Anxiety Relief Tips & Strategies

You might find this new information interesting, if not surprising, especially if you are highly sensitive to pain.

Findings just released by the University of California indicate that depression and pain are connected. The study revealed that people with depression react much more strongly to pain than do people who do not have depression.

If you ever had any doubt as to whether you have depression, this might be a clue.

It’s true in my case. My pain threshold has always been extremely low. In other words, any situation that I know will be painful is excruciatingly so, like something as simple as touching hot toast.
 
Yet when I’m working on a project and accidentally hurt myself, the pain is almost negligible. In fact, it’s not uncommon for me to not feel pain – until later when I notice the injury.

Fear of getting any sort of injection paralyzed me for years. My therapist years ago explained that the problem was based in feeling that I did not have control over the situation. Interestingly, this report reveals that patients with depression tend to magnify and feel helpless in the face of pain.

My therapist advised me to ask the nurse to wait a moment before proceeding. Surprisingly, this made the shot much less painful because I felt that I did, in fact, have some control.

In this study, patients with depression completed a questionnaire that evaluated their tendencies to magnify, ruminate over or feel helpless in the face of pain. My therapist was right on that score.

The report also states that patients with depression showed an increase in activity of the amygdala.

If you’ve been reading about anxiety, you’ve probably heard that name before. The amygdala is at the root of anxiety and panic disorder. It seems evident that we can blame this gland if we suffer depression, anxiety and sensitivity to pain.

One can’t help asking whether we really need this problematic gland, because its removal would surely solve certain problems for many of us.