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Strangely Pleasurable Symptoms


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I often experience the same set of symptoms after engaging in any of a rather odd range of activities....I (almost certainly) experience thickened saliva, dilated pupils, and goosebumps (along with the usual tingly, shivery feeling that goes along with them) after doing things like relaxation exercises (yoga or tai chi), sexual release, and (oddly enough) popping pimples! These are the only activities that I can think of off the top of my head that cause this, but the symptoms never fail to show up. I have absolutely no experience studying medicine or physiology, so the only explanation I can come up with is that it would have to be caused by the release of some common hormone...?

Maybe someone has an explanation as to why all of those activities give me the same symptoms...and, actually, why pimple-popping actually produces stronger symptoms than any of the other activities!?

 

Weird, I know....but I'm sure someone knows what I'm talking about!

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  • 1 month later...

The answer to your question is that your body composition added with the choice of foods you eat divided by the many digestive functions your body has on such foods along with what you drink multiplied by said action (pimple popping) coupled with your thoughts and conscious beliefs you conditioned your body to have subtracted by the temperature said room is at the time you we're in it along with it's lighting, skin conditions you may have along with what you just saw 5 seconds ago = said symptoms.

 

My question to you:

 

Do you really think you can attribute a single "why" to these symptoms?

 

Pain and damage, basically any physical action does this to some extent or another, causes your body to adapt.

 

Another question for you:

 

If this is a pleasure. why would you waste time questioning it?

 

I'm going to make a dumb assumption: Direct and instant damage caused by plopping the crap out of a pimple would, IMO, cause a slight increase in skin producing metabolic functions and, also, might cause a slight elevation of adrenaline. The source of adrenaline, it's production and elimination can quite literally make your body go quack for a while.

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All those symptoms you describe are those of stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system, which can be activated in people by any sensation that they find pleasant. So these are symptoms produced by you finding the stimulus pleasurable and that activating the parasympathetic system to produce these effects, rather than these effects in themselves giving you pleasure.

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All those symptoms you describe are those of stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system, which can be activated in people by any sensation that they find pleasant. So these are symptoms produced by you finding the stimulus pleasurable and that activating the parasympathetic system to produce these effects, rather than these effects in themselves giving you pleasure.

 

So, you're saying that the pleasure that one gets out of an activity (no matter what activity) would produce the same effects via the PNS? If that's true, then what produces the pleasurable sensation to begin with? Is pleasure associated exclusively with the PNS?

 

I looked up the causes of dilating pupils, which seems to be attributed to the sympathetic nervous system...so ALL of the effects I described cannot be attributed to the same process.

 

Do you really think you can attribute a single "why" to these symptoms?

 

No, I simply asked for an explanation.

 

If this is a pleasure. why would you waste time questioning it?

 

I don't believe that seeking answers (no matter if it is pleasurable or not) is a waste of time. I am curious about my physiology. Many people know much more about physiology than I do. This is a science forum. That's all there is to it.

Edited by OSHMUNNIES
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  • 2 weeks later...
All those symptoms you describe are those of stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system, which can be activated in people by any sensation that they find pleasant.

 

All three symptoms described (depending on how he means one of them) are sympathetic nervous responses:

 

Goosebumps are sympathetic.

Pupillary dilation is sympathetic.

A "thickening" of saliva sounds as if salivary volume decreases, which happens in sympathetic activation. As opposed to the increased salivation which would occur in parasympathetic evaluation, which tends to thin out saliva. He could be using "thicken," of course, to just mean "more of it" as opposed to the more conventional meaning of consistency. In that case, we're 2 sympathetic, 1 parasympathetic.

 

Also, although you're right that these can be triggered by pleasant sensations (though incorrect about what side of the autonomic nervous system they're on), that's not the whole truth. Sympathetic and parasympathetic activation doesn't cut neatly along lines of subjective experiences of pain or pleasure. There's neither a lot of sensitivity or specificity there. A rabid dog running towards you or a piece of pornography will both dilate the pupils (sympathetic). The smell of a pie baking or a noxious irritant will both make you salivate (parasympathetic). Piloerection (sympathetic) might result from a sensuous tickle, or mortal fear.

 

In short, we can't really explain the symptoms by simply saying they're part of "activation" of one side of the ANS. Particularly given that you got the system wrong, this:

 

So these are symptoms produced by you finding the stimulus pleasurable and that activating the parasympathetic system to produce these effects, rather than these effects in themselves giving you pleasure.

 

...is not correct. Although it's problematic, for reasons described above, even if you'd have gotten it right.

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