Q&A: Why is my pain sometimes replaced by anxiety?

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Question

I am in pain most of the time but sometimes the pain goes away and is replaced by anxiety. What is the correlation between pain and anxiety?
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Answer by Alan Gordon, LCSW

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Alan Gordon, LCSW

Alan Gordon's Profile Page / Bio Page / Psychophysiologic Disorders Association (PPDA) Board Member/ Miracles of Mindbody Medicine / Website

That's a great question. The answer is they're different sides of the same coin.

Imagine a child going to your house on Halloween in a Frankenstein costume. Then he goes home, changes into Spiderman, and comes back to your house for more candy. It's the same child, he's just wearing a different mask.

This is how the symptom imperative works. When emotions that are intolerable to the concsious mind arise (rage, sadness, etc.), the mind elicits defense mechanisms to keep them at bay. Psychosomatic pain is one of these defenses, anxiety is another. They serve the same purpose. The underlying issue is the same, it's just the mask that changes.

Other defense mechanisms are depression, OCD, rationalization, and rumination. It's a good idea to learn what defense mechanisms you use to help you better understand your behavior, and use them as a sign that there is something going on under the surface.

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