{"id":135882,"date":"2024-11-19T10:07:21","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T14:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=135882"},"modified":"2025-10-03T11:52:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:52:03","slug":"can-stress-cause-chronic-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/can-stress-cause-chronic-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Stress Cause Chronic Pain? Here’s How It Can"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Can stress cause chronic pain? Why do patients with mindbody disorders<\/a> think they should be in pain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chronic pain can originate in your thoughts. Even if you sustain a minor injury, you may start to believe you’re more seriously injured, which only causes more pain because you’re more stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discover how stress and other psychological conditions can influence how your body feels pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: This article is part of\u00a0Shortform\u2019s guide to stress<\/a>. If you like what you read here, there\u2019s plenty more to check out in the guide!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joint and Back Pain as Mindbody Disorders<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Andrea Leonard-Segal<\/a> is a rheumatologist and a clinical associate professor of medicine at George Washington University<\/a>. She specializes in treating chronic pain and takes a holistic approach that addresses both physical and psychological causes of pain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Leonard-Segal herself developed back pain that didn\u2019t go away with standard treatments, she went to John E. Sarno as a patient. That was when she learned about mindbody disorders and that stress causes chronic pain. Sarno\u2019s treatment cured her, and she\u2019s been using his principles of mindbody medicine in her practice ever since, with a particular focus on treating TMS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TMS Patients Think They \u201cShould\u201d Be in Pain<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Leonard-Segal says that the only common thread between many of her patients is the belief <\/em>that they\u2019ve seriously hurt themselves. Their injuries\u2014if they have any\u2014are often minor and would normally heal on their own. However, because the patient thinks they\u2019re hurt, the pain continues. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, the mindbody disorder often compounds itself because the patient comes to believe that the chronic pain means they\u2019re frail and weak. As a result of that belief, they actually start to feel even minor pains more severely and struggle to recover from injuries and illnesses that should pose no threat at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonard-Segal\u2019s treatment for TMS is similar to Sarno\u2019s, but she adds that her goal is to give her patients the benefit of an outside perspective. In other words, Leonard-Segal helps her patients to see themselves as <\/strong>she <\/em><\/strong>sees them: healthy, strong, and capable. <\/strong>She says that, once her patients internalize that new self-image, they usually make full recoveries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mindbody Disorders as Identity Disorders<\/strong>

Leonard-Segal takes a different approach to mindbody disorders: Rather than saying that they\u2019re the result of repressed emotions<\/a>, she posits that such disorders often come from the patient\u2019s self-image. This idea reflects what life coach Tony Robbins writes about identity in his book Awaken the Giant Within<\/em><\/a>. Robbins\u2019s definition of identity is \u201cthe person you believe yourself to be,\u201d matching Leonard-Segal\u2019s definition of self-image. Robbins adds that your identity doesn\u2019t actually define who you are<\/a>, but rather what you do<\/a>\u2014you subconsciously act in ways that align with your identity, impacting your decisions and actions. For instance, if you see yourself as an injured person with chronic pain, you\u2019ll think and act like an injured person with chronic pain. 

Furthermore, you\u2019ll naturally resist changing things that you see as core parts of your identity, because that feels like losing a part of yourself<\/a> (even though it\u2019s really only changing your perception <\/em>of yourself). Robbins suggests bypassing that defense mechanism by subtly shifting your identity, or building upon it, rather than totally changing how you see yourself<\/a>. Continuing the previous example, you might stop telling yourself that you are <\/em>injured, and shift to telling yourself that you were <\/em>injured, but have now recovered. This approach allows you to grow past your old identity without needing to reject it outright.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can stress cause chronic pain? Why do patients with mindbody disorders think they should be in pain? Chronic pain can originate in your thoughts. Even if you sustain a minor injury, you may start to believe you’re more seriously injured, which only causes more pain because you’re more stressed. Discover how stress and other psychological conditions can influence how your body feels pain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":136186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,7,9],"tags":[1669],"class_list":["post-135882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-lifestyle","category-psychology","tag-the-divided-mind","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nCan Stress Cause Chronic Pain? 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