Where Pain Meets Emotion: Why the Brain Doesn’t Always Distinguish

When I was an academic and I told people that I studied pain, the first question was often: physical pain or emotional pain? 

I learned to smile. Yes. I’d say. Exactly. 

Of all of the things I learned while conducting fieldwork in neuroimaging labs, the most practical was as follows: the brain doesn’t draw a clear line between physical and emotional discomfort. There is substantial overlap in the regions of the brain that process physical injury and emotional distress. 

The bad news is that these types of pain frequently co-occur: physical pain begets emotional pain, and vice versa. The good news is, we can take advantage of this shared real estate. The techniques and practices that work to address emotional pain often work on physical pain as well. The tools we use to lessen physical pain can also lead to a better sense of overall emotional wellbeing. 

Think of the last time that you experienced a broken heart. 

How did it feel in your body? In your nervous system? 

What thoughts went through your mind at the time? 

What did you do to lessen the heartache? What worked? What didn’t?

Many of the techniques I teach my clients build on this understanding of shared neurobiology. I find it’s helpful to hold the binary of physical and emotional pain loosely. While there are meaningful differences, it can be illuminating to explore the overlap.