Why is it that negative social experiences have such a profound effect on our emotional well-being?
Namast-Ow: The pain in me honours your pain compassionately
One experience I've been more compassionately relating to is the dimension of social pain and how such severely adversely impacts mental health. As a life-long 'social reject' I can attest to the severe deleterious effects it has. Many of my low moods are centred around social pain, it takes on a super nasty physical pain like quality and rapidly precipitates worsening mental health which I'm trying to avoid. I can attest
Grateful for the 'social analgesic' acquaintances that buffer life with radical kind inclusiveness.
Social Pain [1]:
"We typically reify physical pain as ‘real’ pain and often dismiss social pain as ‘psychological’, but the connection between the two kinds of pain suggests that each of these lay theories is only half right. Physical pain is a deeply psychological phenomenon that can be altered by expectations, mood and attention. Likewise, social pain is a deeply biological phenomenon"
Experiences of social rejection represent a major source of distress and in particular peer rejection has been implicated in various psychiatric disorders and is a major precipitating factor in the relapse or worsening of mental health conditions. .
"Experiences of social rejection or loss have been described as some of the most "painful" experiences that we, as humans, face: experiences of social pain appear to be just as noxious and dreaded as experiences of physical pain."
In fact, studies have shown that reliving socially painful experiences elicits more pain and people reported feeling more pain after reliving a prior episode of social pain than after reliving a prior episode of physical pain
From [1]
Social pain is defined as an unpleasant emotional experience which is triggered when the individual feels excluded or rejected by people or social groups. This perceived situation produces the same feelings of suffering as that of physical pain. This kind of pain is processed in the same brain areas as physical pain in its affective dimension. It may be revived mentally, even though the interpersonal conflictive situation may have ended long ago.
When people evaluate themselves negatively, through an unfavourable comparison with a peer, they showed increased activity in dACC and AI 'pain networks'
Feeling worse in response to negative social evaluative feedback, devaluation of the self by others (being rejected), was associated with greater activity in the dACC and AI 'pain networks'
Experiences of social disconnection have been shown to be associated with increases in various indices of inflammatory activity. Socially painful experiences activate the dACC and AI, which may be associated with greater increases in sympathetic and inflammatory activity, and such individuals may therefore be at greater risk of developing inflammatory-related diseases and depression.
Opioid research highlights a close relationship between physical pain and emotions involved in social exclusion/rejection [2]. Altered opioid transmission is seen in major depression and particularly negative social interactions may reinforce depression, trigger relapse and contribute to poor treatment outcomes [3].
A range of data strengthen the idea that physical and social pain operate via common mechanisms. Experiences of physical pain are embodied in a neural circuitry in which the opioid system plays a key role. In addition, more abstract cognitive-affective experiences, such as those cued by social isolation, seem to be mediated by similar circuitry. Brain µ-opioid receptors mediate reward and help coping with pain, social rejection, anxiety and depression and the endocannabinoid system plays a role in mediating the effects of social behaviour and social pain.
Social pain in particular - emotional pain brought on by social rejection - seems to closely overlap with physical pain and is alleviated with analgesics such as paracetamol. Taking paracetamol for a 2-week period was shown to reduce daily self-reported hurt feelings and to reduce dACC and AI activity in response to an experimental episode of social exclusion
These new findings add to body of research that shows that paracetamol dulls emotional pain - if you can use common pain medication to deal with emotional pain, does it follow that you should?
Buffering with social support
Social attachments and support may provide an important mechanism to increase adaptive responding to the distressing experience of social exclusion [4].
Comments