Stress back pain is a specific variety of physical symptomology that is caused by conscious or subconscious emotional pressures. Most people will feel increased back muscle tension, tightness and pain when they are under a lot of emotional stress. Usually, these discomforting symptoms end when the stress is resolved. However, sometimes the back ache stays and becomes a chronic condition. This is almost always the result of repression of emotional stress. In these scenarios, the stress is never truly resolved; it is merely buried deeply inside our subconscious minds. This is the start of stress-induced back pain.
Most people fully understand and appreciate the scope of effects which stress can cause. They know that stress increases the risk for many serious health issues, such as hypertension and heart attack. However, I am always amazed at the naivete of some people who never consider that stress may cause, contribute to, worsen or perpetuate physical pain anywhere in the anatomy. It is not only logical; it is also a proven scientific fact.
In this essay, we examine the role of stress in the creation of common back pain syndromes.
What Causes Stress Back Pain?
The type of stress that causes ongoing and serious back pain is not typically the common day-to-day stress. It is not the stress of being on time, the stress of missing a bus or the stress of having to go to work. It is repressed emotional stress. This type of stress can be obvious or extremely subtle.
Obvious examples of repressed emotional stress are a history of physical or sexual abuse, the loss of a loved one, a rift in family relations or a traumatic experience. Less obvious, but equally powerful repressed emotional stress might include a bad relationship, hidden anger at children or parents, dissatisfaction with a career path (or life in general) or even a poor self image.
Repressed emotional stress is an obvious threat, since the subconscious mind is trying so hard to hide it from you (from your consciousness, that is). The subconscious has become overly fearful of the effects these repressed emotions might have, if they are discovered and processed by your conscious mind.
Therefore, the subconscious mind has created a smokescreen of back pain to keep your conscious mind focused on something other than these repressed issues. Pain is unbelievably effectual at keeping the consciousness fixed on the body, instead of the mind, which is exactly where the subconscious wants it to be.
Solving Stress Back Pain Problems
The cure for stress back pain is to recognize and acknowledge the internalized pressures. However, this is not easy, since these emotional issues are well hidden (repressed) by the subconscious mind.
If repression is the cause of the pain, then discovery is the cure.
The patient must investigate all possible causes for the pain, then work to resolve, or at least acknowledge these sensitive issues, before the pain will end. This curative process may seem contrived and complicated to a novice in the field of mindbody medicine. The mind is the body. The body is the mind. They are inseparable. The actions of one will always affect the other. Of course, the mind is the commanding general, while the body is simply the soldier. If the mind wants to use the body to protect itself, then that’s what it will do. Call it yet another example of collateral damage that the body must suffer so the mind will not.
The psychosomatic process is not logical and is certainly an evolutionary maladaptation. However, many of the emotions in the subconscious are not logical, rational or even sane. The subconscious is a place where our most primal and narcissistic thoughts constantly battle with our sense of conscience and “Godliness”.
Where there is conflict, emotional sensitivities develop. Where emotional sensitivities exist, stress will result. It is as simple as that. Where stress lingers, pain is sure to follow.
Stress-Related Back Pain Solutions
Do not discount the power stress can have over your body and mind. It can sometimes mean the difference between health and disease, or even life and death.
Many of you who have treatment-resistant back pain may be wise to investigate knowledge therapy as a possible true emotional cure for your physical pain. There are no risks and no financial expenses with this path.
At the very least, you owe it to yourself to always consider stress into the equation when trying to ascertain the cause of any health crisis, including back pain. Not doing so is simply allowing stress to victimize you over and over, unchecked. This is not only a path to a very unhappy life, but may also be a prime contributor to a premature death.
