Why is a person so afraid of tickling? 3 Ways to Tickle Someone - wikiHow

The vast majority of people on our planet are afraid of tickling. In this issue we will talk about why this happens and why a person needs this feature of the body.

Tickling is usually accompanied by laughter and various sensations from pleasant to annoying and almost always causes laughter. It is worth noting that not only humans are famous for this feature, but also some species of animals. For example, apes and even rats, which associate it with play, which causes positive emotions in the animal. Surprisingly, they even make sounds somewhat similar to human laughter. Based on research, some layers of the cerebral cortex of rats, when stimulated, cause similar reactions. At the same time, just like in humans, tickling can cause unpleasant sensations to the animal if it is under stressful conditions.

Incredibly, there is evidence that tickling was used as torture by the Nazis in World War II. The prisoner was put into a state of agony by using goose feathers and mocking his naked body for hours. And the British Medical Journal describes another type of torture, when the victim’s feet were soaked in salt water, after which a specially brought goat licked it off, bringing incredible torment. Another study from Vernon Vieux's book shows that offensive tickling can cause extreme physical reactions such as vomiting, urinary incontinence and even loss of consciousness.

And finally, I would like to note that the peculiarities of the nervous system do not make it possible to engage in self-tickling, because Not only physiology, but also the psyche is responsible for the reaction to it. However, according to research, people with schizophrenia can do this without any restrictions.

Heger, Heinz. The Men With the Pink Triangle.

Wiehe, Vernon. Sibling Abuse: Hidden Physical, Emotional, and Sexual Trauma

Why are people afraid of tickling?

“I’ll tickle you, I’ll tickle you!” — dad plays with his daughter. "Ah ah ah! Ha ha ha! Well, daddy, that's enough already! I can’t laugh anymore!” — the little girl laughs incessantly. “But now I’ll tickle you too, you’re also afraid of tickling, right?” - tries to do with dad the same thing that he did with her. - “Well, how come, why aren’t you afraid of her, but I’m afraid?”

What is tickling?

First, let's figure out what tickling is. You probably already know what it is, and of course you were tickled and it was very funny.

Tickling is a sensation caused by tickling or lightly touching the skin.

The most sensitive areas for tickling are:

• Feet
• Ribs
• Armpit area
• Stomach
• Popliteal fossae

There are several options for the origin of the tickling sensation:

• With the help of tickling, our body protects us from external irritants. Evolution has given animals the ability to sense the appearance of, for example, a harmful insect and notify the brain that something is bothering it.
• Tickling is a unique good mood stimulant. During tickling, the internal systems of the body are excited. Tickling has an ambiguous effect on the human psyche: it can increase immunity, gives a positive mood, but at the same time, convulsive movements are a manifestation of the fact that a person is unpleasant, and laughter is a kind of scream.
• There is an option that tickling is a side effect that occurs in response to “borderline” influences between affection and pain.

Why are some people not afraid of tickling?

It is believed that people who have low sensitivity are not afraid of tickling.
Also, people who have the right volitional attitude are not susceptible to tickling; their body is not distracted by all sorts of nonsense. This means that susceptibility to tickling depends on your mood.

Is it possible to protect yourself from tickling?

It’s impossible to stop being afraid of tickling all at once, this feeling goes away over the years and becomes less intense, but it’s possible to reduce the unpleasant sensations. To do this, you just need to touch the body of the tickling person. In this case, your brain will think that you are tickling yourself and the discomfort will decrease.

Why do we laugh when we are tickled?

This is the most important and unsolved question. Laughter is usually associated with humor and pleasure, but during tickling it occurs uncontrollably and is generally not associated with a joke or funny moment.

• Everyone knows that a person cannot tickle himself. This is due to the fact that the brain prepares in advance and understands that there will be no threats from such touches, and therefore there is no reaction.
• The ancient Romans used tickling as torture. They tied up the criminal, dipped his feet in salt water, and brought in goats to lick the salt.

Some people are afraid of tickling, but few people have thought about the effect it has on the body. The fact is that in psychotherapy there is a certain term fear of tickling. An irritable state in which a person suffers from fits of laughter indicates weak nerve endings.

Do not underestimate tickling, as its symptoms can be seriously harmful to the body. It is not for nothing that in ancient times some peoples used it as torture for prisoners.

Fear of tickling - pteronophobia

Is tickling dangerous for humans?

The unpleasant sensations that a person experiences from such an effect are of an irritable nature. This condition affects the psycho-emotional state of a person. Many people have tried to tickle their loved ones for fun, or have been the victim themselves at one time or another. From a light touch of fingers or an ordinary feather, the nervous system is excited, tension is felt in the muscles, a smile appears on the face, and it becomes funny. Such signs are a protective reaction of the body.

The manifestations of the tickle reflex depend on the health and strength of the nervous system. Psychologists are sure that a person’s mood, his mood, and the ability to switch his own attention to other things are also important.

