system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How is masochism possible when pain isn't supposed to be pleasing, but warning us?
gpt
Hi there.

To put it simply, we cant control pain itself but we *can* control how we respond to it. Thats a physical reason.

Psychologically, you cant really make many broad generalizations about masochists, or anyone really. Some masochists endure because it reminds them they are alive and helps them to focus on being content with being alive, some genuinely enjoy pain itself and actively force themselves to regard it as pleasure through small incremental steps, some enjoy the state of numbness one can achieve when so much pain is inflicted that the area just doesnt get stimulated by anything afterwards.