becomingticklish
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- Jan 19, 2026
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Hi all! I am a lee that struggles with selective ticklishness. I am on a journey to learn as much as I can about tickling and ticklishness to try and see if I can become more ticklish.
Clearly an important part of ticklishness is the mental part, arguably more important than the physical.
Vulnerability, which seems to be at least partially reliant on surprise, appears to be an important factor.
Ticklishness has often been thought of as an evolved mechanism for protecting vulnerable areas from attackers, with more vulnerable areas typically being more ticklish, although this is not an absolute rule (University of Melbourne, 2016). This is also assumed to be why you cannot tickle yourself as you aren't typically going to be a threat to your own body (Harvard Health, 2022; University of Melbourne, 2016). Sensory deprivation such as blindfolds are known to increase ticklishness, thought to be from the increased vulnerability that surprise can bring (Harvard Health, 2022). Looking at this research, high vulnerability is clearly involved in ticklishness, and this seems to be at least partially increased with surprise.
Apart from common sense methods such as sensory deprivation, what else can we do to increase vulnerability and/or surprise? I anecdotally do only find myself ticklish when I don't want to be, for example if a friend platonically tickles me, or if I'm getting a professional massage. I wonder if not wanting tickles makes me more vulnerable to them as not wanting them makes them feel more like a genuine threat.
My journey is far from done.
References:
Harvard Health (2022) https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/you-dont-say-does-that-tickle
University of Melbourne (2016)
https://umsu.unimelb.edu.au/news/article/7797/2016-08-29-why-are-some-people-ticklish/
Clearly an important part of ticklishness is the mental part, arguably more important than the physical.
Vulnerability, which seems to be at least partially reliant on surprise, appears to be an important factor.
Ticklishness has often been thought of as an evolved mechanism for protecting vulnerable areas from attackers, with more vulnerable areas typically being more ticklish, although this is not an absolute rule (University of Melbourne, 2016). This is also assumed to be why you cannot tickle yourself as you aren't typically going to be a threat to your own body (Harvard Health, 2022; University of Melbourne, 2016). Sensory deprivation such as blindfolds are known to increase ticklishness, thought to be from the increased vulnerability that surprise can bring (Harvard Health, 2022). Looking at this research, high vulnerability is clearly involved in ticklishness, and this seems to be at least partially increased with surprise.
Apart from common sense methods such as sensory deprivation, what else can we do to increase vulnerability and/or surprise? I anecdotally do only find myself ticklish when I don't want to be, for example if a friend platonically tickles me, or if I'm getting a professional massage. I wonder if not wanting tickles makes me more vulnerable to them as not wanting them makes them feel more like a genuine threat.
My journey is far from done.
References:
Harvard Health (2022) https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/you-dont-say-does-that-tickle
University of Melbourne (2016)
https://umsu.unimelb.edu.au/news/article/7797/2016-08-29-why-are-some-people-ticklish/