Cause of Tickle Phobia

Everything is not as simple as it may seem. The fact is that getting rid of fear is not so easy. People with weak nerves can get rid of the fear of tickling through the systematic use of several exercises. And those for whom the mere thought of such a phenomenon causes horror will have to struggle with psychological disorder.

This disease is called pteronophobia.

Its manifestation can affect a person’s mental, physical and behavioral state. It should be dealt with psychologically, and sometimes even with medication.

Tickling can be harmful

The effect of tickling on the body

Few people were interested in the origin of this phenomenon. The fact is that there is no single designation for the reaction of influence on the body. There are 3 theories:

1. That convulsive state, accompanied by signs of fear of tickling, is a protective reaction of the body to external stimuli.
2. Excitation of the nervous system stimulates the work of all internal organs and systems. Hormonal levels change, which changes your mood, and even increases your immunity.
3. Tickling, as a side effect, is a condition that the body cannot accurately determine (whether it is a threat or affection).

You need to fight fear

For different people, tickling can cause feelings of disgust, or it can be associated with humor and as a way to stimulate the mood.

It is impossible to tickle yourself. You just need to touch your body to understand this. The brain promptly receives a signal that there is no danger. There is only one conclusion: the body’s reactions have a close connection with the human psyche.

Vulnerabilities

Each person has his own most sensitive place. This is expressed by the characteristics of the human nervous system. Some areas are most vulnerable to tickling:

• Feet;
• ribs;
• stomach;
• popliteal fossa;
• armpits.

In these areas, any contact with the skin can cause convulsive uncontrolled movements, tears through a smile. Tickling is not as harmless as it might seem. Those who want to overcome their fear will have to understand how pronounced the fear is and what symptoms it has.

Vulnerable spots for tickling

What can tickling lead to?

The most common reaction of the body to tickling is a smile and hysterical laughter. Sometimes the emotional state is so affected by the irritant that tears may appear. There are other signs that should be noticed promptly. You should consult a doctor if tickling causes:

• dizziness;
• pain in the area where the stimulus acts;
• uncontrolled urination;
• hiccups

Prolonged tickling can be fatal. It has been proven that prolonged active action of the irritant can cause muscle spasms and suffocation. Death from tickling is possible.

Help from a psychologist for pteronophobia

How to overcome your fear of tickling

Having decided to overcome their fear of tickling, people go to psychotherapists. The specialist’s task is to find out the severity of fear, its impact on the psychological and physical state. Therapy is based on simple exercises:

1. Switching attention. During tickling, it is important to try to concentrate your attention on any surrounding objects or on your own thoughts that are not related to the irritant. Breathing exercises will be useful to help relieve tension.
2. Concentrating your own feelings. You should pay attention to the process itself and to the item that causes inconvenience. It is important to notice any small details, roughness, temperature, size, weight and material. This way the brain receives more information about the stimulus and begins to perceive it normally.
3. Change of emotions. If tickling causes hysterical laughter, it should be transformed into aggression. This change in emotion will help relax your nerves and reduce signs of fear.
4. Mental transfer to the comfort zone. The most common option is a cinema hall where one of your favorite films is shown. By building a model of a cozy, comfortable place, while drawing the faces of the characters, their movements and speech, anxiety and fear of the stimulus gradually disappears.
5. Talking to yourself. Such methods to stop being afraid of tickling may seem funny, but their effectiveness is undeniable. When discomfort occurs, you should begin a dialogue with yourself, asking yourself questions and answering them out loud. Using these tips, you can overcome your fear in just a few days. You need a positive attitude and confidence in a positive outcome of therapy.

If the feeling of tickling or just the thought of it causes panic attacks in the patient, a deeper study of not only the symptoms of the phobia, but also the causes of its occurrence is necessary. The cause of obsessive fear is a situation experienced in childhood, when loved ones tickled the child while playing with him. These patients often require multiple sessions of individual or group therapy, as well as sedatives or tranquilizers.

Conclusion

The effect of tickling on the body can be different. Some people experience no discomfort, but others experience pain and dizziness. Active, prolonged tickling can cause muscle spasms and even suffocation. The reaction to the body can be acute throughout a person’s life. It is important to get rid of the problem in a timely manner before it leads to tragic consequences.

You can get rid of the fear of tickling with the help of mental influence. A prerequisite is the action of the stimulus. During tickling, it is important to learn to switch your attention to your thoughts or surrounding objects. You can use the opposite method, when the sensitivity of the nervous system is stabilized only by concentrating on the hand, feathers, etc.

Incredible facts

One of the most pleasant sounds to our ears is laughter, and the strongest laughter is often caused by tickling. Parents tickle their children to make them giggle loudly, and the tickling of lovers is more reminiscent of flirting or innocent caresses.

In what places are people most sensitive to tickling and is it possible to tickle a person to death?

Here are the answers to these and other tickling questions.

1. Tickling helps us bond.

Not only can tickling make us laugh, but it can also help us build relationships. Back in the 19th century, Charles Darwin noted that tickling was a mechanism for social bonding. She serves one of the first forms of communication between mother and child. It also helps build connections between friends and is considered by psychologists to be part five, the highest level of social play, involving intimacy and cognitive interaction.

