Plato said that the body is the prison of the soul, because sometimes, instead of being our ally, it is the messenger of something that hurts, something that is wrong, so if you have ever wondered how emotions affect your back, the answer cannot be clearer: they cause contractions, tension and pain that medications do not always relieve.
Talking about back pain is about referring to one of the most common ailments in the population, headache, it is estimated that one in ten people often suffer from it and is also one of the leading causes of work drop. The disease usually has the most diverse origins: poor ergonomics at work, hernias, kidney problems, osteoporosis, arthritis, disc degeneration, etc. , there is one aspect that is often overlooked.
- Any mental illness and emotional distress can lead to physical illness.
- With the back being the most affected area of the body.
We’re talking, of course, about the body-mind relationship. Especially emotions and their impact on this complex but fantastic combination of bones, ligaments, tendons, muscles, intervertebral spaces, joints and nerves; factors such as stress or anxiety cause small changes in these structures that gradually result in inflammation, coordination problems and episodes. of pains that affect our quality of life so much.
The way emotions affect your back is as varied as it is surprising, there are experts who have no prejudice when it comes to pointing out that the spine is the support not only of our physical burdens, but also of our emotional burdens. as the pillar of our existence, and we do not speak in spiritual or transcendental terms, it only recalls its structural function: to protect and cover our delicate nervous system.
Feeling lumbalgia, suffering contractures, or worse, suffering chronic lumbalgia paralyzes our own functionality, forces us to stop, pain is above all like that faithful dog who stands in front of our house and barks when there is danger. Silencing him with medication won’t do any good if we don’t know the cause, if we don’t find what threatens the “pillar of our body,” the balance of our physical existence.
As impressive as it may seem, back pain is often one of the most common physical symptoms in patients with generalized depression or anxiety, so it’s common to see people go down a path of physical therapists and spine specialists without finding relief, without finding a cure for this recurrent back pain until they finally get the right diagnosis from a psychologist or other mental health professional.
We must not forget that pain is first and foremoscy a neurological sensation transmitted by our nervous system. So, in states characterized by anxiety, fear, disappointment or discouragement in our brain, there is a chemical imbalance. An irregularity between Serotonin and norepinephrine causes, for example, an increase in pain perception.
In turn, conditions characterized by stress or anxiety result in a higher level of cortisol in the blood, this hormone increases blood flow, increases muscle tension and even facilitates the development of certain autoimmune processes that can attack the joints, promote nerve inflammation and even reduce calcium in our bones.
Swimming, anti-inflammatory, muscle relaxants? None of these approaches work when the person with back pain actually suffers from emotional pain. As an article by Psychology Today explains, emotional suffering is an indicator that part of our being is broken, fragmented. Does this invisible injury usually result in back pain?headaches, digestive problems?
Duke University Medical Center, for example, specializes in treating such conditions. Benson Hoffman explains that nearly 80% of us suffer from lower back pain at some point, this is the most common condition that would show how emotions affect the back and, in particular, how the emotional discomfort associated with sadness or disappointment lies in this area. of our body.
The subject is undoubtedly as fascinating as it is revealing
How emotions affect the back will always depend on our ability to deal with the daily worries and stresses that we choose to hide rather than express.
Let’s look at an image for a while. Imagine us with a bow on our backs, a bow full of arrows ready to destroy pain, handle it better and defend ourselves from what can come together to become suffering.
We already know how emotions affect the back, we know that the mind has a direct connection to our body and that the brain orchestrates this sometimes relentless control, in which any anxiety, anger or unresolved problem will turn our back into a private torture room. we learn to prevent, to take care of our emotions as well as to our diet and never forget the “movement”. A moving body and a mind that knows how to vent from time to time are also fundamental to health.