There’s an interesting article in Psychology today The Connections Between Emotional Stress, Trauma and Physical Pain. Nothing really ground breaking that we don’t already know, but an interesting issue just the same.
In the Western world, especially in Western medicine, we don’t focus much on the relationship between mind, body, and spirit, but in truth people are comprised of 3 parts all working together. If one gets out of whack the other two soon follow.
Worse, culturally we do some really demeaning and dismissive things, like suggesting that people’s pain is all in their head, or that whatever is afflicting them doesn’t really count because it’s psychosomatic, or stress related, or rooted in emotional trauma. We combine that dismissive attitude with this black and white, Science-only, kind of thinking. If you have a spear in your side we can fix that and solve the problem. If you have mysterious pain in your shoulder, you just have a “bad” shoulder. Everything else from there on out just becomes a mental disorder, as if “mental” somehow means disconnected from the rest of the body. If we can’t quickly figure out what is causing your problem, how about some anti depressants to make you feel better about it?
So many things within our culture are just viewed as a disease, rather than as a sign of good health, rather than evidence of your mind, body, and spirit behaving exactly as it was designed to do. Aging for example, is often treated as a disease, as if the very process of aging is an illness that must be treated. We tend to pack our elderly down with dozens of prescriptions, some which have side effects which than require more medication. Some of these meds are not a bad idea, but the thinking behind “better living through chemistry” is somewhat flawed.
There is more to us than just the physical. We’ve gotten a whole lot better at almost recognizing this truth and science has begun to look into it, but we have a long way to go.
This article speaks of post traumatic stress, emotional trauma, and then declares, “Chronic pain is defined as prolonged physical pain that lasts for longer than the natural healing process should allow.” I am such a nitpicker, but what is this “should” they speak of? Longer than the natural healing process should allow? What are we basing that judgement on? How do we know what the natural healing process should and should not allow?
Within people there are these things I call body memories, muscle memories. We can scrape our knee when we are 9 years old, attach that experience to some emotional issue, spend years protecting that knee, focusing on that knee, trying to get the pain out of that knee, and we can actually create inflammation, muscle strain, genuine evidence of physical distress that is visible to doctors. We don’t like to discuss these things because the first thought is usually shame and blame. It’s all my fault, it’s all in my head, it’s all me, I made myself sick. The very fact that those emotional triggers pop up so quickly, so defensively, suggests there is often an emotional and spiritual relationship going on with our own “bad” body part that has now betrayed us and revealed our deep, dark secrets.
Don’t get me wrong here, you get hit by a bus or something, there’s going to be genuine scar tissue, muscle distress, potential future chronic pain. Or not. There are many variables at play, but we do know that how one feels about that accident, the condition of their mind and spirit, their circumstances and attitude, play a huge role in how well they will heal.
I’ve had some experiences with this myself. I used to have terrible problems with my neck and shoulders, could not lift my arms, did many rounds of pain meds and chiropractors, of massage and surgical possibilities. It was a physical therapist who told me, “you know, there really is a mind, body and spirit connection, have you considered asking for healing?” He wasn’t a Christian at all, but God bless him, because no, it had never occurred to me to just ask for healing. As simple as that. But of course it wasn’t simple at all, it was emotionally painful, there was a lot of physical and emotional trauma lurking in my neck and shoulders, there were memories that needed to be brought to the surface and issues that had to be dealt with. Sure enough however, what was once jammed muscles and visible swelling and chronic pain just went away, and rather quickly too. Today I have no problems and no pain.
I am not alone, I know many others who have been healed of chronic problems, who have bloomed into good health by treating themselves holistically, as if they were a being comprised of 3 parts. In simplistic terms, I did not love my neck and shoulders and they did not love me back.
That mind body, spirit thing is powerful stuff. There are people who have been hit by a bus, broken every bone in their body, and yet somehow they have managed to recover, to go on and to thrive. There are still others who are now chronically in pain, disabled due to what was once depression and than became chronic back pain and endless fatigue. These people are not faking it, but there is often a lot of unrecognized mind and spirit injury going on that we don’t seem able to address very well in the Western world. We tend to act as if an injury to the spirit and mind is a sign of weakness, but it isn’t, we all have them, and rather then perceiving it as a disease or defect, I wish we would come to better understand that this is a part of our wonderful and fearful design.
I use to have an elderly woman who would say, “is your knee talking to you? What’s it’s trying to say?” Wise woman, except she kept all her meds in a candy dish on her coffee table and just popped one when she felt like “having a treat.” Ai yi yi, she gave me a few gray hairs, but God bless her, she lived to a ripe old age and died peacefully in her sleep.
Vincent S Artale Jr said:
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
LikeLike
insanitybytes22 said:
Thank you for the reblog, much appreciated.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Vincent S Artale Jr said:
You’re very welcome!
LikeLike
auroraroschen said:
“…there is often a lot of unrecognized mind and spirit injury going on that we don’t seem able to address very well in the Western world. We tend to act as if an injury to the spirit and mind is a sign of weakness, but it isn’t, we all have them, and rather then perceiving it as a disease or defect, I wish we would come to better understand that this is a part of our wonderful and fearful design.” — Yes! Well said.
