Chronic Pain

A few days ago, a fellow PhD student was talking about how his roommate has chronic back pain, which has been diagnosed as being in his head. To which another student responded that chronic pain has a physical element which is amplified by psychology to the extent that it becomes a primarily psychological condition.

I have been interested in the mind-body connection for a while now although I haven't done any serious reading on it. However, I have sufficient personal experience to write about it.

I believe the mind and the body are not a dichotomy but a continuum, so that it is impossible to say where the mind ends and the body begins.  Most disease falls somewhere on that continuum but rarely at either end. Someone who hasn't suffered depression or anxiety would probably be surprised by the physicality of both conditions. How crappy someone suffering from them feels physically, with the mind and body each competing with each other to drag the person down. In fact, people suffering from depression often run from pillar to post of the medical world trying to get a diagnosis for their condition. Some physical conditions are telltale signs of mental unease--light-headedness, unsettled but not upset stomach, insomnia. 

But coming back to the mind-body connection, I am reading a book which talks about how babies initially do not see themselves as separate from the world. It is only with the  development of the Ego, the 'I', that the growing baby starts seeing the world as separate from her, as something external to her. 

Similarly, I suppose the idea that the body is separate from the mind, with the latter directing the former, is a very modern notion. I don't know enough psychology  or philosophy to talk about consciousness but I suppose that has something to do with it (the good thing about a personal blog,  especially a little-read one, is that you don't have to worry about saying something stupid).

Of course, telling someone that their physical condition has a psychological root is not helpful to that person. It is only telling them 'I can't help you'. In any case, depression and anxiety are as bespoke as fingerprints.