Imagine if you could never feel PAIN

something interesting to share what I learnt in Psychology

Imagine that because of some accident you could never feel pain anymore. This would have clear advantages - after sporting activities you would never have sore, aching muscles, you would never suffer a head-ache again. However, there would be drawbacks - you would not notice that you had just burned your hand on the stove, or that you were stepping on glass with your bare feet. As a result, you might do more bodily damage by not withdrawing your hand from the stove, or by continuing to tread on the sharp glass. Pain warns your body that something is wrong, or that some type of damage is occurring. Without pain, your body will not respond as effectively when something detrimental is happening. Despite its warning function, pain can be aggravating. Therefore, our brain has a sort of central control system that determines whether a pain is useful in the given situation and should be felt, or whether the pain is not necessary and thus should not be felt. Many sports players, for example, do not feel pain from their injuries in the passion of the game, because they cannot use the pain at that moment. Not until the game is over do they feel the pain. Then the function of the pain surfaces (that is, learning to avoid the behavior that caused the pain in the first place).