Getting Ticklishness “Tickled Out of You”

[Rasputin]

I have met two women in my life who claimed that they were no longer ticklish, because when they were younger, they had the “ticklishness tickled out of them”.

The first one I met was a waitress named Dee. At the time, Dee was in her late 50’s to early 60’s. She was irreverent, hilarious, and had an air of having come from money. She always took good care of her appearance, including her feet. However, she claimed she was not ticklish because she had it tickled out her when she was young. Apparently her older brothers and boyfriends did it so frequently that she stopped reacting to tickling.

Same thing with one of my wife’s old acquaintances, Genni. Genni and I had a contentious relationship at best. She worked with my wife and was always bawdy and ribald. She was in her late 30’s and gave off an affected aggressive energy. One of the times when we weren’t adversarial, I had the opportunity to ask her if she was ticklish. She kind of laughed nervously, and said no. Again, she stated that when she was younger that she was very ticklish, but repeated ticklings caused her to no longer be ticklish.

I did have instances with both of these women where they did have a minor ticklish reaction. One time Dee let me attempt to tickle her nyloned foot after a shift. She didn’t laugh or kick, but looked at me and said “Wow, that actually really tickles.” On another instance my wife and Genni got very thorough pedicures together. It was at an upscale spa and was very exfoliation intensive. My wife described it to me by saying, “It was terrible. They kept doing scrub after scrub after scrub. Even Genni was having trouble with it, and she’s not near as ticklish as me.”

So the question stands. Are they ticklish or not? Is the tickling response shut down as a safety mechanism from trauma? Is the tickling response still present and it’s just a “mind over matter” situation? If either one of them were in situation where tickling was more aggressive, and more persistent, and inescapable, would an extreme response to tickling return?

 

[DebonairDavid]

Emma Watson claimed she's no longer ticklish because her brother would tickle her so often, she became used and immune to it. Maybe what makes people still ticklish is the surprise/anxiety/adrenaline factor when it comes to being tickled.

 

[RickyN]

Emma Watson is what sprang to my mind as well.

Anecdotally I also know two women who've both told me their ticklishness depends largely on their mood, specifically if they're I a bad mood they're not ticklish but if they're in a good mood they're very ticklish.

Another example I have is a woman once told me that she wasn't that ticklish anymore as she trained herself.when she was.younger to not be ticklish but somehow her feet are Still ticklish.

There's definitely some psychology to it at least but how much I would not know

 

[LerLee]

I have known a couple of ladies that said something similar.

One gal was around 18-19 at the time. We were hanging out, talking about tickling and being ticklish and she had her bare feet propped up on the couch. I reached over and tickled her feet. She smiled and said, “ah the feet, I love getting tickled on my feet, I’m not ticklish there anymore. I used to be really ticklish on my feet but my ex-boyfriend kept tickling me there so I got used to it.”

I then tickled her sides and ribs and she laughed and had a normal ticklish reaction.

I dated a girl that was around 30 years old. I kept trying to tickle her and would barely get a ticklish reaction. She said that she used be really ticklish and would get tickled a lot. Eventually she was able to not react very much when being tickled. She was certainly more than happy to tickle me!

 

[WickedTouch]

I have met two women in my life who claimed that they were no longer ticklish, because when they were younger, they had the “ticklishness tickled out of them”.

The first one I met was a waitress named Dee. At the time, Dee was in her late 50’s to early 60’s. She was irreverent, hilarious, and had an air of having come from money. She always took good care of her appearance, including her feet. However, she claimed she was not ticklish because she had it tickled out her when she was young. Apparently her older brothers and boyfriends did it so frequently that she stopped reacting to tickling.

Same thing with one of my wife’s old acquaintances, Genni. Genni and I had a contentious relationship at best. She worked with my wife and was always bawdy and ribald. She was in her late 30’s and gave off an affected aggressive energy. One of the times when we weren’t adversarial, I had the opportunity to ask her if she was ticklish. She kind of laughed nervously, and said no. Again, she stated that when she was younger that she was very ticklish, but repeated ticklings caused her to no longer be ticklish.

