I’m’m talking about when you’ve just broken up with someone, when you’re mourning the death of a loved one, when you realize your life isn’t what it’s supposed to be. Or when you long for someone, but can’t be with them. Your heart physically aches. Why is that?
In: Biology
Emotional pain can activate the same triggers such as physical pain and release certain hormones like cortisol. Releasing certain hormones can cause physical symptoms and sensations like your heart beating faster or a tight feeling in your chest
Because our whole body is a very interconnected system.
I know we generally talk about the brain and the rest of the body being “seperate” things, but in reality just as for example not eating can make you cranky, so can emotional pain make your heart literally ache. Same reason you can literally feel the butterflies in your stomach when you’re in love. Our nervous system connects it all, and so just about everything has effects in several directions.
its kinda wild how our emotions can mess with our bodies. like when ur sad your brain releases stress hormones and makes your heart feel heavy. it’s like a emotional workout or somethin. I guess it shows how connected our feelings are to what we feel inside. like a reminder to cherish moments and people while we got em.
I always found it interesting how people “die of a broken heart”. I always thought of it as a metaphor or something instead of a literal “you had emotional trauma and you will die because of it”.
However recently after going through some stuff 100% you can literally die from this if it’s bad enough. What I’m dealing with is nothing compared to being married to someone for like 50 years and watching them die and it still feels like I’m gonna have a heart attack. No wonder older couples often die around the same time.
To answer your question though your body releases stress hormones when experiencing an emotional event. It can cause a rise in blood pressure, initiate a fight or flight response, and even put you into heart failure (which will resolve on its own)
There must be something odd with me, because when I experience what people call heartache, it’s my *fingers* that hurt the most.
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