Why do sensations such as heartbreak/sadness/anxiety feel like physical pain?

Question

Why do sensations such as heartbreak/sadness/anxiety feel like physical pain?

In: Biology

Answer 1

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.