I did have instances with both of these women where they did have a minor ticklish reaction. One time Dee let me attempt to tickle her nyloned foot after a shift. She didn’t laugh or kick, but looked at me and said “Wow, that actually really tickles.” On another instance my wife and Genni got very thorough pedicures together. It was at an upscale spa and was very exfoliation intensive. My wife described it to me by saying, “It was terrible. They kept doing scrub after scrub after scrub. Even Genni was having trouble with it, and she’s not near as ticklish as me.”

So the question stands. Are they ticklish or not? Is the tickling response shut down as a safety mechanism from trauma? Is the tickling response still present and it’s just a “mind over matter” situation? If either one of them were in situation where tickling was more aggressive, and more persistent, and inescapable, would an extreme response to tickling return?

Hey–Interesting stories 🙂 First of all, ticklishness is a spectrum, not black and white, so I'd say they are still ticklish to some extent based on your stories, but just not nearly as much as we're used to seeing in our community's content. Ticklishness is not just linked with the number of nerve endings, but also parts of the brain that are responsible for processing emotions, laughter, etc. Some of those parts of the brain continue to develop through early adulthood. A lot of people get less (and sometimes more) ticklish as they mature. Whether the stimulus of being tickled a lot as a kid for them had any influence on where their level of ticklishness ended up is probably impossible to know, but it was very likely more correlative than causative–That is, it probably had more to do with the normal developmental changes in the brain.

Now, I will say that because ticklishness is so linked to the emotional state, some people learn to control their ticklishness, and being unwantedly tickled a lot could inspire one to learn that skill more easily! But I have known many more people to have been viciously tickled as a kid who remain very ticklish in adulthood. So I really think it's an individual thing that just happened to get attributed to their experiences as children because we look for patterns, even when there are none.

 

[james01]

Emma Watson claimed she's no longer ticklish because her brother would tickle her so often, she became used and immune to it. Maybe what makes people still ticklish is the surprise/anxiety/adrenaline factor when it comes to being tickled.

Totally makes sense! It’s like your body builds a tolerance to the sensation after a while. The surprise and anticipation definitely seem to play a big role—half the time it’s the idea of being tickled that makes people laugh more than the actual touch!

 

[Rasputin]

Hey–Interesting stories 🙂 First of all, ticklishness is a spectrum, not black and white, so I'd say they are still ticklish to some extent based on your stories, but just not nearly as much as we're used to seeing in our community's content. Ticklishness is not just linked with the number of nerve endings, but also parts of the brain that are responsible for processing emotions, laughter, etc. Some of those parts of the brain continue to develop through early adulthood. A lot of people get less (and sometimes more) ticklish as they mature. Whether the stimulus of being tickled a lot as a kid for them had any influence on where their level of ticklishness ended up is probably impossible to know, but it was very likely more correlative than causative–That is, it probably had more to do with the normal developmental changes in the brain.

Now, I will say that because ticklishness is so linked to the emotional state, some people learn to control their ticklishness, and being unwantedly tickled a lot could inspire one to learn that skill more easily! But I have known many more people to have been viciously tickled as a kid who remain very ticklish in adulthood. So I really think it's an individual thing that just happened to get attributed to their experiences as children because we look for patterns, even when there are none.

This is probably the most concise and thoughtful analysis that I’ve seen on the TMF. Thank you!

 

[Solestripper]

This is probably the most concise and thoughtful analysis that I’ve seen on the TMF. Thank you!

I do agree. A very interesting topic, Rasputin, and a very enlightening analysis, WickedTouch. Thank you very much to both of you.
For me, extremely ticklish as a kid, and therefore constantly tickled by mates, relatives and adults (including doctor) who knew it and loved to take advantage of it, I began to react less and less to tickling when I was 11 or 12. Because I'd got tickled too often and too long, had got used to it and had been brought to the point of not being surprised and overwhelmed by the stimulations, or of not being ticklish anymore ? No cause and effect link can be established. Plus, when I happen to be briefly tickled by surprise, I can see I'm still ticklish. At the opposite of it, a few longtime friends of mine, who also got tickled more than reasonably as kids (sometimes by the same adult lers as I was), who still can't stand a few seconds tickling on their feet and ribs.