How Stress Derails the Healing Response

Despite high-tech surgeries and low-tech massage , weekly handfuls of pain killers and structured physical therapy routines, people are still suffering in body pain. The answer may well be found within the mind itself, and the hold it has over our thoughts, emotions and our physical bodies.

When the mind (psycho) and the body (soma) interact in adverse ways the result can be body pain, inflammation and muscle spasms (among a host of other symptoms). This is called psychosomatic illness. Stress is one of the main culprits that prolongs the mind/body pain cycle. It does this by derailing the healing response.

Usually, the body reacts to external stimuli via the fight or flight response. When the body is placed under stress, it releases chemicals that will either lead one to do what needs to be done or run for the hills. The problem is that our daily life creates so much psychological stress that the fight or flight response is kept in the “on” position and the body rarely gets a chance to return to its normal balanced state.

The chronic stress state actually prolongs to injury by keeping the autonomic nervous system off-kilter. This can lead to chronic body pain, inflammation, muscle tightness, poor digestion, impaired respiration and mental issues like depression, anxiety and insomnia. In these cases, prolonged stress has led the mind to hold a pattern of psychosomatic illnesses. And when these are in play, the healing response is suppressed and acute injuries become chronic.

I can honestly tell you that the role of the mind and emotions is central to perpetuating and holding pain in the body. If you have not tried them before, please take a look at healing methods used to treat psychosomatic illnesses. These include therapy for Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS), The Sedona Method, Mindfulness Meditation and the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).

If your physical body has been treated in every safe way imaginable but to no avail, perhaps looking at your thoughts and emotions—a psychosomatic cause—may be the next logical step toward lasting relief.