then interpreted as "pain" - that signal is mishandled by the body.

An analogy might by dyslexia. Somewhere between seeing the word and interpretation by the brain, it gets reversed. (I know this is a horrible analogy, but it was the first to come to mind. No offense to those with/those with children who have this condition. Several family members of mine do as well).

I can attest personally to having observed the effects of CIPA. Which may explain why your boyfriend describes it as "Liking pain".

While yes, there is a fine line b/n pain and pleasure, there are those that like that feeling and they are masochists.

The person I witnessed with this condition described her desire for stimulation that many would perceive as painful as actually a desire to feel.

Like a weak radio signal, her brain would only hear a very faint signal of pain. Thus in her desire to experience that faint signal, and the chemical changes it causes in the brain - she would seek an action that was pain causing in the extreme.

How do you figure it out? Ice water. Google Mythbusters and pain threshold. They had a show on it a couple years ago.

Have BF put hand up to forearm in a big bowl of ice water. If he makes it 3 minutes or over and still be able to carry on a normal conversation - pretty good indicator.

But please look up the mythbusters show, they had a warning of a top time limit allowed before actual physical damage could occur. I want to say 5 min, but it may have been more.

ETA - another test might be to ask him to show you a scar from a burn. Those with CIPA rarely make it through childhood without a scar of some type, and sadly it is commonly a burn - such as from actually touching the stove because they didn't feel the pain warning to remove their hand.

The inability to feel pain is called CIPA, they can't even feel how hot a stove burner may be. Very dangerous. My son has what your boyfriend might have: a very high pain threshold. Yes, that is my clinical assessment teehee. Honestly though, my son had stitches in his chin at age two and the doctors were amazed that they could put in his stitches with him being calm and letting them do their work. When he broke his finger at age 4 he let them xray it without a fuss (although when it happened he said it hurt really really bad, that's how I knew it was probably broken!) He just doesn't react to pain like most of us. Now my 2nd son? Has the total opposite problem, if he fell he would insist he couldn't walk and that something was broken. Total drama king. That is difficult too since when something really does hurt I would sometimes doubt him (think boy who cried wolf.) And is your boyfriend trying to impress you? I certainly hope so, that's his job! : )

yes its very possible but i dont remember what its called. Grab a handful of armhair or chest hair and pull. My dad had a very high threshold for pain and when I was feeling onery I would start trying to hurt him and he would shrug but if I could get a little handful of hair and pull it would always get a reaction out of him.

Almost to the point of liking pain -> Masochism.

I certainly wouldn't consider myself an actual masochist but in certain situations I am very good and controling and redirecting my pain. A good example is when I get piercings, I just try to redirect the pain and focus on the chemicals my body releases to fight it, instead. Gotta love those natural pain killers!

Like Lisbeth's brother in The Girl Who Played with Fire?
Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA)

I dated a guy that had two uncles that had a condition of the skin on their hands that was thick skin & they didn't feel heat, but I don't know what that was called.

Yes everyone has different pain thresholds. That's why there are some people with their entire bodies tattooed cause they either like pain or don't feel much or any. I had a good friend that walked around with torn ligamnts in his knee for about a week if not more till I got him to let me take him to the dr and he had to have surgery it was so messes up. But he was still walking but when I tore some in mine I couldn't put any presure on it.

I am guessing he has some sensory issues - essentially where he craves IMPUT thus pain is good :)

It is possible and very dangerous. I'd suspect your boyfriend is just trying to impress you though. If he didn't feel ANY pain, then he would be lucky to get through childhood safely. Kids that cannot feel pain injure themselves frequently (imagine chewing and not noticing biting your tongue, or not noticing sunburn, or getting a finger pinched in something, or picking up something too hot, or eating or drinking something too hot. Ever burned your tongue on something? Ok--- now imagine that any heated food you eat you have to worry that it might burn you because you wouldn't know....

