Faced with disappointment, a broken relationship, a betrayal, a lie or the loss of a loved one, we experience emotional pain, a heartbreaking pain that has been described for centuries and centuries in poems and songs full of suffering.
These poetic intuitions have been supported by neurysiological studies that have shown that the metaphor of psychological pain, generated by a kind of social or emotional loss, is reflected in our brain circuits.
- Today.
- It is possible to find out through functional MRI.
- A neuroimaging technique that helps us see which areas of the brain are activated when our heart breaks and our emotions appear.
Interestingly, it has been discovered that the same areas of the brain that activate when we suffer from physical pain are activated when something breaks inside us and the discomfort and the most intense emotional pain takes hold of us.
Thus, Eysenberg and his team’s experience created a situation in which the people who participated in the studies felt excluded, underestimated and distressed, which has caused changes in blood flow in two main areas of the brain:
As we have seen, the previous cingulate cortex leads us to create this kind of feeling of anguish, disgust and fear of the emotional vacuum that brings us loss, disappointment or rejection; in turn, our prefrontal cortex is responsible for regulating our emotions and counteracting them. the painful feeling of being rejected, thus helping to soothe the pain caused by our emotional wound.
To be more precise and know how our emotions are going, we need to know some additional data, namely the cingular convolution has three distinct emotional zones:
For example, the central cingular area is activated during men’s sexual arousal and in the face of stressful or much-needed tasks or activities on our part.
Knowing this, we can understand that neurotransmitters (substances that regulate brain function) suffer from severe depression at emotionally difficult times for us.
It is interesting to know that antidepressants and other mood-stimulating drugs act on our brain by regulating or reducing the activation of the previous cingulate area which, as we have said, is involved in activating negative emotions and feelings.
What is very clear to us, from all this information, is that physical pain and emotional pain share the same path, so we should not underestimate the emotional wounds and let them heal “in any case”.
When our hearts break or our friend betrays us, the pain is intense mentally and physiologically, most of us will be aware of the devastation we feel when we have to end the story with, for example, our first love.
We are used to burying emotional pain and ignoring the suffering of psychological wounds, however, as we have pointed out, we do not usually hide when we have a headache or when we experience a severe stomach ache.
Acting on our mental and emotional well-being, trying to understand what is happening to us, and alleviating our grievances and anxieties are ways to prevent suffering from getting worse.
Just as physical pain warns us of injury, we must not forget that the emotional pain of separation, rejection or disappointment is adaptive, because it helps us understand that something is wrong and that we must seek help.
Once this is clear, we will continue to expect more rigorous studies to help us better understand not only the presence of psychological pain, but also the best way to alleviate it and learn from the anxiety it generates.