It’s doubly hurtful when we suffer from mental/emotional pain that loved ones then diagnose as either just a cry for attention (i.e. faking it) or a sign of weakness or defect. That just drives the pain deeper and makes us feel even more broken and alone. Fortunately, of course, this (hopefully!) drives us into the arms of the Great Physician.
LikeLiked by 2 people
insanitybytes22 said:
We are somewhat silly as people, here we have been given the Wonderful Counselor, the Great Physician, and yet when we need help, we tend to go there last. No insurance required either. He’s already paid the bill for us. 😉
LikeLiked by 2 people
Anonymous said:
“It’s doubly hurtful when we suffer from mental/emotional pain that loved ones then diagnose as either just a cry for attention (i.e. faking it) or a sign of weakness or defect. That just drives the pain deeper and makes us feel even more broken and alone.”
AMEN to that. And in the circles in which we tend to mingle, this is all too true and yet we’re supposed to fawn all over everybody else.
LikeLiked by 2 people
auroraroschen said:
I am convinced that no one is vaccinated against heartache, and the ones who discount the mental/emotional suffering of others often have just not yet fallen into their own valley of despair.
I believe the older that individuals get and the more life they live, the more they will realize that suffering is a part of the human experience and one that none of us are protected from.
My prayer is that we will all be unified, bear one another’s burdens, extend to others the same grace we’ve received ourselves, and comfort others with the comfort we’ve been given.
LikeLiked by 3 people
insanitybytes22 said:
Thanks Anonymous. I think you and Aurora have just explained why that “she’s just having a tantrum to get her own way,” thing has my pickles so peppered. To dismiss, demean, mock, ridicule, or completely ignore people in obvious distress is just flat out wrong.
Women get a bum wrap there, because when we’re distressed we may be crying, shrieking, or simply withdrawn. When men have so called “Godly tantrums,” they’re more likely to be breaking things and ranting, but however it shows up on the outside, it is still a sign of distress.
LikeLiked by 2 people
dvaal said:
Other countries work this out -why can’t we? It must have something to do with the value of being ill.
http://www.fiddledeedeebooks.wordpress.com
LikeLiked by 1 person
insanitybytes22 said:
Good point. There is big money around being ill.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Elizabethan said:
The spiritual world is very real, and it can help you with your problems, as can therapy of the mental sort. Disregarding both parts is just dangerous. The spirit world can help the physical one, the mental world can heal the spiritual one.
I do agree the “aging is bad” thing is at best odd, at worst, used as a reason to disregard wise and capable women. Aging is amazing, and as a person who was a threat to myself during most of my teens and early twenties, I am proud I continue to live.
I think western culture just doesn’t understand that the spiritual and mental sickness is real.
I agree with the, we need to let people cry, and be weak and say they aren’t happy and make people feel like its okay to fail, to lose, to say Don’t Do That, to allow others to live as themselves and solve their problems, in a way which is good and moral.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Salvageable said:
What you write is very very very true. Not only can physical pain have mental or spiritual causes and mental or spiritual solutions, but sometimes our mental/emotional/spiritual problems have purely physical causes, such as poor diet, not enough sleep, not enough exercise, or the wrong medications. It takes great wisdom to sort through the issues, for we are fearfully and wonderfully made. In the last year, I have learned to listen more to my body and accept what it’s telling me, because its messages are meant for my mind and my spirit as well. J.
LikeLiked by 2 people
insanitybytes22 said:
Really good point, Salvageable. Sometimes our physical problems, like poor diet or not enough sleep, can make us feel as if we are suffering from an emotional or spiritual problem.
I remember once I thought I was losing my mind, I was ready to sell the house and set the kids out on the curb, and hubby said, “I think you might just be coming down with the flu.” Sure enough, it was that simple. I wasn’t actually having an emotional breakdown, I was just coming down with a virus. 😉
LikeLiked by 2 people
ColorStorm said:
Says Paul through the Spirit of God:
—And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.—
Was he mistaken that man is tripartate? Nope. Here we have the trinity of truth as it were. There’s a whole lot of good threes in scripture, this is as you say, at the top of the list.
People easily recognize the body, but have issues with the other two. Why? The body does not create per se apart from the mind, yet the soul inspires to begin with. Hey, doesn’t that sound like ‘made in His image?
Nice ms bytes.
LikeLiked by 3 people
insanitybytes22 said:
Perfect, Colorstorm. Some have a hard time wrapping the brain around that Holy Trinity and yet we ourselves are in three parts, but whole, like one.
This was awesome, “The body does not create per se apart from the mind, yet the soul inspires to begin with.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
ColorStorm said:
It’s ok to have a hard time wrapping our noggin around hard things eh, but no sense saying that ice, water and steam are not one 😉
Gotta love those lessons of nature thank God.
As to our inspiration thought, consider the piano. It could care less if songs were played to the devil or God, but ah, the mind and soul surely care.
LikeLiked by 1 person
sophiaschildren said:
I’m a believer in this, for sure. From experience as well as what others have shared and written. One good book comes to mind from the Christian tradition (and it references others): Prayer-Centered Healing by Rick Mathis. Thank you for the article.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Links To Motivation And Leadership Articles – My Daily Musing