By Pilar Hernán

Copyright hellomagazine

Have you ever felt unhappiness or mental anguish so deeply that it’s as if your soul actually hurts? Experts call this “emotional pain”, which is different from physical discomfort but can affect your quality of life just as much. “[Physical pain] is a ‘sensory’ pain; it stems from the body and is transmitted to the brain directly through nerve endings,” explains psychiatrist Dr Remedios Gutiérrez. In contrast, emotional pain – which may come in the form of intense feelings of sorrow, sadness or fear – doesn’t always have an obvious, specific cause, but is equally as important to address because it can also have a detrimental effect on your daily life.

How does emotional pain manifest itself?

What symptoms might alert us to emotional pain? According to the doctor, there are quite a few possible signs:

Neglecting personal hygiene
Experiencing sudden and dramatic mood swings
Feeling blocked when performing daily tasks because of high levels of stress or anxiety
Finding it harder than usual to get out of bed despite having slept enough
General feeling of mental fatigue
Binge eating – not out of hunger but to fill a feeling of ’emptiness’

Causes of emotional pain

So, what’s causing us to feel this way? Sometimes the reasons are easy to pinpoint, but that’s not always the case. “There are as many causes as there are types of people, life circumstances and ways of managing mental or emotional health,” relates Dr Gutiérrez.

“There are a number of ‘normal’ life changes and problems that can lead to emotional pain,” she explains. The most common triggers are work, financial problems, the loss of a loved one and divorce. “Overcoming it will depend on the tools each person has to manage it. That said, emotional pain caused by specific trauma such as abuse is a different situation – it’s very complicated to heal that type of emotional pain without therapy and sometimes medication.”

Regardless of the root cause, emotional pain can significantly affect the lives of those who suffer from it. “If it’s chronic, it can affect your ability to perform normal daily tasks and also will impact how you relate to others,” comments the psychiatrist.

Is emotional pain difficult to detect?

There are people who don’t even recognise that they’re suffering from emotional pain. “It’s usually hard to notice at first,” says Dr Gutiérrez. “[When you do recognise it] you must understand that you don’t have to just resign yourself to living with it. Awareness and also knowing when to ask others for help is essential if you want to get through it.”

It’s important to recognise when you’re not able to cope. “If you have a support network and still don’t see improvement after a couple of weeks, it’s advisable to seek professional help,” suggests the mental health expert.

How to treat emotional pain

What strategies are there to try to overcome emotional pain on our own? “It depends a lot on each person: not all of us have the same tools, because everyone’s emotional upbringing is different. I can say that if the pain persists or becomes a chronic issue, it’s hard to treat without therapeutic or psychiatric help,” she says.

It’s important to remember that emotional pain deserves the same attention as physical pain. “Unfortunately, there’s still much work to be done so that, at a social and even medical level, emotional disorders are recognised at the same level as physical ones. Thankfully, though, we are making progress,” concludes the expert.

About the expert:

Dr Remedios Gutiérrez is a Psychiatrist, Internist and Psychoanalyst at CEAP (Centre for Studies and Application of Psychoanalysis) in Spain.