Have you ever experienced pain in your body, just out of the blue while you were fine the previous day? And the pain was bad like hell, so you decide to drag yourself to the doctor anyhow.
Now, the doctor diagnoses the pain as per his knowledge, and prescribes you some medication to mitigate the physical agony.
However, swallowing those pills for days and days, hardly makes any difference.
This chronic condition also called psychogenic pain usually has its roots in our emotional system rather our physical body.
To put simply, psychogenic pain refers to the physical pain that is intensified, caused or prolonged by the emotional, mental or behavioural factors.
The common sufferers of psychogenic aches are folks struggling with mental disorders, but it is commonly seen to occur due to broken heart, love sickness, melancholy, unrequited love or rejection fear in relationships.
Such people usually complain of persistent pain in the back, head, or stomach.
Also termed psychalgia, psychogenic pain is deemed to be a repressor of more dangerous emotions like anger, fury and self-injurious behaviour.
How do emotions trigger physical pain?
Often the emotional or mental agony can be so intense and debilitating that it pervades your physical frame, cause tension and pain in different muscles.
Emotions are not terrible demons, meant to destroy us, rather they are our defence.
As Perpetua Neo says, emotions should not induce fear in us, rather they exist for a reason.
They are our “first intel in war”. They beckon to us that something is going awry in us and needs to be set right.
10 main types of physical pain related to emotional stress
We do not lack stressors in our busy lives, that can trigger mental disorders, such as stress, anxiety, depression and so forth.
Stress, however, is a commonplace today, and to the one who sucks at managing it effectively, it can pose grave consequences.
Chronic stress, or even short-term one, can give symptoms of psychalgia or psychogenic pain.
Although not every pain type mentioned below can be traced to emotional causes, it can be due to physical reasons.
If you experience any of the symptoms, visit the doctor, and let him/ her decide the cause and therapy.
1. BACK PAIN
Backache is one of the usual complaints heard from people facing stress for over a long time.
It is explained by the hypothesis that the stressors disrupt proper blood circulation in our musculoskeletal system.
This results in depravity of oxygen, causing tension, stiffness in muscles and pain.
Unattended stress can get you into the vicious cycle of more stress and back pain.
2. TIGHTNESS IN MUSCLES AND JOINTS
Dr. John Sarno was the one to comprehend and research the field of mind-body disorders.
He said if the emotions were too heavy for a person to bear, or they are repressing them, then it can constrict blood flow to some tissues.
This further cause stifling and pain over there.
Hence, you will feel tightening and pain in muscles and joints of your body.
3. CONGESTED CHEST
If you have been experiencing tightness in chest, shortness of breath and related signs, then maybe it is due to long episode of your stress.
Although, stress is not the only condition to cause angina (chest pain), other physiological factors too can contribute.
Stress often causes tightening of muscles in the chest, and this strain can also trigger other symptoms like difficulty breathing.
4. STOMACH ACHE
Our gut has enteral nervous system (ENS), which bears strong connections with our central nervous system.
Our ENS is influenced by our brain to secrete needed digestive enzymes and saliva to regulate the digestion processes.
And as you might already know, stress is a rival against our mental health.
So, our CNS is directly impacted by it, which further dells our enteral nervous system.
Therefore, people confronting chronic stress generally complain of troubled stomach, bloating, and flatulence.
Also Read: Get Rid of Side Belly Fat with these Exercises
5. SHOULDER PAIN
Stress is so pervasive and chronic one is bad like heck.
You can face shooting pain in your shoulder that is present invariably to irk and jerk you from even your daily doings.
You will feel like some samurai slashing your shoulder from the inside.
The pain can set off on a journey to neighbouring territories of neck and jaw.
The tightness, pain, and stiffness would be so intense that the doctor may prescribe you even sleeping pills with painkillers to snooze off better.
6. HEAD AND JAW PAIN
Headache is all that we can nod yes to, it is so universal in times of stress, anxiety, and other such sentiments that can be counted.
You get throbbing pain in your head, especially around the sides and back of your skull.
However, it sways the jaw as well, making it clenched, tough, and you would always seem in a facial gesture of grinding teeth.
Obviously, this is not done often knowingly, rather unconsciously.
These symptoms can also extend to muscle pain, tooth pain, sore jaw and so on.
7. INSOMNIA
Stress increases the amount of cortisol hormone in the body, which is labelled as stress hormone.
This chemical significantly threatens the sleep quality and circadian rhythm.
If left unadministered, the problems related to sleep can cause serious consequences like insomnia, depression, memory problems, serious behavioural and cognitive issues.
8. EXHAUSTION
With so much mental exhaustion and stress, you are likely to suck at everything, even at the activities which you proudly called your hobbies.
You feel grossly enervate and drained of energy, and hence you will get tired easily and surprisingly sooner.
9. FREQUENT ILLNESS
Stressors perforate and weakens the ability of your body to fight with foreign harmful agents, making you vulnerable to infections.
Thus, stress might be the reason, why your boss finds your applications for off every other day on his desk.
It is a no-brainer, this cycle of getting sick frequently will not only deprive you of the productivity and goals you resolved to accomplish.
10. ACNE ISSUES
If you have got an acne issue, then it may become worse due to this stress you have been facing since long.
It does not directly incite acne, rather, it deters the healing potential of your body.
This is the case for wounds and other minor abrasions, which may take unusually more time due to stress in getting healed.
Bottom line
Psychogenic pain is the type of pain traced back to emotional causes, such as stress.
It can affect different parts of your body, and manifests symptoms like shoulder pain, frequent sickness, stomach ache, acne, and exhaustion.
There are several techniques you can adopt to regulate your stress and free yourself from the problem.
You can embrace meditation, good diet and active lifestyle to do so.
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