Are you in pain and also working in a high-stress high-status environment?
Here’s something that you might not have thought about…
There is less of a stigma attached to seeking help for physical rather than psychological problems in this sort of world.
That’s why you may deny your emotional pain and instead express it through amplified physical symptoms—a process called somatisation.
Think about it.
Would you rather complain to your colleagues about your depression or your back pain?
A large body of empirical research links somatisation with suppression of emotions, stress, and trauma.
For instance, two weeks before they invaded Iraq, soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division, experienced their distress differently.
Compared with combat-naïve soldiers, combat veterans denied emotional symptoms—such as anxiety, irritability, depression—and instead reported more physical symptoms—such as back or neck pain, hiatus hernia, headaches, digestive issues, insomnia or sexual difficulties.
When you stop denying the emotional pain and decide to work with it, physical symptoms disappear, often in seconds!
—Angelos