Pleasure Annoyance Pain Threshold
Learn how the Pleasure Annoyance Pain Threshold is used in pain management massage to help you feel fantastic.
PAP Threshold
The Pleasure Annoyance Pain Threshold (PAP) is a term I use in pain management massage to help ensure the therapeutic experience remains beneficial and pleasurable while reducing threat perception and avoiding sensory overload.
It is a graded sensory approach that uses pressure and a variety of techniques to provide safe sensations that foster positive neurotags (SIMs), redraws somatosensory maps, and helps reduce central sensitization.
Pleasure-Annoyance-Pain
Has someone ever scratched your back in one spot so long that a pleasurable sensation became uncomfortable? This phenomenon is what I call the Pleasure-Annoyance-Pain Threshold.
On a most basic level, the PAP Threshold represents the emotional stages we experience when a sensation no longer feels good. Redundant stimulation becomes annoying, and if it continues, it tends to become uncomfortable.
Overstimulation
The most common way people cross the PAP Threshold during a massage is through redundant light-pressure applications or by generating excessive subthreshold nociceptive signals. Subthreshold nociceptive signals are threat alerts sent by nerve endings to the brain, but are gated at the spinal cord because they are too weak to elicit a DIM neurotag response (pain).
Subthreshold nociceptive signals do not create pain, but they still cause the nervous system to instinctively tighten muscles and guard the area. Over time, repeated applications may cause weak signals to summate, leading to peripheral or central sensitization, eventually crossing the threshold into sudden conscious pain.
Since overstimulating a localized area can contribute to central sensitization, the entire body may experience heightened touch sensitivity as well. This is why it is essential to remain proactive throughout a massage to ensure the brain feels safe and is not overstimulated.
Jennifer Brand Spa
Pain Management at 2717 Hwy K, O’Fallon, MO 63368