But without the medical condition that feels NO pain, yes people have different levels of pain tolerance as well. I think mine is pretty high. And so is my son's. He ruptured an eardrum at 3 yrs old (we didn't know it as infected, and he woke up with blood on his pillow) and all he said about it was "Mommy, my ear feels full." The pharmacist said the drops we had to put in his ear for a week would burn/sting, but we could hold the bottle in our hands for a few minutes before administering them to help with the coldness part of it, that is also uncomfortable. He never complained, except that he didn't like the feeling of something in his ear--still doesn't like getting water in his ears.

So, maybe he has a higher pain tolerance than lots of people, but I doubt he is one of those rare few who are afflicted with the inability to feel ANY pain. You know it if he were. He'd be taking precautions that you would notice.

It sounds like your boyfriend is just trying to impress you. CIPA is very real and it can be very distressing to the person who has it. Your boyfriend sounds like he's bragging.

I love having my eyebrows waxed. It hurts like the dickens, but I enjoy it. So weird! On the other hand, I hate ALL other kinds of pain. Go figure.

I seem to remember reading an article a while back about a child who had a syndrome like this. Kid would break his leg, wouldn't feel it, parents would find out hours later because they finally noticed. Kid would accidentally stab himself with a sharp stick or something, wouldn't feel any pain, parents would finally notice blood running down the back of kid's leg. Stuff like that. I don't remember what it was called, but I remember thinking what a nightmare it must be for both the kid and the parents.

So I guess it is possible to not feel pain, but I don't know how you'd test your BF without hurting him. Maybe just take a chance and pinch the back of his arm really hard when he's not expecting it and see what he does...and apologize profusely when he whips around in pain and yells "What the he11?!?"

My husband says the same thing. He got picked on a lot when he was younger because he is thin and not on the tall side. He is very strong and really tough. He doesn't talk much about it, but when we were dating a couple of his friends told me about different times when he defended them or himself. One time a guy kept hitting him in the head to get a reaction. C laughed at him which infuriated the guy so he hit harder. When C had enough, he turned around and punched the guy so hard it knocked him out.
Another time he was with a couple of friends and some other guys tried to run them off. They ended up fighting. One friend was knocked out right away and the other friend lost a leg and partial use of an arm in a car wreck, so C ended up fighting off 4 guys to defend them all. He never mentioned the incidents until I heard about them and asked.
I think the adrenilin runs so high that it just blocks the pain receptors. Fortunatly all of this was well before I knew him.

I knew a manager of a restaurant that did not feel pain. And he had the burn/cut marks to prove it. He said he was born like that thank God he never broke anything but when he sliced or scrapped himself he never noticed how bad it was till he saw the blood. He had to pay special attention being in the food service industry just for that reason.

Yes, some people do have higher pain tolerance than other people. I have a high pain tolerance and always have, thanks to fibromyalgia. However, with progression of the disease it's become harder to tolerate over the past few years.

Apart from that some people do feel pain differently than others. Some people even get pleasure from it. I'm with you on refusing to inflict pain on him just to see how he would react, though. Whether he feels the pain or not is a moot point. An injury is an injury and we're supposed to feel pain. It's a signal from our brain to let us know that something is wrong.

1. Yes, different people experience pain differently. Some people have a higher tolerence for pain, while others have a low-tolerence and it's due to biological differences among different people. Some have their pain receptors closer to the surface of their skin.
2. Yes, it is possible for someone to be tolerent to any kind of pain. Usually it's martial artists that can take high impacts and not feel anything due to their training. They train their minds as well as their bodies in how to handle pain. They will desensitize thier bodies using different methods. "Iron Fist," which is a kung fu master from China, who moved to Canada years ago used to constantly hit his fist into a heavey metal plate to desensitize his hands. I saw a martial artist, who was also a cake baker in New York, run a broom stick up and down his shins to desensitize them. There was a documentary on Shaolin monks, who would hit themselves in the groin, climb stone steps on their knees, and do head stands on rough stone patios to desensitize themselves.