Have you ever been in pain in such a way that when the pain stops the feeling of the pain being gone is almost as intense as the pain itself?
I've had this with a few things, mostly migraines, tooth aches, and one time what may have been a pinched nerve.
Maybe it's because the thing that scares me the most about pain, isn't the pain itself, which I can tolerate, I'm tough, I like to think. But, the thought of not being able to escape pain scares me.
What happens to the body when pain stops?
The absence of pain, the cessation of pain, is a form of reward, and a powerful one, at least in associative learning. There are experimental paradigms in animal model systems where the cessation of pain acts as the reinforcer.
Goes by "pain relief learning". For example:
"‘Pain relief’ learning in fruit flies", Yarali et al. 2008 (Bertram Gerber's lab)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000334720800273X
And also:
"Reinforcement signaling of punishment versus relief in fruit flies", König et al. 2018 (Yarali's lab)
https://learnmem.cshlp.org/content/25/6/247.short
"Painful events establish opponent memories: cues that precede pain are remembered negatively, whereas cues that follow pain, thus coinciding with relief are recalled positively."
myrmepropagandist
Albert Cardona
Petra van Cronenburg