• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of, and finding treatments for, complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia, long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Synesthesia: extreme leg and back pain when watching someone get hurt

Messages
72
Hi,

When I watch YouTube fail compilations where people (looks like) get hurt by falling, scratching their skin etc. I feel extreme almost unbearable pain in my lower back and down the legs right at the painful moment on the screen. The pain is short, lasts for a second or so.

The muscles in the areas where I feel this pain do constantly feel weak and fatigue.

Does anybody have the same symptom? Did you manage to mitigate it somehow?
 
Last edited:

Judee

Psalm 46:1-3
Messages
4,502
Location
Great Lakes
Maybe it's also because you have a tender heart and using someone else's misery for entertainment (which those videos are) bothers something deep inside of your spirit and this is coming out as actual pain in your body.
 
Messages
72
Maybe it's also because you have a tender heart and using someone else's misery for entertainment (which those videos are) bothers something deep inside of your spirit and this is coming out as actual pain in your body.
I would say my heart is pretty normal in this sense. I do empathise people but nothing extreme.

For me, such reaction is a clear indication that psychosomatics is not only real, but can physically affect our bodies in such ways that even a direct physical impact could not.

Besides what's described in my initial post, I also can induce the similar pain in one leg by just thinking about something I don't really like - just a single thought.

I am pretty sure all that is caused by the herpes infection outbreaks (at some point I had twice almost every month which lasted for a couple of years).

My hypothesis is following: dopamine/serotonin imbalance causes immune system imbalance which causes chronic herpes infection to outbreak periodically which leads to nerve damage and such odd painful reactions.