Mad call I it, for, to define true madness, What is 't but to be nothing else but mad?
Ditto masochism. All the same, there are some significant differences between chronic back pain and BDSM -
the enjoyment comes partly from the pain being inflicted - especially (at least for me) by someone who's 'close' to me in significant ways -
in that sense, it's simply a rather rough kind of erotic foreplay. The Pear is obviously a sexual torture, chronic back-pain obviously isn't,
but other pains like whipping do stimulate pheromones (I think, or something of the sort), back-pain doesn't -
I believe violent taste sensations like hot chillis have a similar effect, and some people (more men) get a high from that..
More generally, there's a thrill - that's at least partly erotic - in experimenting with one's body,
perhaps it's a hangover of adolescence, certainly a taste for pain is likely to be discovered or acquired in that phase of life.
And, as I (and others here) have often said, it's the preparation and the waiting that are as arousing as the actual moment of agony -
being stripped naked, tied or shackled, seeing the Torturer preparing the Instruments....
There are risks of course, apart from the danger of actual injury, even death - and I'm very careful, you know why -
any sort of intense experience can become addictive, taking over people's lives just like a drug.
And with regard to other kinds of pain, those caused by illness or injury, I agree they don't score well as erotic experiences
(at least not often, I have occasionally experienced some masochistic pleasure even from those) - I do cope relatively well with pain,
I think those who know me and have treated me would agree, I don't readily resort to painkillers,
though naturally I want to know what's causing the pain and want it stopped - but it's part of life, I accept it -
but I don't know whether that's really anything to do with being a masochist.