How emotional pain can really hurt
Though this article is from 2008, the content is intriguing. Article retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7512107.stm and
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/cingulate+cortex
This article by Vivienne Parry briefly explains the physiology behind emotional trauma. Emotional trauma could occur in social situations such as a death or relationship. Though the two traumas don't seem like they can be compared, they are often compared in today's society. It emphasizes the fact that emotional pain is often translated or compared to physical pain. When the brain is scanned and analyzed based on physical pain, the same areas light up when scanned after something has caused emotional pain. The area that often lit up was the anterior cingulate cortex which common function is to detect errors and elicit different emotional responses.
David Alexander, a professor, believes that there is a clear connection between emotional and physical pain. His subjects often compare emotional pain to some type of physical annoyance. Mary O'Connor describes this connection as "complex grief". This is explained as a long-lasting pain, either physical or emotional, that outlasts it's original psychological or physiological purpose. Emotion can also be compared to physical pain simply as a "warning" for your body. Both elicit the same kind of response. It is almost like you cant experience one without the other.
This theory of physical and emotional pain going hand in hand can be explained through two theories. The James-Lange theory of emotion states that a stimulus causes physiological responses to occur and then the result is a corresponding emotion. Though this theory explains the physical pain coming before the emotion itself, it there is still a connection between the two different pains. The other, more complex theory is the Schacter and Singer theory of emotion. This states that the psychological response to the stimuli only contributes to the intensity of the emotion expressed. Though this differs from the first theory, there is still a connection between emotional and physical responses.
According to Martin Cowie, one can die from emotional "bereavement". There is some truth to this based on personal experience. There have been deaths in my family that have resulted in the close death of their spouse. This happened to my great grandparents on both sides with both women dying before the men. It has been said that this intensity of emotional trauma leading to death after a loved one is higher for males. This contradicts the stereotype of women being more emotionally-driven than men.
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/cingulate+cortex
This article by Vivienne Parry briefly explains the physiology behind emotional trauma. Emotional trauma could occur in social situations such as a death or relationship. Though the two traumas don't seem like they can be compared, they are often compared in today's society. It emphasizes the fact that emotional pain is often translated or compared to physical pain. When the brain is scanned and analyzed based on physical pain, the same areas light up when scanned after something has caused emotional pain. The area that often lit up was the anterior cingulate cortex which common function is to detect errors and elicit different emotional responses.
David Alexander, a professor, believes that there is a clear connection between emotional and physical pain. His subjects often compare emotional pain to some type of physical annoyance. Mary O'Connor describes this connection as "complex grief". This is explained as a long-lasting pain, either physical or emotional, that outlasts it's original psychological or physiological purpose. Emotion can also be compared to physical pain simply as a "warning" for your body. Both elicit the same kind of response. It is almost like you cant experience one without the other.
This theory of physical and emotional pain going hand in hand can be explained through two theories. The James-Lange theory of emotion states that a stimulus causes physiological responses to occur and then the result is a corresponding emotion. Though this theory explains the physical pain coming before the emotion itself, it there is still a connection between the two different pains. The other, more complex theory is the Schacter and Singer theory of emotion. This states that the psychological response to the stimuli only contributes to the intensity of the emotion expressed. Though this differs from the first theory, there is still a connection between emotional and physical responses.
According to Martin Cowie, one can die from emotional "bereavement". There is some truth to this based on personal experience. There have been deaths in my family that have resulted in the close death of their spouse. This happened to my great grandparents on both sides with both women dying before the men. It has been said that this intensity of emotional trauma leading to death after a loved one is higher for males. This contradicts the stereotype of women being more emotionally-driven than men.
There are many articles and blogs where people share their physical pain tied to an emotional pain. After the death of a loved one, many have reported feeling aches all over their body, significant appetite loss or gain, fatigue, breathing problems or problems with receiving enough oxygen even when they appear to be breathing fine. Some times this can be directly tied to hormone issues. Because when dealing with immense amounts of emotional pain, different hormones and chemicals are released in our body which can actually dramatically effect our physical bodies!
