Anyone else experience emotional pain as physical pain?

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Here's what I mean by this: When I'm really sad, it physically hurts. The best way I can describe it as it's like my whole body stings very very badly or is on fire. It often hurts so bad that I start crying, which makes the physical pain even *worse*, which causes horrible sobbing fits and sometimes I actually cry out "It hurts! It hurts!"

Until very recently I didn't realize this wasn't a universal experience. I told my NT girlfriend about it and she said that when she's sad, she's just sad. There's no physical feeling associated with it. I can't even conceptualize what that would be like, because for me the burning feeling is an integral part of feeling sad.

I wonder whether this is related to sensory integration issues. Maybe I'm noticing subtle changes in my body that most people aren't aware of and experiencing them as painful.

Does anyone else understand what I'm talking about, or do I just sound crazy?

I don't, but I experienced more intense emotional pain than physical pain. I probably experience physical pain less than most people, but stronger emotional pain.

I felt emotional pain earlier in my life. Later in life, during an extremely stressful period, I found myself moving in the direction of depression. Not wanting to move in that direction my body competed physical pain with emotional pain. I think this is asociated with alexithymia, or psychologically blocking emotions that are too hard to deal with.

The normal emotions for me were replaced by strange sensations in the bottom of my feet that I had never experienced before. Anger that I was not in a position to express was felt as stabbing pains in my legs. I often wonder if this is what starts what is understood as fibromyalgia for some. The bottoms of the feet have oxytocin receptors, so this may be part of the issue.

My stress issues were job related, but the fear of losing my social connections from work may have been causing issues with normal oxytocin levels in my body. Just a thought, I don't have anything to back it up with. A loss of tribe, though, does seem like a primal issue, though.

Losing the ability to stay in touch with emotions in a healthy way is tough. Sometimes a journal or listening to or creating music can help, whatever it takes to get the emotions out rather than experiencing pain. If it is repressed anger a punching bag is good, if you have the hands for it. Even screaming (in an appropriate place) can help. Anger is an emotion that many repress to keep their marriage or job; not good to keep it bottled up.

It may have something to do with autism, but I was 45 before I experienced tension. Since I never experienced it, I had no idea what was causing the feeling of pain I was experiencing from it. I had to go to a Doctor to find out that it was just tension in my muscles. Yoga, meditation, massage, and exercise is good to release it.

Eighty-Five percent of people with Autism are reported to have some form of Alexithymia, so it is no wonder that many of us may experience our emotions as pain,.

Well, I've had dysthymia and depression for the past 15 years of my life. I definitely notice certain "feelings" associated with my mood that are almost on the boundary between physical discomfort and emotional distress. When I'm particularly depressed I get a heavy/fuzzy feeling behind my eyes along with a feeling like cold ice-water is flowing through my bones.

Side effects from various psychiatric medications and/or withdrawal symptoms from such medications have lead to even more bizarre internal sensations/states that defy description. I've experienced the phenomenon of "akathesia" which is utterly impossible for me to accurately describe. Describing it to someone who hasn't experienced it is a bit like trying to describe the discomfort from holding one's breath to a being who doesn't need to breathe. It's not quite physical pain but awful none-the-less.

So anyways. While I can't say I've ever experienced what you have, I know what it's like to experience stuff that most other people can't really understand or appreciate.

Maybe this explains why pain killers can help with emotional/psychological pain:

"Hurt feelings and social pain decreased over time in those taking acetaminophen, while no change was observed in subjects taking the placebo. Levels of positive emotions remained stable, with no significant changes observed in either group. These results indicate that acetaminophen use may decrease self-reported social pain over time, by impacting emotions linked to hurt feelings."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 154742.htm

"This study suggests that social pain is analogous in its neurocognitive function to physical pain, alerting us when we have sustained injury to our social connections, allowing restorative measures to be taken. Understanding the underlying commonalities between physical and social pain unearths new perspectives on issues such as why physical and social pain are affected similarly by both social support and neurochemical interventions, and why it “hurts” to lose someone we love."

http://www.scn.ucla.edu/pdf/Cyberball290.pdf

I know what you mean. It is not always true, but it is sometimes true for me.

Rejection feels like someone just hit the bottom of my stomach from the inside.

Stress, disappointment, and frustration feel like I'm getting squeezed from the inside and pushed down from above. It's like gravity just got stronger. I assumed that everybody felt this way.

Happiness feels like a caffeine high.

I think this is normal, that everybody feels like this, but I never asked anybody about it. Maybe it is unusual.

It is afterall where the saying "broken heart" comes from.

I've had physical pain worsen when I'm angry.

I don't think the original post was asking about emotional pain causing physical pain, but rather about emotional pain manifesting primarily as physical pain.

In which case yes: I know exactly what you mean. I often feel like I've been punched in the stomach, and often tense it up as if attempting to ward off emotional pain when I'm stressed. I thought it was fairly normal until I noticed that I often don't process anything wrong in the world except the stomach pain - the emotional bit is half inferred.

While I haven't experienced this I can understand exactly what you mean.