do you ever suffer from Phantom stings

[Chris Luck]

My OH has this, if she sees it's raining outside, she can feel the rain drops on her face and arms. if she sees someone getting a kiss on the cheek, she feels that as well.

The mind boggles Tony, she must have to very careful what she sees.

Chris

 

[Into the lions den]

The mind boggles Tony, she must have to very careful what she sees.

Chris

lol...............certain wildlife progs must be quite eye watering!

 

[Karol]

lol...............certain wildlife progs must be quite eye watering!

Was that an intentional euphemism?

 

[SixFooter]

The reaction was quite something with the volunteer screaming from the apparent scald they received. Tried it a few times at barbecues after that - neat little party trick - he, he, he!

If you ever invite me to a barbecue I'm not coming!

 

[BCBEE]

Ekbom syndrome or delusory parasitosis.

I've actually attended a lecture on this subject delivered by a psychiatrist believe it or not!

All sorts of theories offered during the lecture. Personally, I think it's down to a combination of two effects. The skin is our largest and in some ways most complex organ. It has billions of sensory cells sending a constant stream of data to our brain. To prevent overload the brain ignores most of these signals unless they are unusual - which is why most of the time we don't/can't feel the clothes that wear. Every now and then we get a sensory challenge. Insect bites are a good example. We then subconsciously worry about getting bit again which means that the threshhold at which the brain registers data from the skin is lowered so we 'feel' more. Any slight sensory challenge [including heat (and especially prickly heat), salty sweat or minute scratches, infected hair folicles, blocked pores, and even individual hairs moving on the skin etc] is then detected by the skin that we would otherwise not notice leading to the sensation of phantom stings.

There are other possible causes. Some serious conditions can cause sensations akin to phantom bites including diabetes, certain cancers and certain other diseases such as gout also affect sensory perception in skin.

It's amazing how deceptive the sensations from the skin can be and it's actually quite difficult to tell the difference between hot and cold and pain. We were shown quite an interesting experiment. The presenter had a hot glowing ember in a fire. A volunteer was blind folded and informed by the presenter that the hot ember would be placed on the palm of their hand and they were to let the presenter know if the ember was too hot. Un be known to the volunteer the presenter also had a hidden ice cube which they placed in the volunteer's hand instead. The reaction was quite something with the volunteer screaming from the apparent scald they received. Tried it a few times at barbecues after that - neat little party trick - he, he, he!

Hi Karrol
Many thanks for you informative reply
I knew that it was some sort of syndrome or phenommenumm !!!

I had heard about the ice cube trick before as well.

Phill

 

[E1M]

Sounds to me as if you are all on something........................where can I get some?