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The whole point is that there's no difference between psychosomatic pain and pain where there's a physical cause. The brain activity that people think of as be

The whole point is that there's no difference between psychosomatic pain and pain where there's a physical cause. The brain activity that people think of as being "just psychosomatic" is actual, physical changes that causes both direct perception of pain within the brain itself and also changes in the rest of the body that result in peripheral pain. Stress doesn't just make you imagine you have joint pain, it actually causes it directly in measurable ways. Catecholamines are extremely powerful and if you start cranking them out because you're stressed, everything works worse, which often results in pain, which is of course an additional stressor.

maxxxxx 9y ago
I accept that your thoughts can create pain but I think there is also pain that's being caused first by a physical event. Example: someone drilling your tooth.
- tudorw 9y ago
  You're right, that's known as nociceptive pain, the other is known as neuropathic pain, here's a nice piece, it's moving on the knowledge that these types of pain, emotional and physical if you like, cause a similar area of the brain to 'light up' (http://www.pnas.org/content/108/15/6270.abstract http://www.pnas.org/content/108/15/6270.abstract), and how advances are allowing more fine grain observation of these reactions http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/06/a-pain-detector-for-the-brain/ http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/06/a-pain-detector-for-th... Although to be a pedant, tooth drilling is apparently not quite nociceptive as it's the nerve being vibrated that causes an intense sensation that's easy to interpret as 'pain', I try and think about fireworks instead...
- jaggederest 9y ago
  Yes, it's by no means a one way gate, I'm just saying that people perceive this incorrect dichotomy between "real" pain and "pain that is just from your brain". There's no such distinction, and all pain is actual physical signalling.

maxxxxx 9y ago

I accept that your thoughts can create pain but I think there is also pain that's being caused first by a physical event. Example: someone drilling your tooth.

tudorw 9y ago
You're right, that's known as nociceptive pain, the other is known as neuropathic pain, here's a nice piece, it's moving on the knowledge that these types of pain, emotional and physical if you like, cause a similar area of the brain to 'light up' (http://www.pnas.org/content/108/15/6270.abstract http://www.pnas.org/content/108/15/6270.abstract), and how advances are allowing more fine grain observation of these reactions http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/06/a-pain-detector-for-the-brain/ http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/06/a-pain-detector-for-th... Although to be a pedant, tooth drilling is apparently not quite nociceptive as it's the nerve being vibrated that causes an intense sensation that's easy to interpret as 'pain', I try and think about fireworks instead...
jaggederest 9y ago
Yes, it's by no means a one way gate, I'm just saying that people perceive this incorrect dichotomy between "real" pain and "pain that is just from your brain". There's no such distinction, and all pain is actual physical signalling.