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Hurt Yourself? Just Cuss!

By Pat Racimora on July 16, 2009 at 9:31 AM in Current Affairs

webswearpain_edited-2

Letting go with an explosive expletive whenever we unexpectedly experience self-induced pain seems almost reflexive. Even if Grandma is standing right there, we don’t seem to be able to help ourselves. (Does anyone really just say “ouch” when they slam a hammer on their thumb?)

In a study to be published in NeuroReport next month, a team of investigators in Great Britain decided to put their hypothesis about the link between pain and swearing to the test. They came up with just the opposite of what they expected!

Their clever study asked one set of volunteers to hold their hands in a tub of ice water for as long as they could while repeatedly emitting the swear word of their choice. The control group engaged in the same task, but were told to keep uttering a pre-assigned neutral word instead. The researchers expected that because we usually yell much louder than what the incident objectively calls for, pain tolerance would be lower in the swearing group. That’s not what happened.

No one is quite sure why those who were spewing profanity could keep their hands submerged in icy water longer, thus suggesting that cussing increases pain tolerance. The authors opine that maybe swearing makes us feel stronger, more aggressive, more macho. This activates the fight response, which puts our autonomic nervous system into high gear, resulting in feelings of courage and strength.

As for me, I simply like the idea of having a scientific excuse for screaming out whatever I feel like when I stub my toe or cut my finger. No more having to apologize to onlookers with their judgmental raised eyebrows. No siree. Cussing is the smart thing to do in those special times of need.

  • tzada

    Like now? Like right now what is happening in the USA?
    Cuss and make us feel better eh?

  • http://rabblerouserruminations.blogspot.com Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy

    GREAT toon, Pat!! Love it!

    And LOVE having an excuse, too!! I am not kidding when I tell you that when an expletive comes flying out, I can tell myself that it is GOOD for me!!! :-D

  • pm317

    Love it, love it, the toon! I do curse and it makes me feel better to have this scientific license to do it!

  • Yeah Right

    Question——-why isn’t No Quarters covering the issue with the Army Major challenged his orders to be deployed to Afghanistan because he believe Obama isn’t a US citizen therefore the orders are illegal and the aftermaths of the issue…….

    I understand why the MSM hasn’t really covered it……YET but why haven’t No Quarters covered this. There have been SEVERAL stories about Cheney but is a story about the strong possibility that the current Pres is serving illegally not worth coverage on No Quarters? WHATS UP?

    • Peggy Sue

      There’s an interesting update and link on the original story, yeah right, over at Liberal Rapture. Apparently two officers are joining the original suit. A short piece ran in USA Today.

      I suspect Obama’s going to be swearing now. This may be a sideshow, but the individual who started the ball rolling has had his orders to deploy cancelled [at least temporarily].

      • Rob G in Chicago

        In a further update, the employer of this officer was pressured by the military to fire the officer or lose their military related contracts, so the employer complied with the lay-off request:

        http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=104044

        • Ellen D

          Now the government is violating the Whistleblower Act?
          Is everyone who just wants the Birth Certificate produced going to be threatened and intimidated by the government? Is this going to be Watergate all over again?
          I remember reading the first article on Watergate when it first linked the money for the plumbers to the Commitee to Re elect the President and it was buried on the last page of the paper. I couldn’t believe a story this big was being ignored.
          This BC story may go nowhere but it has the same potential.

      • Yeah Right

        Thanks for the info, I will check the site out. This issue may be a side show for now but it can’t stay that way for long. If enough pressure and force is put on this issue, the White House and MSM will be forced to deal with this head on!

        • ConfusedAmerican

          It made it to CNN tv last night on Lou Dobbs…

  • mark connette

    I know that Im fu$%ing fed up with obama. Yup.I feel better now

    • http://deleted BuzzisbackLatte

      I cuss and reach for the remote every time Obabble is on TV. Now I have science to back up my behavior and I like it!

  • Peggy Sue

    Well, it’s interesting to know that a scientific study has indicated that swearing alleviates stress and may actually increase our capacity to withstand pain. But I guess my question would be: exactly how much did this study cost and what’s the application of the results? The Brits are in dismal financial straits along with everyone else. So, in my humble opinion, a study like this looks less than “clever,” more like pointless.

