Chronic Emotional Pain

Unlike physical pain, for some emotional pain has no conceivable end, the pain of something such as a family death has a lasting effect that never reaches a resolution, and conversely to physical pain, emotional pain is not traditionally classified as ‘pain’ in that there is no distress signal, no accompanying precursory depression and the pain is both sudden and common; with contemporary psychologists referring to it more as ‘suffering’ rather than pain (Biro 2010). Most people will experience some form of emotional anguish in their lives, whether it be through the death of a loved one, the breakdown of a relationship or social exclusion. However, the argument as to whether chronic emotional pain is more severe than chronic physical pain remains

Because emotional pain can be classified as almost any kind of negative emotional experience there are many other types of pain that could be included as an emotional pain response, however, the experience of social rejection and loss of an emotional attachment could be the most severe type of emotional pain based on the health implications (Streobe et al 2007) and lasting effect of instances of loss and rejection, such as the death of a loved one or rejection from a perceived relationship. This is not to say that other emotional experiences are less severe or not admissible, it is simply based on what is generally considered the most common and popularly considered the most

Others have proposed that withdrawal symptoms of oxytocin mimic the feeling of severe heart and body pain (Rivera et al 2006), suggesting that the prolonged release of oxytocin experienced within emotional relationships forms a dependency in the individual producing the positive feelings or ‘high’ associated with new relationships, then when this release of oxytocin is suddenly severed the person will experience the severe symptoms associated with sudden grief. This is acute withdrawal of the oxytocin and like most drug withdrawal, it only subsides with time to