Emotions have an impact on pain...

I get asked all the time why people are experiencing pain. When we have exhausted things like physical injury, repetitive movement and postural considerations I often ask, ‘have you been stressed?’. Often people are surprised that stress or emotional states can impact pain. Emotional stimuli create changes in the autonomic (automatic) nervous system which can affect organs and tissue in the body.

See diagram below shows how this happens technically in the nervous system.

Stress can make pain worse because it makes muscles spasm which increases pain and it also causes the hormone cortisol to rise which can cause inflammation over time. Research has shown the pain you feel is not always equal to the damage or injury that you have experienced. Pain is complex and interestingly, it is not a reliable sign of what is happening in your body. When the body is damaged signals are sent along the nerves to be interpreted by the brain and these can be reduced, blocked or increased by thoughts (stressful thoughts and worries!!), exercise, sleep and diet. The pain you feel is actually the result of changes to these signals when they are processed by your brain.

But what can change these signals that our brain interprets as pain?

• How we think and feel
• How our body moves
• Our environment

The things that can make the interpretation of the signals in our brain worse are things we dislike or feel frustrated and scared about for example financial stress, the thought of going to hospital, loud noises, having to deal with insurance companies!!! And the list goes on.

For example things that can improve the signals are things that we enjoy like friends, the park, rest. It is interesting over the last 15 years I have observed people with chronic pain go on holiday and tell me on their return that it went away while they were away but when they go back home it started again.

So next time you feel pain but haven’t had a physical injury it might be worth exploring other aspects of your life!

Author Dr. Elena Bacash (Chiropractor)