ReplyDeleteThis article was very interesting and provokes a lot of thought! I have heard multiple accounts of emotional pain being linked to physical pain and this article sheds light on possibilities of why. In thinking about it, it would make perfect sense for someone to experience a physical pain and then it be linked emotionally as well, for example stubbing your toe hurts but then most people probably experience frustration and anger and possibly embarrassment as well depending on the circumstance. This seems normal. However, feeling an emotional pain and then it causing a physical pain is what interests me the most because it seems less tangible and easy to explain. In the article that I posted about, it spoke about one area of the brain having dual functions both in motor experience and cognitive experience and this article seems to have the same type of premise in reference to the anterior cingulate cortex. In the articleI read, it spoke about assuming a physical stance to engage hormones in your brain which effect your psyche. This seems to be the same thing only in reverse. Perhaps emotional experiences release a certain transmitter that can cause physical pain when experienced in high levels. Even in the presence of positive emotion, I would argue from personal experience that when you feel overwhelmed with joy, the body tingles and produces a physical feeling as well. I have heard of people dying from a broken heart and I have a theory about that. I think that when someone experiences a traumatic emotional experience, their body probably produces an excess of some chemical or hormone that it is not used to handling and overtime time the excess buildup creates problems in certain areas of the body that lead to complications. The effects may be faster in some individuals than others.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the blog post and the previous comment concerning the correlation between the human body's physiological responses and emotional feelings, I thought about my experience with emotional experiences in my life being associated to physical pain that I was experiencing at the same time. I thought about the times that I have been intensely frustrated and severely overwhelmed by all of my incoming assignments and exam deadlines for all my classes. Due to these intense emotional feelings of frustration and overstimulation, I usually feel a physical pain in my chest, increased pressure in the arm, uneasiness in the stomach, or a migraine in my head. I strongly feel that this connection between the emotional pain and the physiological reactions is strongly correlated according to the Schacter-Singer theory which states that the body's physiological responses are dependent on the intensity of the individuals emotional feelings. I feel that this is accurate because I always feel a semblance of physical pain whenever I am experiencing intense emotional feelings which causes me to strongly feel that emotional pain is inextricably linked to physical pain.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that when scanning and analyzing the brain, emotional pain and physical pain show commonalities in the areas of the brain being affected. When thinking about it, the theories discussed in this blog as well as the article make sense to me as for me emotional pain and physical pain do go hand and hand. When I’m emotionally distraught, I typically can feel the pain circulating throughout my body. I will experience headaches, breathing problems, and fatigue. It does not come as a surprise to me that the death of a loved one can cause the death of another. I would be more interested in finding out how this happens; what neurotransmitters or hormones contribute to these feelings of pain and how it contributes to the death of an individual.
ReplyDeleteThe minute I read through your post I continued to think about the concept of bereavement or those who suffer from bereavement to the point of "dying of a broken heart" and then you even discussed that concept within you own post. I agree wholeheartedly with the articles' analysis as well as your own analysis, especially including the theories of emotion like James-Lange Theory. I found that to be particularly notable given that James-Lange Theory argues that a stimulus causes a physiological response, which results in the feeling of the emotion. However, I do not think that is necessarily the case for those who go through bereavement, as the physiological response (emotional pain) seems to result of an emotion and not the other way around. But still, the James-Lange Theory and Schacter and Singer’s Cognitive Theory both argue for the relationship between physical and emotional responses.
ReplyDeleteThe title alone says it all. Every one of us, including myself, has had to deal with emotional pain at some point in our lives. As I look back on my own life, one example that quickly comes to mind is breaking up with my ex girlfriend. We all agree that “love hurts,” but we don’t think it hurts the way that, being kicked in the shin hurts. At the time I held in my emotions thinking they would slowly pass by however this only made it worse. The emotional pain caused by that breakup during the time made me lazy and unhealthy. I noticed I was not the same person and also noticed how all this built up emotional pain was causing real physical problems in my life. It was interesting to see how this article explained the relationship between the two. However, I wanted to learn more about the scientific relationship. This article stayed the relationship can be due to the fact that our brain uses the same neural system to process physical and emotional pain, thus explaining the science behind how emotional pain causes physical pain. Overall, I found this article informative and easily relatable to.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this entry I further thought into the James-Lange theory of emotion and i understand where it states that a physical response comes first but according to our class even physical physiological responses happen through the brain and neural processes in order for your brain to tell your body what to feel. I felt the need to further look into the Schachter-Singer theory to better understand the difference between the theories. The cognition of a person understanding the pain they are going through is strongly dependent on past experiences. These past experiences will cognitively tell your body the level of amount of pain you are in. Furthermore, the emotional feeling would stem from a relationship between physiological state and circumstances with cognitive processing. Both of these theories from this entry better help me understand why physical and emotion pain can be closely connected. Our course content on learning how physical processes are linked with our neurological response is related to this entry. Connections between this entry and our class are true for our own person lives as well. Experiencing the loss of a loved one does have a physical effect with the emotional response. The stereotype of women being more emotional may be true in some cases but I have heard in past learning that men take loss harder than women most times. This makes me question whether men and women go through the same processes in loss physically and psychologically.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post.
ReplyDeleteFor many of the research projects I have done for school, I have researched grief and complex grief. Complex grief is still yet to be considered a psychological disorder because the symptoms are difficult to define. Because everyone experiences grief differently, it is hard to diagnose someone with prolonged or complicated grief. It can occur after the loss of a relationship, a job, a loved one, or even a house. Personally, I believe that much of our physical ailments that cannot be explained biological can come from emotional disturbances. The emotions may exit in the subconscious which then manifest into physical problems. This allows the emotional disturbance to be brought to the surface to then later deal within the concious level.