Every time I read or watch the emotional or mental pain of certain characters in particular settings (cliché), I quickly feel momentary pain coursing through my arm from the mere understanding of their side in the story. Am I reading too much, like subconsciously associating past experiences with fictional personas? Funny, their situations are not remotely close to mine, so I don't know if its misguided empathy or something else. I don't know what you call this condition, but indeed, there is this quick prick or heaviness in the chest or heart along with the slight electrifying surge in my right arm. Anyone what I'm experiencing as of lately? It is an interesting experience, not gonna lie. Makes me feel... alive, I guess? A little discomforting, though.
Not the first time for me, but for a completely different reason than what I explained in the OP. If it's really an anxiety attack, then why a response from reading fiction? It's not even hitting close to home kind of story, so I'm genuinely intrigue about why the sudden response from my body to such dialogues.
Sounds like empathy. Kinda remiinds me of the first pangs of emotional pain I felt when experiencing NTR fiction for the first time.
Maybe check with a doctor on that? Or maybe you experienced an injury on your arm when you were too young to remember? Maybe ask your parents? As far as I’m aware, the only pain you should be feeling is sadness in your heart, maybe a runny nose and tears. But I’ve never heard of someone’s arm hurting from emotional upset, unless it was their left arm and they were having a heart attack caused by emotions.
That's a whole different category right there. Not much pain from that, since it became a curse of wanting to know what happens next when reading NTR. Greedy for new chapters, I say. But I'm not on edge when I'm reading this kind of stories. Strange, right? Imagine reading normal fluff, you know, typical romance genre (doesn't have to be romance), then just by "somehow" sliding in one character's shoes or mindset, you feel the sudden rush of indescribable emotions all resulting to momentary pain. Weird experience, I tell you. I became " " or "I". Yeah, that's why I'm sure it's not a heart problem. I hope it isn't.
My scar tissues sometimes hurt when I feel down. Stress can be a trigger for spots where past injuries have healed. Its generally just mental pain, unless it starts to get serious I don´t see any reason to visit the doc.
I wonder if it’s a classically conditioned somatic reaction that’s paired with empathy or sympathy...Do you get these reactions when you interact with people irl? If so it might be that.
It sounds like compassionate type empathy, it seems like you understand the characters thoughts and feelings in a situation from their point of view, rather than your own because you are too much diving into your imagination when you read or you imagine yourself as the characters.
I don’t think it seems like a physical problem, but that obviously doesn’t discredit your feelings. A lot of the times emotional or mental responses can have physical manifestations, so it doesn’t seem too out of the ordinary for you to have that kind of response... but it’s definitely one of the more interesting ones I’ve heard! Personally, I always get something called the globus sensation whenever I’m more than mildly anxious, when ends up in me hacking up my lungs for hours at a time haha.... ha...... Anyways I wouldn’t worry too much about it. As long as it’s not horrendously uncomfortable for you, it’s an fun thing about yourself that most people don’t experience
I think I know what you talking about, I don't know the specific name but I'm sure is not dissimilar to the feeling of shame by association that you may feel when you see or heard of a event that you find specially cringe, as you subconsciouly image yourself doing such act and feeling shame for the character or person in question. The same thing should also be seen when a man see another man getting hit in the balls and by reflex feel a cold feeling on the lower reagions and try to protect it even if they know is complete unecessery. The wikipedia call it the pain empathy or Mirror-touch synaesthesia. Anyway, that just mean that you are too much into the story and is normal reaction, like getting sad or even shed a tear when sad thing happen to your favorite character. You just need to calm down a little and know that is a normal reaction that unless you are feeling extreme unconfortable shouldn't be any problem. I my self try to avoid any torture porn novel(where the MC is trashed in the worst possible outcome all the time by the author) because that make me feel unconfortable.