How does anxiety actually cause pain?

[uk23]

I have read about anxiety causing pain in areas of the body etc, but does anyone know what the actual process, or how it does it?

I find that my anxiety is helped when I understand the process behind it, my CBT person even agrees that CBT is not really a path for me as its not effective (doesnt work for everyone) but he likes to explain about how things can cause physical manifestations.

So an example is back pain, leg pain, chest pain - how does a psychological disorder actually cause that, hope that sort of makes sense :P

[shaggyowen]

yeh iv always wonderd this....... =]

[PokerFace]

My guess would be cuz anxiety causes you to tense up, especially around your back, shoulders, chest even legs which leads to a lot of pain eventually. People with anxiety sometimes don't move around enough either which causes pain in the legs too.

Anxiety can cause disgestive problems too which can hurt quite a lot in my experience in places like your tummy, chest, even your back. I don't know exactly how anxiety causes digestive problems but I'd guess it's cuz of adrenaline and never relaxing enough to let your food digest properly?

I'm not an expert obviously but thought I'd give you my ideas to see if it makes sense to you and hopefully it would help! :) x

[jen2503]

My guess would be cuz anxiety causes you to tense up, especially around your back, shoulders, chest even legs which leads to a lot of pain eventually. People with anxiety sometimes don't move around enough either which causes pain in the legs too.

Anxiety can cause disgestive problems too which can hurt quite a lot in my experience in places like your tummy, chest, even your back. I don't know exactly how anxiety causes digestive problems but I'd guess it's cuz of adrenaline and never relaxing enough to let your food digest properly?

I'm not an expert obviously but thought I'd give you my ideas to see if it makes sense to you and hopefully it would help! :) x


i agree with all the above, also anxiety sufferers dont tend to sleep properly so not enough restful sleep can cause you to be achey and tense which can lead to pulled muscles and tiredness.

also clenching your teeth in your sleep can cause jaw ache,headaches and neck ache.

also if you focus on one part of your body you can make yourself feel it! if that makese sense just in the same way that if you tell yourself your arm no longer hurts you can convince yourself you no longer feel the pain, but anxiety can reverse this so you think something hurts when actually it doesnt.