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Topic: Hurt yourself? Try f**king swearing
ThomasJB's photo
Mon 07/13/09 04:38 PM
Edited by ThomasJB on Mon 07/13/09 04:40 PM

Hurt yourself? Try f**king swearing

Cussing relieves pain, psychologists confirm

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Biology, 13th July 2009 10:14 GMT


A team from Blighty's Keele University has confirmed what all of us who've ever hit our thumbs with a hammer have known for years - that swearing can relieve pain.

To confirm this foul-mouthed finding, psychologist Richard Stephens and his colleagues asked 67 student volunteers to stick their hands in icy water and either gob off with the expletive of their choice or "chant a neutral word", as Scientific American puts it.

Those indulging in cussing said they suffered "less pain and on average endured about 40 seconds longer".

The explanation may lie in "evolutionarily ancient structures" in the right half of the brain, such as the amygdala, which triggers a "fight-or-flight response in which our heart rate climbs and we become less sensitive to pain".

Unlike non-offensive language, which "relies on the outer few millimeters in the left hemisphere of the brain", cussing appears to be linked to the amygdala - a fact suggested by a rise in the subjects' heart rates when they swore.

Psychologist Steven Pinker of Harvard University explained that bad language may form part of an animalistic defence reflex. He said: "I suspect that swearing taps into a defensive reflex in which an animal that is suddenly injured or confined erupts in a furious struggle, accompanied by an angry vocalization, to startle and intimidate an attacker."

Richard Stephens agreeably concluded: "Swearing is such a common response to pain that there has to be an underlying reason why we do it. I would advise people, if they hurt themselves, to swear."

The team's findings are published in the journal NeuroReport. The abstract is here. ®


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/13/pain_relief/

yellowrose10's photo
Mon 07/13/09 04:40 PM
I do that when I don't get hurt smokin

ThomasJB's photo
Mon 07/13/09 04:41 PM

I do that when I don't get hurt smokin


Does it work?

TristanBru's photo
Mon 07/13/09 04:41 PM
F#@K YEA!

newarkjw's photo
Mon 07/13/09 04:53 PM
That is total kcufing tibullsh. These ignorant ssahoels need to get a kcufing life. Wow I do feel better. Thanks drinker

yellowrose10's photo
Mon 07/13/09 05:26 PM


I do that when I don't get hurt smokin


Does it work?


*(&%(*&(*^@(^%(#@&@%*_*#@%)(#^%^ YEP!!!!!biggrin

Moondark's photo
Mon 07/13/09 05:34 PM
SOOOOOOOOOO,


Humans swear instead of growl, hiss, or roar.



On a different note, when angry, I've noticed that swearing seems to intensify and prolong the anger.

newarkjw's photo
Mon 07/13/09 05:53 PM

SOOOOOOOOOO,


Humans swear instead of growl, hiss, or roar.



On a different note, when angry, I've noticed that swearing seems to intensify and prolong the anger.


I agree, intensify and prolong. smokin

yellowrose10's photo
Mon 07/13/09 05:58 PM
it's letting off steam. I can get it all out and relieves it for me

cabot's photo
Mon 07/13/09 06:51 PM
Wow, suddenly I am pain free. My neighbors ears are probably bleeding though. Thanks for the tip. Who needs a friggin doctor now.

newarkjw's photo
Mon 07/13/09 06:57 PM

it's letting off steam. I can get it all out and relieves it for me


Nothing wrong with that. flowerforyou

no photo
Mon 07/13/09 07:26 PM


I do that when I don't get hurt smokin


Does it work?


Your !@#$% ^&*()_+ it does!!! My uncle used to say, Jesus Mary and Joseph when he got exicited about something, but if he slammed any part of his body accidentaly, you don't even want to know what he said... Always cracked me up as a kid.

no photo
Mon 07/13/09 07:33 PM

SOOOOOOOOOO,


Humans swear instead of growl, hiss, or roar.



On a different note, when angry, I've noticed that swearing seems to intensify and prolong the anger.


Once the pain subsides I am nice and calm again. Works every time though it's pretty tame compared to some cussing i hear, but it does work.

I broke my hand once, the bone was standing straight up out of the top of my hand, for some odd reason, I only felt the initial blow to the hand, and yes I cussed my momma and her momma and her momma's momma... But after the initial blow it didn't hurt at all. Which I though strange at the time. My friends couldn't even look at it without wincing, didn't phase me a bit.

