How Depression and Pain Are Connected

From the creator

There's a very close relationship between pain and depression. You can think of it as Bi-directional meaning that each entity influences the other. Pain worsens or can even cause depression and depression worsens your pain tolerance. This worsening of your pain is not just your perception because you feel down. Depression increases your sensitivity to pain. So it's as though you feel pain more intensely when you're depressed then you would if you were not depressed. This is related to what we call the somatization of depression or the tendency to feel depression in your body. Depression can affect you physically. Even if you don't have a pain problem, when you get depressed you can be more sensitive to body sensations and experience them in a negative way. So some depressed people can complain of joint pain, headaches or dizziness. You may feel bloated or constipated. It's not because depression makes you constipated but when you're depressed you can get neglect your fluid intake, then have slower moving bowels. Then your mental state magnifies the intensity of the experience. The second relationship between pain and depression is chronic pain that goes unresolved for months can cause depression. Usually chronic pain is pain that lasts more than three months. What can be done about this? When you have a combination of pain and depression, you have to use different approaches to treat both. As for non-medication options there is cognitive behavioral therapy that is tar

Published 2021-01-20 · Watch on YouTube ↗
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