What Is Discomfort? 

At first glance, the answer to the question, “What is discomfort?” may seem intuitive and straightforward. You have likely had personal experiences with discomfort, maybe even recently, and can describe what it feels like. However, gaining a deeper understanding of discomfort may make it easier to respond to it in more productive ways. So, let’s begin by discussing what discomfort is and how it may affect us in our day-to-day lives.

There are two main types of discomfort: physical and psychological. Physical discomfort manifests as pain (e.g., spraining an ankle) or other undesirable sensations (e.g., feeling hungry or cold), while psychological discomfort involves unpleasant or challenging emotions (e.g., loneliness, anxiety, or frustration; Ashkenazy & DeKeyser Ganz, 2019). In the following sections, we will walk through some examples of both types of discomfort and examine what happens within our bodies and minds when we encounter these situations.

Physical Discomfort: Exercise

One common way we may experience physical discomfort is through exercise. We all know that physical activity is vital for our health and well-being, but let’s face it: working out is not always enjoyable. In terms of our muscles, engaging in weightlifting or other strength-building exercises can cause them to burn in the moment and leave us feeling sore the next day. But have you ever paused to consider why and how we experience this unpleasantness?

The following videos provide a great overview of the processes at work within our muscles when we work out:

Exercising puts our muscles under multiple types of stress. Repeated contractions can temporarily deplete the availability of ions like sodium and potassium that are necessary to facilitate movement. Additionally, pushing our muscles to their physical limit can cause tiny micro-tears to form in the tissue, activating an inflammatory response as the body takes action to repair itself and prevent further damage. Special nerves called nociceptors alert the brain that stress and damage have occurred, and the brain interprets those signals as pain or discomfort (Nikolenko et al., 2022).

Because our brains are wired to protect us from potentially harmful situations, we may feel motivated to stop our workout once it becomes uncomfortable to reduce the stress placed on our bodies. However, as the videos point out, stress is necessary for growth. As we repeatedly engage our muscles in strenuous activities, they become stronger and more efficient, and our ability to tolerate the discomfort associated with exercise increases (Dhondt et al., 2021).

Psychological Discomfort: Public Speaking

Another common source of discomfort (albeit more psychological than physical) is public speaking. In fact, it is often stated that public speaking ranks as most people’s number one fear, even above other scary things like death and spiders! While some research suggests that this may not actually be true, public speaking is undoubtedly a stress-inducing situation for many (Chapman University, 2024). Chances are, if you have ever been asked to give a presentation at school or work, you likely felt some discomfort as you prepared to address your audience.

Before we dive into the specifics, watch this video for a basic summary of how emotions function within our minds and bodies:

Though emotions are complex experiences that cannot be fully explained in a two-minute video, the notion that they stem from our brain’s assessment of threats and rewards will work well for the purposes of our discussion. In the case of public speaking, our brains recognize that we are facing a potentially dangerous situation: being evaluated poorly by others. If we bore our audience or lose our train of thought mid-presentation, for instance, we may come off as uninteresting or unprepared, potentially impacting our peers’ opinions of us. Unpleasant as it may be, the anxiety we experience in these types of social settings has played an important role in human history and development.

For our hunter-gatherer ancestors, survival depended on staying with the tribe. Anything that jeopardized one’s social standing could result in ostracization, losing access to resources, and even death. Thus, our brains evolved to try to avoid situations that could result in negative social consequences (Karasewich & Kuhlmeier, 2020). While not nearly as much is at stake in our modern social interactions, the desire to make a good impression on others typically remains a strong force in our lives, and discomfort naturally arises in moments when our reputation may be at risk.

Psychological Discomfort: Resisting Instant Gratification

A third instance in which we may encounter discomfort is when we try to resist instant gratification, or the urge to satisfy an immediate desire, often at the expense of our long-term goals. While our previous example involved a potential threat, this situation has to do with an anticipated reward.

Certain areas in our brains work together to motivate us to seek rewards and are collectively known as the reward system. The following video provides more information about this network:

The key element in the reward system is the neurotransmitter dopamine. This chemical is released the first time we experience something pleasurable, like eating some ice cream or buying a new outfit, and then alerts us on subsequent occasions when we have the chance to experience that pleasure again (McCandless, 2018). However, an important distinction should be made: As the video mentioned, recent neurological research suggests that dopamine is not directly responsible for the pleasure we experience when we satisfy a desire but rather is the force motivating us to move toward that desire. Put another way, dopamine is activated when we anticipate receiving a reward, not when we actually receive the reward. The dopamine response then grows stronger if the payoff is greater than we predicted and is weakened if the reward does not meet our expectations (Bromberg-Martin et al., 2010).

One of the main issues with our affinity toward rewards is that not all rewards are created equal. Snoozing the alarm often seems enticing in the moment but may not be worth it if you end up running late to work. Similarly, maxing out your credit cards may increase your buying power but can come at a hefty price if you can’t pay off the bill at the end of the month (spoiler alert: companies that encourage you to “buy now, pay later” are taking advantage of your brain’s reward system). This problem is compounded by the fact that we tend to gravitate toward immediate rather than delayed rewards, even if they are less valuable (Kobayashi & Schultz, 2008).

When you try to resist instant gratification, then, the self-control part of your brain has to compete against the reward system. And, as you’ve probably experienced, the urge to satisfy a craving can be quite strong. This internal struggle understandably leads to some discomfort as contrasting goals and desires contend for priority. That being said, we should acknowledge that somehow attempting to get rid of the reward system would not be the solution. Without the anticipation of pleasure, we would quite literally lose the motivation to do anything, and it’s not hard to imagine why this would be an issue (McGonigal, 2012).

As a side note, addiction shares some similarities with our normal experience of desire, but there are also some important distinctions. If you’re interested in learning more about how the reward system is involved in addiction (particularly substance abuse), this video offers a great starting point:

In the next section, we will look at the possible consequences of trying to avoid discomfort.