When you see someone injured, or a child fall, etc, do your legs ache? What causes this?

Can’t say as I’ve ever heard of such a thing.

I don’t feel it in my legs, I feel it in my…um…rectum. Seriously. Even thinking about a bad injury triggers this. No idea why.

My Mom and I are almost the same way – we feel it in our wrists. I have no idea what the cause is. Maybe it’s similar to the fight or flight response? Adrenalin released that has nowhere to go?

Just found this entry in the Urban Dictionary that describes my sensation exactly:

Empathetic Prostate:

“One’s prostate gland reacting to someone’s descriptions of painful experiences, or a reaction to the sight of someone elses painful experience. This is a dull, almost tingly sensation that lasts a few seconds and then disappears into the ether. Depending on the duration and magnitude of the sensation, this could be the equivalent of your prostate crying uncontrollably, or just emitting a concerned sigh.”

Anytime I hear or see anyone get hurt I get really bad chills and fill the pain go down my back. I can’t answer you question why I do this though.

I don’t experience this.

I get a sharp pain in my whole body Kind of like electricity, but mostly my legs. I have no idea what it is or what causes it.

I’m like @Harp. Although I experience it a little wider than my rectum. It is that tingly/nervous sensation, and I usually only get it with my kids or someone else I rally care about. It happens most often when they jump a significant distance—like down six steps or out of a tree.

I get nothing, beyond a vague sense of the willies.

I just feel a tingly sensation in various parts of my body, usually my stomach, legs, or back. It’s weird. I’ve never thought about it much until now. I don’t know what causes it, but it definitely happens. Like when Rory came to my house after falling off his bike and it looked like he had stigmata: there were cuts on his hands, his arms, his side…there was blood dripping down his arm. That tingly sensation hit me hard then; it happened almost every time I looked at him because I kept picturing how much that must’ve hurt.

I do the leg-tensing thing, too. It sounds like some type of sympathetic response. The body imagines that it’s falling and responds in kind.

It’s just such a random thing. Glad to know others share this. Are all of you that do feel it sort of sensitive people?

@stevenb I know when people die before anyone tells me (friends and family type, not just random people) and I see/feel auras.

@stevenb Yes I am a very sensitive person. When others are around me and they are going through a rough time and are sad, I will start to become depressed right along with them.

yes, I know exactly how this feels… it is something to do with the nervous system… though not entirely sure what…. but.. I would vouch that it is something to do with the fact that: those are the largest muscles in the body and when they go weak it is indicitive of the whole body giving up.. and giving in… basically , when we see something awful sympathetic nervous system gets activated and we feel things there…

@stevenb Very sensitive.

Thanks for the answers! I don’t see auras or any of that, but I am very empathetic. I feel others pain in a way, but usually just when there is nothing I can do to help. Sympathetic slash empathetic.

I don’t have a prostate gland but when something frightening happens or might happen, for example if I’m forced to look over the edge of a high place, a Thing happens where my testicles would be if I had ever had any (I’ve never had any – none of my own, at least), a Thing/sensation like the shrinking-into-the-body-cavity that I’ve heard about. @Harp, what is THAT?

I’m no neuroscientist, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t get actual neuroscientists on youtube to answer for me!

@ekans Mirror neurons may be involved, but it’s hard to reconcile what I experience with what Ramachandran is saying. He says that:

A. The signals generated by the mirror neurons are over-ridden by feedback from the touch/pain receptors in the viewers own body so that the viewer doesn’t actually experience the touch or pain on a conscious level, but I do experience this “prostate” thing as a conscious sensation.

B. In cases where the viewer lacks feedback from his own receptors, he does feel the sensation as his own, but it’s felt in the corresponding area of his own body. Where I feel the discomfort has no relation to where the injured person feels it.

Whoa, reading this just lit up my prostate big time!

So, I wanted to put this to the test, but I didn’t feel like typing in “car accident” on Google images. But today, someone sent me a link of pictures of the Haiti earthquake aftermath. I noticed that whenever I saw an image of someone badly injured, I really felt it in both of my thighs. Interesting phenomenon. :)

@dominicx, it is nuts isn’t it!

Has anyone found anything that directly answers what this is (specifically with legs)? I know this thread is from awhile ago but I can’t find any info anywhere else

ok… this really happens to me… I feel REAL shooting pain in my testicles when I empathise with someone else’s pain… everytime… this is horrible! it even effects my love-life as it causes this sensation when I am intimate…as there is an emotional exchange. God…can someone PLEASE give me an answer to why this happens.

When my daughter was 7 she fell off of one of those push merry go rounds that they used to have on play grounds. When she fell her right leg ended up under the ride. She didn’t know it till she went to stand up, and it drove her back down and drove her knee into the sand. That makes me hurt. But not in my knee.

I feel pain in my knees whenever I see anybody get hurt or feel pain or when someone jumps down to the ground. I have arthritis in my knees and somehow think it has something to do with it. Ir happens evertime even watching it on t.v.

As a family, we often watch Ridiculousness on MTV. This show features real life “caught on tape” falls, crashes, accidents and the like. I’ve noticed that falls usually involving skateboarders or people who attempt some type of acrobatic stunt, usually result in a tingling in my leg, which usually lasts for a few seconds. I asked my wife if she experienced the same sensation, who did not.

My quick research suggested that this could be Mirror-touch synaesthesia. I plan to do additional research to confirm. Interesting and strange, in that I thought this was normal and/or that I was overly sensitive.

I get a very intense pain in my legs shooting down into my toes when I see someone get hurt, it seems more intense when it involves my kids or loved ones. I also get a very intense pain in my toes when I see images of people at great heights, or when I am at great heights. I want to know what this is called. Fwiw, when I was in kindergarten, letters and numbers had different “genders” and sometimes colors, although I am not sure if I saw the colors, or just associated them.

I get a sharp pain from my groin up for anyone that gets hurt, whether I see it or hear about it. People think I am crazy, but I do.

I am so happy to find anyone else who has this. When I took Anti-depressants it seemed to take it away a bit. I don’t need the anti-depressants anymore. And so it’s really back