“If I am feeling pain I must have a physiological injury, right?” “WRONG”
Nobody wants to hear their doctor say it’s “in their heads” because that goes against everything we are taught about pain and can seem like a bit of a brush off.
Much chronic pain is psychosomatically generated. It can be maintained through thoughts of anger, guilt or shame. These feelings are usually hidden deep within the subconscious mind. Also when the pain becomes the main focus of a persons attention it intensifys and becomes habitual.
The reason for the psychosomatic pain comes from ignoring the subconscious minds calling for the resolution of negative feelings. We don’t like to feel uncomfortable so we do anything rather than address them. Repressed anger is probably the biggest cause of chronic pain. We are taught that anger is socially unexceptable and something that should be kept to ourselves so we hold it in.
Our emotions inform us that something needs to be addressed. Depressed people, for example are much more likely to suffer from things like IBS, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and autoimmune diseases because they can’t resolve their inner demons.
Below are some indicators that your pain maybe psychosomatic.
1. Your doctor doesn’t understand your pain and says there is no medical reason for it to continue.
2. Your pain moves from one place to another.
3. Your injury never heals and the pain has gotten worse.
4. Your pain gets worse under stress or anxiety.
5. When you go to ‘x’ or when you do ‘y’ your pain goes away or worsens.
6. One day you woke up and it was just there
If your pain is psychosomatic medical treatments will only fail or give temporary relief and the pain will come back or move to another part of the body.