It Physically Hurts...

[dr_mabeuse]

Bad thoughts cause physical pain. That's how we learn to avoid bad things.

I never believed this until I found out this is how depression works. In severe depression you don't just feel blue, you're in actually psychic pain due to certain neurotransmitters in the brain. Your soul hurts and it's a pain you can't treat.

Well, that's not strictly true. Actually you can treat it. You can treat it with narcotics, and some people do, and they usually become addicted, and that's how addicts are made. Addicts are people who were trying to treat unendurable mental pain. Narcotics will counteract the effects of certain "bad" neurotransmitters like norepinephrine and keep them from causing pain, but n the process they'll cause the user to become addicted to them for life.

See, our minds don't work by processing thought. The mind rarely works by processing pure thought alone. It works by processing little bundles of thought plus emotion. That's how we prioritize things and know what's important. Each little thought you have carries with an emotional marker with it like a little flag, and when you think about things, you're symbolically manipulating these thought-emotions into scenarios to see how things will work out. "Should I get something to eat?" "Should I go over to Joe's house?" The payoff for these thoughts is a little positive jolt (serotonin, "S") or negative (possibly norepinephrine, "NE") that you then base your decision on. If you get an S buzz, you think, "Hey, that feels like a good idea" and you might do it. If you get an NE buzz, you say "Unh-uh. Bummer. Not going to do that." NE is a little taste of pain.

Most of the time it's not enough to bother us, but in some people or in some mental states it gets amplified to the point where it actually starts to hurt and cause pain enough to be aware of. Then there's trouble.

When you think about your friends' accomplishments, you put enough importance on them that you amplify that NE response so that you begin to feel that pain. There's nothing unusual about that. We feel the results of our thoughts all the time. Ever think about a lover being with someone else when you've just broken up and feel your adrenal glands kick in like afterburners on a jet engine? Thoughts affect the hell out of us. God knows how many of us die from thought poisoning every day. Must be astronomical.

EDITED TO ADD: Our brains aren't the only part of us that "thinks". We have a vast nerve nexus in our gut that controls digestion and makes its own decisions involving elimination (ever notice how your stomach changes schedules when you travel?) that also works on emotion. Our brains are vast emotion-processing machines. Their importance as information-processing units is highly overrated.

It's been known since they were discovered that the neurotransmitters that conduct impulses across neurons in the brain also effect mood, which is pretty bizarre when you think about it. Amphetamines and cocaine and all "uppers" mimic DOPA, the neurotransmitter that helps conduct signals across the synaptic gulf. They block its reuptake once it's released and so your brain's flooded with DOPA and your thoughts race. You feel confidant and optimistic and "up". LSD and a lot of hallucinogens mimic serotonin.

Lots of funny stuff going on in there.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Thinking...period... has the same-exact effect on many people.

Maybe the others are thinking "You know, I shoulda paid the rent instead of buying all that crack. Now I have to sleep in the car and its a pain in the ass."

 

[Nirvanadragones]

I know this aching intimately.

Immediately I think of depression, which Dr Mab has already mentioned.

Generally speaking, physical pain is easier to deal with, or change. And exact level of physical pain can never be recalled, after it has taken place. You have the memory of it, but the intensity is almost neutral. Emotional pain, on the other hand, can become even more painful than the level of pain during it's origin - Which is perhaps one of the reasons I prefer the physical manifestation.

A quote, which holds both beauty, and incredible pain for me: Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. What then kills love? Only this: Neglect. Not to see you when you stand before me. Not to think of you in the little things. Not to make the road wide for you, the table spread for you. To choose you out of habit not desire, to pass the flower seller without a thought. To leave the dishes unwashed, the bed unmade, to ignore you in the mornings, make use of you at night. To crave another while pecking your cheek. To say your name without hearing it, to assume it is mine to call.

~ Jeanette Winterson

 

[Huckleman2000]

Yeah, like the commercial says, "Depression hurts."
For me, sometimes it feels like a migraine. Very often it's a tightness in my chest or gut, and it's hard to breathe. It almost always feels like IBS and then, frequently, hemorrhoids.

I think the best thing I've ever found is to replace the pains with the exquisite aches that follow a good workout, but that takes an awful lot of self-discipline and free time. I only have a lot one of those, though.

 

[MagicaPractica]

I think SensualCealy, Egelante and Dr. M have had a lot of valid points to make on the topic. I offer my *hugs* and support plus understanding. I do know these feelings. I often find these thoughts are like a runaway train that I must shunt onto a side rail in order to slow and stop it. If I don't, it eventually plunges off the bridge.

Some things I have found most effective in stopping the thoughts and thus the pain are exercise, particularly gentle exercise such as a walk or yoga, writing, reading and music. I also find that it useful to have written out the five top goals in my life. After each goal, I have put two things that I can do on a daily basis to move me towards those goals. The feeling of forward momentum helps keep me feeling positive. PM me if you'd like to see my list.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

When I think certain things. I feel them resound inside me like a canon firing, the thoughts echoing, each causing their own little flinch as they touch a tender part.

Like when I look at what other people my age have achieved and I'm still... what I am. I feel *less*. Why other peoples' success should do this to me is another story, but the feeling - feeling less - hurts more than actual physical injury sometimes. Other feelings that have the same effect - rejection, humiliation, being misunderstood.

How do mental thoughts cause physical pain?
How do you stop them?

Feel free to reply or ignore as you choose. I guess I just needed a place to vent. Today I am feeling *less*...

x
V

Oh Ver, how I know what you mean, and feel for you. I remember a time when I was some years older than you are now and was completely aimless, with nothing to show for my time on this planet. It's a long story, but around 15 years ago I made certain changes and followed what ended up being a tremendously rewarding career track. I guess what I'm saying is, don't write yourself off, although like I say, you have my deep sympathy because I can so remember and relate.

 

[egelante]

I know this aching intimately.

Immediately I think of depression, which Dr Mab has already mentioned.

Generally speaking, physical pain is easier to deal with, or change. And exact level of physical pain can never be recalled, after it has taken place. You have the memory of it, but the intensity is almost neutral. Emotional pain, on the other hand, can become even more painful than the level of pain during it's origin - Which is perhaps one of the reasons I prefer the physical manifestation.

A quote, which holds both beauty, and incredible pain for me: Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. What then kills love? Only this: Neglect. Not to see you when you stand before me. Not to think of you in the little things. Not to make the road wide for you, the table spread for you. To choose you out of habit not desire, to pass the flower seller without a thought. To leave the dishes unwashed, the bed unmade, to ignore you in the mornings, make use of you at night. To crave another while pecking your cheek. To say your name without hearing it, to assume it is mine to call.

~ Jeanette Winterson

It's a good quote, but I prefer to cling to the opening.

 

[egelante]

I think SensualCealy, Egelante and Dr. M have had a lot of valid points to make on the topic. I offer my *hugs* and support plus understanding. I do know these feelings. I often find these thoughts are like a runaway train that I must shunt onto a side rail in order to slow and stop it. If I don't, it eventually plunges off the bridge.

Some things I have found most effective in stopping the thoughts and thus the pain are exercise, particularly gentle exercise such as a walk or yoga, writing, reading and music. I also find that it useful to have written out the five top goals in my life. After each goal, I have put two things that I can do on a daily basis to move me towards those goals. The feeling of forward momentum helps keep me feeling positive. PM me if you'd like to see my list.

Nicely put MagicaPractica

My method is walking with my eyes set on the world around me, and my skin concentrating on the air... It's hard to settle into introspection when you're moving.