2. We can't tickle ourselves.

If another person's touch can cause tickling, why can't we tickle ourselves? Scientists suggest that our cerebellum can distinguish unexpected touch from expected sensations, and this suppresses the tickle response. When we try to tickle ourselves the brain anticipates this and prepares for the tickling. Perhaps a person developed different reactions to the expected and the unexpected in order to better protect himself from enemies.

3. The most ticklish spots are the most vulnerable spots during an attack.

The soles of the feet and armpits are considered two of the most sensitive places on our body. In addition, most ticklish areas such as the neck, chest, and genital area are also the most vulnerable in battles.

The axillary vein and artery pass through the armpit and provide unobstructed access to the heart, which is not protected by the chest. The neck also contains two important arteries in the human body that supply blood to the brain. The trachea, which carries air to the lungs, is also located in the neck.

4. Tickling is our body's warning system.

Scientists have found that the feelings we experience when we are tickled make us panic and are natural defense mechanism against crawling insects such as spiders and beetles.

5. Tickling can turn into torture.

There have been cases in history where tickling was used as corporal punishment. There is evidence that the Nazis used tickling as torture. The ancient Romans also used a special type of torture. They tied up the offenders, dipped their feet in salt water and forced the goats to lick it off. Over time, the tickling became very painful.

As for death from tickling, there is evidence that a person can die from laughter, which means it is theoretically possible to some extent.

6.The older we get, the less sensitive we are to tickling.

Is tickling child's play? There is some truth to this, since people under 40 are 10 times more likely to be tickled than those over 40. And this is not because adults do not like tickling, but with age there is a gradual decrease in tactile sensitivity.

7. Tickling can be stopped

How to do it? Place your hand on the hand of the person tickling you. Doctors often resort to this trick. When a doctor wants to examine a patient's stomach, he may ask him to place his hand on his. So you're kind of doing the same thing as the doctor, which makes our brain think you're tickling yourself. The only problem is to grab the tickler's hand.

8. Tickling helps you lose weight

If tickling makes you laugh out loud, it burns calories. Scientists have found that 10-15 minutes of laughter burns an additional 10-40 calories per day, which can mean a weight loss of several kilograms per year. Of course, it's not the same as going to the gym, but if you decide to lose weight, every calorie counts.

9. Tickling can be sexually pleasurable.

For some people, tickling almost any part of the body gives them pleasure, and there are those who get aroused by watching others being tickled. In a broad sense, tickling can serve as a form of foreplay. However, when knismolagnia– arousal from tickling, it becomes a form of sexual fetishism.

10. Why do we laugh when we are tickled?

This is the main unanswered question regarding tickling. Laughter is usually associated with humor and pleasure. But when tickled, it occurs uncontrollably, not being associated with a joke or funny incident. Sometimes the tickling process can even be unpleasant and painful. So why do we laugh?

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Why are some people afraid of tickling?

"I'll tickle you, I'll tickle you!" Surely you are familiar with this and you also often play this way with your parents. And when in response to your attempts there is no reaction from adults, you become indignant - “Why am I afraid of tickling, and you are not?”

And really, why are some people very afraid of tickling and don’t like it, while for others it doesn’t evoke any emotions at all?

Before answering this question, you must first understand what tickling is. This is a sensation that is caused by lightly touching the skin. The most sensitive and ticklish places on the human body are the ribs, stomach, neck, dimples under the knees, as well as the soles of the feet and armpits.

What causes this reaction in the body? And why are some people susceptible to tickling and others not? Scientists have found that tickling is nothing more than one of our body’s protective reactions from external irritants.

For example, if we feel the legs of some harmful insect (mosquito, etc.) tickling us, we can drive it away before it bites us. In addition, tickling can perfectly improve your mood. Of course, not everyone, but only those people who have a positive attitude towards her.

As for the question of why some people are afraid of tickling and some are not, scientists answer it this way: people who have poor sensitivity in the body as a whole are not afraid of tickling.

It is also believed that those who have the right volitional attitude are not susceptible to tickling; their body is not distracted by such trifles. This means that susceptibility to tickling largely depends on a person’s mood.

Another interesting question related to tickling is why do we laugh when we are tickled? By the way, many children are interested in it. Even science still cannot give a definite answer to this.

Laughter is a reaction to something funny. But tickling has nothing to do with humor. Therefore, some scientists think that laughter during tickling is something similar to screaming, as in pain.

And finally, the last thing we want to know about tickling is whether we can somehow protect ourselves from it? It is, of course, impossible to stop being afraid of tickling all of a sudden, this feeling goes away (or becomes less intense) only over the years.

However, scientists suggest that it is possible to reduce the discomfort experienced during tickling. What is needed for this? You just need to touch the person who is tickling you.

How will this help? Everyone knows that when a person tries to tickle himself, nothing happens. And if your brain thinks that you are tickling yourself, then the unpleasant sensations will decrease.

This is due to the fact that the brain prepares in advance and understands that nothing bad will happen from such touches, so there will be no reaction either.