Psychogenic Pain Examples – “Its Not All in Your Head”
April 17, 2022 2022-04-17 20:28Psychogenic Pain Examples – “Its Not All in Your Head”
Psychogenic Pain Examples - “Its Not All in Your Head”
Written by: Shruthi Chacko – M Sc
(Psychology)
Table of Contents
Psychogenic Pain Examples – “Its Not All in Your Head”
When you are sick or injured, you’re mostly not in a good mood right? You may feel anxious or stressed out when you are having physical pain. Just like that, your mind too can make you feel pain without a physical source. Is it hard to believe? But, it is true. Such kind of pain is known as psychogenic pain. Are you curious to know what it is all about? Continue reading to know more about psychogenic pain symptoms and psychogenic pain examples that will help you get a better idea about it.
Chapter 1:What Is Psychogenic Pain All About?
In simple words, it is pain that is a result of psychological factors. Maybe you went through a death of a loved one, lost a job or had a break up. All these events can make you feel a a lot of pain and sorrow. These feeling of pain and anxiety can have physical impacts on you. For example, headaches, menstrual pain, dizziness, joint pain and so on.
Hence, our bodies can express sometimes what our minds are incapable of knowing and feeling. In fact, Psychogenic pain is not a very new age concept. There are quite a few studies that have studied on physical pain and emotional stress. Even ancient practices such as Chinese medicine and Ayurveda has been aware that our mental wellbeing has a impact on our bodies. For example, anger and irritability can causes liver dysfunctions, redness of the eyes, dizziness and headaches. Continue reading this article to know more about psychogenic pain symptoms and psychogenic pain examples.
Chapter 2:What Are the Causes of Psychogenic Pain?
It’s unclear why the brain creates pain when no physical source exists. But, the realty is the pain is real.
Some theorists believe that the pain is because of “pain memory”. It is when your nervous system holds on to discomfort even after your injuries has healed. Others believe that such a pain is a result of impulses in your brain that are in a state of confusion. Haha, only if your brain was not too confused right? Pain sensations are typically transmitted through nerve receptors to the spine. Eventually, they are sent to the brain.
Surely, messages get lost along the route. This can lead your brain to confuse mental distress for pain. Anxiety, bipolar illness, depression, and stress are some psychological conditions that can lead to physical symptoms of pain.
Chapter 3:How Does Emotions Cause Physical Pain?
This is basically how it works. Our minds have the ability to cause a wide range of physical symptoms inside the body. The mind is a big contributor to the discomforts we experience. Whether it’s back discomfort, knee pain, or neck pain. While many doctors say the symptoms are “all in our head”. The reality is that “These are real aches, real physical pains, real intestinal problems, and so on. However, their origins could be purely emotional. These are psychogenic pain examples.
Many of us grew up without parents/ caregivers who could help us process traumatic events in our lives. However, children, rely a lot on parents to understand what’s going on (after all, they’re the main source of trust and support). When the child does not receive that help, they try to do the best they can.
Hence, as adults one find ways to cope and learn to protect themselves from frightening situations or feelings. We learn to either internalise by keeping quiet or externalise by acting up.
Chapter 4:Does Society Foster Healthy Healing?
This is largely due to the way our society functions. As a society, we fail to recognise that we all require different ways of processing trauma, stress, and even excitement. We learn at a young age that certain feelings are not acceptable to express in public.
When you repress these feelings, such as pain, despair, and even excitement, causes physical pain. bodily discomfort. You may have a headache instead of resolving your anger or sadness . The “weight of the world” appears as shoulder ache — a feeling of being burdened down, rather than dealing with the truth that you’ve taking on too much responsibilities.
While mental illnesses aren’t the cause of all physical suffering, it’s crucial to get tune into your body. Also, doing this can help you the differenciate between emotionally and physically related problems.
If you’ve been making dietary changes for years and still have issues, it’s time to take a closer look at yourself. Next we will be looking at psychogenic pain examples.
