Does pain inhibit happiness?

Some people get off on feeling pain. I hate pain. I am new to this philosophy forum. Can anyone enlighten me?

 

In the usual course of events pain can and does inhibit happiness. The masochist who says he ejoys pain means only a relatively small amount of it. Chop off a limb, and see how much pleasure they derive from it.
Generally, such people are pretty confused.

Pain and pleasure are two sides of the same coin. You can't have one without the other.

 

what type of pain are you refering? everyday aches & pains caused by debilitating illness or s&m type pain during sex? everyday aches definately does inhibit peoples happiness. but if your into the s&m type i believe it only enhaances pleasure.

 

when I was young I bought into the whole idea that being in pain and suffering would lead a person to be a better person. after nearly thirty years of chronic, nearly constant pain, I know that I'm no better than anyone else. I might have a different perspective on certain things because of it, but that doesn't make me any better than someone who has hardly ever experienced any pain in their entire life. Pain has not brought me happiness in any way, shape, or form. It makes me miserable, and makes everyone around me miserable as well. Many people do believe that having experienced pain makes them stronger, makes them more sympathetic, or what have you. It doesn't really. It just makes them feel good about themselves that they endured, they survived, gives them a sense of acheivement. Surviving a temporary painful experience can be quite intoxicating, better than any drug. But it's temporary pain, and you always know that it will end at some point, and the high you get from it is temporary as well.

 

You are seeming to request a trascendantally-centered question, so I will try to provide a few definitions according to JS Mill, a philosopher who, like most others, centers his work on pleasure/pain and their uses in our life.
JS Mill worked on furthering a philosophy called Utilitarianism, which means just that-"usefulness". He said that the goal, or end purpose, of humans is to be happy; to experience pleasure.
When he said this, people went mad and called him a hedonist, while others called him "spare" and minimalist. This wasn't the first time that this ( end purpose, of humans is to be happy) had ever been postulated.
Mill's idea of happiness, which he defines over and over, to clarify, is not one of ecstatic, orgiastic bliss, but a life lived well, and with pains small, few and far between.
I know that this isn't terribly interesting for many, but myself-yes. Pain is supposed to be transitory. Isn't that reasonable, that life should be reasonably lived, and pain should be avoided, not at all costs, but certainly not sought?
~

 

Thy rod and staff comfort me. When you know what the pain is for, you recognize the benefits of feeling it. Pain is complicated, like a glass of wine, and the unwise cannot find joy in it.

 

morphine can cure pain

 

i dunno, i think pain and pleasure are not opposites. i think pain only hurts when your body and mind associate it with negative consequences. but when people have positive takes to pain they can incorperate it into their sex. cutting off a limb is an incredibly bad thing for botht eh body and the mind, no one except the most unusual would find pleasure in it. but small wounds that will heal, and which give you some sort of emotional release, can become a type of pleasure.

sometimes i like the sensation of pain but not often and not from cutting my skin or anythin

 

Like all things, it is our attitude that brings either joy or suffering.

 

i WASN'T TALKING ABOUT SEXUAL PAIN. i MEANT LIKE WRIST SLITTING AND STUFF

 

Very true
Also totally agree with Sandpedlar.

Pain doesn't bring happiness per se, but without it I doubt we could fully appreciate pleasure. If we were only ever happy all the time we'd take that for granted.

As for self harm, never done that myself for various reasons, but am pretty sure it's not for pleasure. More of a manifestation of emotional pain and release thereof.

 

I think that Sage-Phoenix hit it right on the head.
I used to have an issue with cutting, and it was definately not for pleasure, but for emotional release. It didn't help, but oddly enough, I didn't know what else to do. It seemed logical at the time.
There is nothing that I can suggest to you, if this is the route you are looking at, except get a haircut and read a book. That is a pretty good quick-fix for me now.

 

emotions need physical outlets or else they plague the mind and chew at your soul in your dreams

 

Yeah, OK - pain CAN influence how we each feel, and that includes happiness. However, with the RIGHT support system, even happiness CAN be had. As far as relationships go - I would STRONGLY suggest that your partner KNOW up front about pain issues you may have, and be both open and supportive to you FULLY.

- Of course, if it is of the S&M type - well, I'd sure hope your partner is as into (or not) as you are. Pain of any sort in a relationship CAN help to wreck it if its kept from your other half.

 

Why put the keys to your happiness in someone else's pocket?

 

yeah. it's not up to anyone else to make you happy. You can be just as miserable as you wanna be.

 

I was NOT suggesting that you put it in someone elses hands, but only saying (from personal experience) that happiness CAN be found in the right relationship no matter how much pain one might feel due to dibilitating illness/disease/ect. A support system CAN go a long way for the person who suffers from pain...

I have a hereditary disease called Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT for short, and named after the 3 docs who originaly diagnossed it). This is VERY painful to me, and I am now legaly considered disabled. Due to famaily issues some of you might have read about in another thread here - my physical pain is actualy gone for now, and replaced by a pain far greater and deaper. I honestly find myself yearning for that physical pains return, but enough of that.

My point in all this is that in the past I have been able to go beyond my pain on those days where we were happy and do more dispite it. I KNOW happiness CAN and DOES affect pain from personal experiance, and beleive the better ones personal life and relationships - the easier it is to deal with ones daily pains.

 

i think your question is really sort of its own answer. the relationship between happiness and pain, is probably within yourself.

nature and our guides give us the gift of pain as a road sign to tell us this is not a bennificial direction to be going.

pain, like love, can take many forms. the wise take no pleasure in the anguish and anxiety of others. there is, or may be, a ligitimate outlet for the gratification of physical pain however.

these are such two different things that i feel there is a problem giving them teh same name.

there are other things i feel this way about too.

there is a kind of sweetness we can sometimes find in our own tears. this is yet a third thing.

=^^=
.../\...