    Are we all losing our minds? Guess I’ll have to swear on it :0).

    Love the toon, Pat!

    • Pat Racimora

      Good quetsion, Peggy Sue! I looked into the methodology as far as I could (since the study is not yet published) but I feel confident in believing that it was not grant-supported. Academics have to do research to get promoted, and this study is one that could be easily done in the university lab as part of one’s everyday acadmic activity. These appear to be young academics. When I was just starting out, my first dozen or so research publications were done on my own time with my own dime. I suspect this study cost nothing–ice, water, regular buckets and some volunteer undergraduates.

      • Peggy Sue

        If that’s the case, Pat, then your comments and Steve’s post about possible advancements in pain management make sense to me. I think many people [myself included] are beginning to have knee jerk reactions to studies, funded on the taxpayers’ dime {whether here or abroad], that may speak to a niche interest but have little-to-no practical application and don’t really expand our knowledge of the world most of us live.

        But pain management? A worthy goal.

    • Steve_in_KC

      This is academic research. I doubt the study was extensive enough to have incurred expenses beyond the usual salaries of the academic researchers. They are getting paid to study neurology, which includes pain management techniques. This is pain management that costs nothing for consumers, compared to the expensive pharmaceutical route.

      Carry this study to the next level, and those who live with chronic pain may be able to forego expensive medications for pain management. If Hindu mystics can walk on hot coals and lie on a bed of nails without harm, the power of the mind over matter seems worth a little study to me.

      And academic researchers are often not paid at all if they are students, or if they are university staff, they are drawing a salary no matter what they do with their time. Better they study human pain management than something like eating habits of extinct reptiles, IMO.

      • pm317

        I agree. Good comment. I am sure they were not awarded any big federal funding to carry out this study.

    • momule

      Peggy Sue – I am the wife of an emeritus prof from a med school. I am the first to say that there is a lot of lousy research out there (some of the worst is “reinventing the wheel” type, where researchers publish almost identical work to that published years ago because they never study the literature to see what previous studies have been done on the topic). However, don’t have a kneejerk reaction to articles that may seem peculiar to non scientists. A reasonable rule of thumb for the USA is if the study is funded, for example, by National Science Foundation or NIH, the researchers have spent a lot of sweat and tears before they ever see any money and many of them will resubmit grants several times or try for years to get even one grant. In the days before they could be submitted online we (I was my husband’s secretary) had to send about 16 typed copies (before our dept. bought us computers!) which would fill two xerox paper boxes. These contain sometimes well over a hundred references, and always detailed budgets with pages and pages of personnel costs,equipment,chemicals,etc.etc. for each year of the grant. Plus pages of explanations of what experiments would be done, why,and what they might show, etc. If there was a typo it was a nightmare – pages had to be redone.
      Finally, if the score wasn’t high enough, it was back to the drawing board! Even if you get funded, you very rarely get it just like that. Back comes the grant and you have to redo the budget and cut the money, reduce the number of years. There are a lot of other things going on, too, like how much your school gets.
      One of my pet peeves was Senator Proxmire’s Golden Fleece award for the biggest waste of money in science. It was the usual grandstanding, picking something that sounded goofy and would enrage the populus and make him look good. The only trouble was that you can make fun, for example, of some idiot doing experiments on fruit flies, but if you take the trouble to do some investigation you will find that the fruit fly has yielded some amazing and important information. Please check things out before jumping to conclusions, we certainly do this on this website about politics. We should do the same about science.

  • HARP

    I have to swear. I wasn’t born with enough middle fingers.

    • tango

      Kids have to swear too. They need their middle fingers for texting!!!

      And problems exist in Massachusetts over their health insurance. Legal immigrants who had coverage previously have been dropped so to save the state $130 million dollars, a hospital is now suing due to decreased reimbursement for treating the poor

      http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/us/16hospital.html?_r=1

      and residents can’t even afford the most basic coverage so are still going uninsured.

      http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/IrwinStelzer/Don_t-mimic-the-Massachusetts-Way-on-health-care-reform-7917580-49727752.html

      And I can’t find the link so need to search but a problem seems to be that people would rather pay the fee for no insurance since it’s cheaper than getting the insurance. Then when they feel sick or think they need care, they sign up for an insurance plan since they can’t be denied, get care, then drop insurance again until they feel it’s financially in their best interest to sign up again.