Of course after I had the cast on and it started to itch, that was the worse for me... cussed a bit then too.

no photo
Mon 07/13/09 07:42 PM



I do that when I don't get hurt smokin


Does it work?


Your !@#$% ^&*()_+ it does!!! My uncle used to say, Jesus Mary and Joseph when he got exicited about something, but if he slammed any part of his body accidentaly, you don't even want to know what he said... Always cracked me up as a kid.


That IS funny.
I don't use the F word that often, unless I'm really fired up about something or hurt myself and not in the company of kids.....but one time my co-worker and I were racing out to my car at lunch trying to avoid a swarm of Cicada's (it was that whole 17 year thing) and we got into the car breathing a sigh of relief right? I look over at my friend and a huge cicada was sitting atop her shoulder looking right at me! I hate those things!

I screamed "MOTHER F#CKER" at the top of my lungs and went racing back inside leaving her sitting in my car with this beast of a bug.....laugh I like to have never lived that down at work.

It did feel better to scream it out though!

newarkjw's photo
Mon 07/13/09 07:46 PM




I do that when I don't get hurt smokin


Does it work?


Your !@#$% ^&*()_+ it does!!! My uncle used to say, Jesus Mary and Joseph when he got exicited about something, but if he slammed any part of his body accidentaly, you don't even want to know what he said... Always cracked me up as a kid.


That IS funny.
I don't use the F word that often, unless I'm really fired up about something or hurt myself and not in the company of kids.....but one time my co-worker and I were racing out to my car at lunch trying to avoid a swarm of Cicada's (it was that whole 17 year thing) and we got into the car breathing a sigh of relief right? I look over at my friend and a huge cicada was sitting atop her shoulder looking right at me! I hate those things!

I screamed "MOTHER F#CKER" at the top of my lungs and went racing back inside leaving her sitting in my car with this beast of a bug.....laugh I like to have never lived that down at work.

It did feel better to scream it out though!


That is because you are a worthless nut. You are a buckeye smokin

no photo
Mon 07/13/09 07:48 PM

That is because you are a worthless nut. You are a buckeye smokin


laugh I'm not worthless! Go Bucks!

ThomasJB's photo
Mon 07/13/09 07:49 PM
Traffic is painful and I sometimes do have a lot of choice words for it, but the pain just doesn't end.

newarkjw's photo
Mon 07/13/09 07:51 PM


That is because you are a worthless nut. You are a buckeye smokin


laugh I'm not worthless! Go Bucks!


flowerforyou I am from Newark, Oh

yellowrose10's photo
Mon 07/13/09 07:56 PM
if you think about it...psychologist do say not to bottle things up and let it all out...so this article makes sense to me. or I could just have a potty mouth laugh

no photo
Mon 07/13/09 08:03 PM




I do that when I don't get hurt smokin


Does it work?


Your !@#$% ^&*()_+ it does!!! My uncle used to say, Jesus Mary and Joseph when he got exicited about something, but if he slammed any part of his body accidentaly, you don't even want to know what he said... Always cracked me up as a kid.


That IS funny.
I don't use the F word that often, unless I'm really fired up about something or hurt myself and not in the company of kids.....but one time my co-worker and I were racing out to my car at lunch trying to avoid a swarm of Cicada's (it was that whole 17 year thing) and we got into the car breathing a sigh of relief right? I look over at my friend and a huge cicada was sitting atop her shoulder looking right at me! I hate those things!

I screamed "MOTHER F#CKER" at the top of my lungs and went racing back inside leaving her sitting in my car with this beast of a bug.....laugh I like to have never lived that down at work.

It did feel better to scream it out though!


Good story. Actually I don't say the f word as much as I used to, I try to be conscious of kids being around and adults that would have a stroke if you cussed. I was sitting with my neighbors having coffee talking about something that just struck me as irritating and out it came. My neighbor who never cusses laughed so hard, he was not expecting it I guess, either was I actually, i was not on guard..

Of course if I slam my finger, and I can't even say how many times I have done it, all bets are off, I don't care if the pope is visiting, he's gonna have to deal with it.

Theres a 3 year old right now that tells everyone they are a mudder fu#ckers. I tell his mother shes going to have a very hard time when he gets in first grade, she aught to get a grip on his language now.

She doesn't know how to stop him short of beating it out of him, which of course she doesn't do, but soap isn't working either, yesterday she tried it and the kid looked at her screaming at first then when calmed a bit called her a .. well you know what...ugh

I don't like hearing kids cuss that often, even I don't cuss that much except when injured. Some folks cuss every other word, takes all the fun out of it when you need it.

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