The Mind: How Emotions Cause Physical Pain

The Mind: How Emotions Cause Physical Pain

Most of us have been conditioned to believe that if we feel 

pain, something is wrong with our bodies. Particularly with 

,back pain, we assume we’ve pulled a muscle, herniated a disc

or suffered some other injury or condition that’s causing 

.discomfort 

Of course, this may be the case. But what we may not 

realize is that sometimes the hidden cause of physical pain can 

,have emotional origins. We can experience too much stress

anxiety, trauma, sadness, anger, and emotional pain, and too 

.little relaxation, stress relief, joy, fun, security, and calm

All of us suffer physically when our emotional lives are in 

upheaval. We often experience physical symptoms of pain or 

discomfort because of anger, fear, anxiety, sadness, or other 

negative emotions. These types of emotional stressors don’t 

need to be catastrophic or provoke mental illness to trigger a 

.chain of events leading to back pain 

It’s important to recognize that in these cases, the pain is 

not imaginary or “in your head.” Instead, the triggering cause 

can be an emotional issue that, if left unchecked, can create

physical conditions in your body that make it highly 

.susceptible to pain—especially back pain 

In fact, an extensive study conducted by Stanford 

University on more than 3,000 employees at the Boeing 

Corporation found that emotions and psychological factors 

.were the biggest indicators of back pain

?How Emotions Act on the Body 

The mind is inextricably connected to the body. You have 

only to imagine stepping off a bridge to feel your stomach fly 

up into your throat and your muscles tense. This mental 

thought can trigger a chain of physical reactions, including 

,dramatic fluctuations in blood pressure, breathing rates

.oxygen levels, and more

Just thinking about a stressful event can cause all this! 

So you can see the effect your mind can have on your 

body, particularly if you’re thinking stressful thoughts many 

times throughout the day. Your muscles tighten and, if you 

remember from the last chapter, tight muscles cause 

problems. They inhibit circulation, constricting blood vessels 

so the blood doesn’t flow through your body like it should 

and creating muscle imbalances. 

Without adequate blood flow, the cells in your body 

become slightly oxygen deprived. Toxins and waste aren’t 

cleaned out as efficiently as they should be and can build up 

in certain parts of your body, creating or reactivating trigger 

points. These knots are often painful to the touch 

,” and, in some cases, can cause muscles to spasm or “lock up

ـــــwhich can pull your spinal column out of alignment

.pinching nerves and causing nerve-based back pain

And if you doubt the effects the mind can have on the 

body, let me tell you about a study that was done in Finland 

.Autopsies were performed on people who had died from nonback-pain-related causes but had reported suffering from back

pain while alive. Researchers were shocked to find that the 

average person with back pain had two arteries to the spine 

completely blocked off. And remember, without fresh blood 

.supplying oxygen and nutrients, it’s nearly impossible to heal

Stress also alters your breathing. Typically, when you’re 

anxious or upset, your breath becomes shallow, reducing 

oxygen flow to the whole body. Oxygen and nutrients don’t 

circulate at optimum levels, again contributing to the buildup 

,of toxins. Stress also can release hormones, such as adrenaline 

which can trigger chronic tension and inflammation in your 

muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Without adequate blood 

flow to remove these hormones from the body, they can 

.linger longer than usual and create more damage

That all these changes have a debilitating effect on the 

back is no surprise. Which muscles do you tend to tense most 

when you’re anxious? Shoulders usually come first, directly 

affecting the spine. The jaw, stomach, and lower back also are 

very common areas. It’s no wonder the back and head are 

.some of the first parts of the body to suffer from stress

Other Ways Emotions Affect Health

Negative emotions can have other detrimental effects on 

.our health—effects that can make back pain worse

Think about an emotionally distressing episode in your 

life. You probably slept too little, depriving your body of its 

primary healing time. Maybe your diet went off kilter 

somehow, so that you either lost your appetite and ate too 

little or reverted to eating too many highly processed, lownutrient foods. You might have skipped your usual exercise 

.routine, moving your body too little and sitting too much

People around you may have commented on your increased 

irritability, or maybe you blew up at someone and later 

.regretted it

All these occasions are like dominoes stacked up against 

your health and well-being. Too little sleep, exercise, and 

calm, along with too much anxiety, bad foods, and inactivity 

all can have profound effects on your body. Back pain, neck 

pain, headaches, jaw pain, and joint soreness all are just 

.around the corner

What makes this especially difficult is that the emotional 

.component of any painful condition often is ignored

Somehow we’re conditioned to believe that any physical 

manifestation of our feelings is a sign of weakness or some 

.mental problem

This is, of course, as silly as thinking that when someone 

yells “Boo!” and startles your mind, it’s abnormal if your heart 

races. On the contrary, it’s quite typical to have a mental 

.burden impact your physical body

As a society, we accept that being diagnosed with cancer or 

suffering a heart attack—even having a baby—can cause 

.emotions like depression, anger, and even guilt 

What we don’t recognize as easily is that the 

communication works both ways—from mind to body and 

from body to mind. Science has proven that the brain’s 

messengers (neurotransmitters) communicate information in 

the brain and throughout the body. Since the mind itself 

operates on physical and chemical reactions, why wouldn’t 

emotions, which are communicated in physical ways inside 

?the body, have very physical outcomes 

The truth is that our thoughts and emotions, and how we 

handle them, all have a very large effect on our everyday 

health and well-being. During periods of stress, they certainly 

.cause or exacerbate physical discomfort or injury


?How Do You Handle Emotions

How we handle our emotions determines how they will 

affect us physically. It’s an unfortunate thing that as children

we’re rarely taught how to deal with our feelings. While we 

ـــــwere learning all about reading, writing, math, and science

unless our parents were especially gifted in teaching us—we 

learned very little about the art of mastering our own 

.emotions 

If we were angry and blew up, most likely we were sent to 

our rooms, or if we were in school, to the principal’s office. If 

we were depressed, many times we were told to snap out of it 

.or to stop feeling sorry for ourselves 

As teens, we were more likely to get lectures and lose 

privileges than have honest conversations about how we were 

.feeling

Those of us fortunate enough to have received some 

instruction along the way may have avoided the aches and 

pains that come from raging emotions. 

But for many of us, we never learned the art of expressing 

,ourselves without hurting others, or how journaling 

meditating, or “walking off” steam were more healthy 

,approaches to dealing with emotions like anger, resentment

.or sadness

Some of us may not even realize when a powerful emotion 

,has taken hold of us. We just react by yelling, hitting things

.or turning to self-destructive habits like alcohol or drug use

Others grew up learning to be nice and to refrain from 

hurting others’ feelings, repressing emotions until they 

.erupted into medical conditions 

Psychology has shown us that, by far, the most dangerous 

way to handle emotions is to deny or repress them. If we 

don’t learn to express them (in healthy ways), they stay in our 

bodies, sometimes for years, steadily wearing away our 

.resistance to their destructive powers

Learning to properly express and deal with our emotions is 

one of the best things we can do for our overall health, and 

.especially for back pain