    • http://noquarter foxyladi14

      LOL..

  • sowsear

    I think I have a great deal of intellectual curiosity, but I’m with Peggy Sue, wondering why anyone would waste money on such a study at this time (or maybe ever).
    And I don’t care what they said the study found, using four letter words in casual conversation or even in painful situations is crude and unnecessary.
    I’m old-school, but no one ever used such words when I was growing up, except maybe in the locker room. It was shocking to me when I went back to college in my forties and heard the conversations of the younguns.
    Also, I’d like more on the Major who refused to go to Afghanistan, too. I’m also wondering what will happen when Orly Taitz has her court date soon-where the judge said the suit will be heard!

    • Pat Racimora

      Please see my comment to Peggy Sue. This study utilized virtually no resources.

    • Pat Racimora

      Me again, sowsear–
      I am not advocating that this study be refined (I clearly did this story as a humor filler), but my hunch is that if more controls were used and that if the volunteers were told to really yell out OUCH (or some such) very, very, loud over and over again, the result may have close to the swearing group. It may be the force of the energy of our yelling that distracts is from our own pain. Screaming lets out more energy than any emotional response, followed by laughing.

      In the meantime, there are far more silly studies in the books for sure. How about the one, published in a prestigoius journal, measuring the intensity of micturation flow (peeing) based on how close a conferderate was standing at the urinal on unsuspecting guys who thought they were releasing themselves in private? (A little hidden camera filmed it all.)

  • oowawa

    I’m surprised at all the profane people on this post. When I hit my thumb with the hammer, I always say “God bless it,” wave it twice in the air, then glance heavenward gratefully and count my blessings . . .

    However, I’ve never cut off any fingers with a power saw yet . . .

    • pm317

      you made me burst out laughing!

    • Steve_in_KC

      oowawa, either you forgot to label this as sarcasm/snark, or there is definitely something wrong with you! :P

      • oowawa

        Well Steve, I have never hit my middle finger with the hammer, so that would create a dilemma: do I wave it two or three times in the air while saying “God bless it?” I would not want the Deity to misconstrue this gesture as blasphemous sarcasm. I guess I would just have to force myself to wave my thumb again “Thumbs Up, God!”

  • helenk

    I am using language that if my children and grandchildren heard me say they would be shocked.
    Backtrack scheduled his phony health care speech at the same time as Secretary Clinton.
    NO CLASS – LOW CLASS – IGNORANT – ILL MANNERED and a few words I won’t type.

    As far as the soldier who refused orders, I started asking when I read the orders were changed. Normally would he have been told to go or be court marshaled?
    This DOD actions are weird and do not make sense.

    WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS

    PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE

  • oowawa

    Their clever study asked one set of volunteers to hold their hands in a tub of ice water for as long as they could while repeatedly emitting the swear word of their choice.

    I don’t think this study is anywhere near adequate: I mean, ice water? Oh torture me, it’s soooooo cold! Now, if they would have incorporated this study into the practice of waterboarding prisoners, the results might have been more valid. Of course, it’s hard to cuss when you can’t breathe . . . Electroshock to sensitive parts of the anatomy? Better.

    • Steve_in_KC

      oowawa: Electroshock to sensitive parts of the anatomy? Better.

      Now I KNOW there’s something wrong with you! ;)

  • Don X

    That was a funny cartoon, Pat. My tennis player friends (and I) occasionally emit an expletive when we make a stupid mistake like entirely missing a ball (and usually bite our tongues afterward). It is sometimes a bit surprising when it’s done by someone who is usually overcontrolled or conventional. It usually evokes laughs from those who hear it. I think it is human to yell or swear once in a while over some hurtful mishap. However it becomes really annoying when someone can’t carry on a conversation without using the “f” word as an adjective in every sentence.

    • Solara9

      I agree Don X. Cussing is great if used instrumentally, as the toon suggests. It serves some purpose. But I figure that people who cannot say more than 3 words in a string without cussing are not only obnoxious but also showing their lack of ability to carry on a real conversation.

  • tzada

    Pat, loved the cartoon and all. Wish that you or other writers here would take your enormous talent and write about HR 2749.

