To grossly oversimplify, negative emotions like heartbreak, rejection, and embarrassment, trigger some of the same regions in the brain as physical pain. Specifically, the secondary somatosensory cortex and dorsal posterior insula.
Processing these emotions as if they were physical pain helps your brain teach itself to avoid the feelings in the future.
as a literal ELI5, they are registered in the same area of the brain. getting called “worthless” would register as much as being hit in the stomach with a baseball bat.
this statement is true– over the counter pain killers double as emotional pain-killers. That’s something not everyone should know. That’s why people get so addicted to pills. They’re anti-depressants.
When you feel an unwanted sensation, you or parts of you contract. Someone pokes you? You either completely release because you trust the touch, or you contract to shield yourself from the pressure (and of course there are seemingly infinite variances between the extremes).
Some people may even contract from feelings of love or concern for reasons such as a belief that they do not deserve them or do not trust them. You tighten to avoid a signal, such as loss, a communication which is either external or internal saying something like “I don’t love you.” You reject that notion and squeeze upon it to shield yourself from something you perceive to be false. Flex something or push/hit against something hard enough and you will experience something we call pain. A bombardment of atoms causing a “disruptive” or “uncomfortable” wave pattern.
My take on it. We suffer physical pain when the mechanisms within our body that we use to sustain life suffer impairment or injury.
As social creatures, we rely on relationships for survival. To suffer an impairment or injury to that mechanism on which our survival depends, is dangerous. Basically, it hurts our ability to survive and procreate so it feels like it hurts.
An example. A group of cavemen get along well and survive. One caveman starts being a dick and the group ostracized him. He’s gonna feel sad, lonely, and probably a bit heartbroken. What’s this gonna spur him to do? How capable of surviving and procreating is he now? He’s gonna go back to the group, he’s gonna survive, and he’s gonna have babies that feel the same way when they get kicked out of the survival group.
Hope this answers your question.
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