    Who is going to feed us but farmers or what we grow ourselves? Well we all know who that is. Large Corporations with food that has been bioed this and bioed that. Where your melon is mixed with pig jowls maybe? Or are we to starve to death because we don’t bow down for our food?

    For Farmers and Consumers Defending the Right to Buy and Protecting the Right to Sell Nutritious Food Directly from the Farm

    * Power to Quarantine a Geographic Area; the FDA can also Halt All Movement of All Food in a geographic area.

    * Warrantless Searches of Business Records.

    * Establishing a Tracing System for Food.

    * Severe Criminal and Civil Penalties.

    * Annual Registration Fee ($500 for 2010).

    * Regulation of How Crops Are Raised and Harvested.

    Details can be found at:
    http://www.ftcldf.org/petitions/pnum993.php

  • kat in your hat

    Cursing surely gets people to feeling more aggressive. I don’t know if that’s why they could keep their hands in the ice water longer. Were there other people present (in same room) when they cursed? If so, it could be that cursing was a diversion for them, or a way of pulling in empathy from others, which would also be a distraction but serve as bonding in a way (humorous cursing, naughty cursing)…this superficial perceived bond of communal support could prove to be encouragement to brave out the the ice water longer.

    Can they do a study on tennis players and why some of them scream or loudly grunt every time they hit the ball? Does it give them more power or thrusting energy or something?

  • Ellen D

    Does this mean that Alaskans and Canadians curse more than Californians and Floridians?

    • kat in your hat

      he he ;)

  • Stan Davis

    This reminds me of the snippet in the movie Patton. The chaplain, noting that he saw a Bible on Gen. Patton’s nightstand, asked the salty-tongued general if he actually reads that book. Patton replied, “Every goddamned day!”

  • Rich

    Great Cartoon!

    I think that the answer is that whenever we distract ourselves in any way we feel less pain. How often has someone noticed a black and blue mark and not remembered hurting themselves because at the time they were thinking or concentrating on something else? How about the skiers who get hurt, but does not realize it until they get down the hill? Today on TV was a young man who had his leg bitten off by a shark, and said at the time he felt no pain as he was intent on getting back to shore.

    By the way, that is one way by using hypnosis that a person can have surgery with little to no pain as well as controlling bleeding and speeding up the healing process.

    Rich

  • CentralMass

    Great cartoon!. If that guy had a little less hair and a little more belly, it could be me ;-)

  • Linda Anselmi

    Love the toon Pat.

    Who hasn’t been there? Nice to know that now can feel justified in expressing our pain with a little color commentary!

  • tzada

    Pat The Feds are hiring people who can make up humorous drawings “on the spot”. You would be perfect

    https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=3014e950a92dbb0f7e066f9e088a301f&tab=core&tabmode=list&cck=1&au=&ck=

    • Pat Racimora

      Well damn! The submission date was July 6th. But what is so amazing about what you found, tzada, is that my doctoral dissertation was on stress and humor and I did several subsequent research papers on the therapeutic uses of humor! I even appeared on TV with George Carlin once to discuss the uses and misuses of humor. Damn–I might have actually gotten that job (using my professional name which is different that what I use here).

      Thanks for thinking of me anyway. It is an interesting gig for someone.

      • oowawa

        A doctoral dissertation!?!? Here I assumed you were just someone who drew funny pictures. My primary rule when trying to get a “fix” on any of the writers or commenters on NQ: never underestimate anybody! Lots of accomplished, talented, and very intelligent folks hereabouts . . .

        • Pat Racimora

          LOL! Yes, we are a coloful lot. I am amazed at the talent of the writers here.

          I draw funny pictures and tell little stories about them as a fun diversion (well, except when my pictures are serious like the one ahead of this story) from a more labor-intensive and often too-serious professional life.

  • http://noquarter foxyladi14

    i always feel real bad when one of the grandkids hear me.

  • Alex

    The explanation is simple, and I’ve thought this for a long time: Cussing dispells the negative energy that comes with pain. Duh! Now see, expressing that dispells the negative energy that comes with people doing studies on obvious principles :-J.

    Nice cartoon, Pat!

  • Marvin

    Yeah, it’s always helped me, Pat. . .

    Well, either way it helps. Know what I mean? ;)

    • Tricia Spiegel

      Marvin, you’re BAAAAAD, : )