Chinese Medical theory holds that the body is not separate from the mind. Thus, emotional and psychological pain is treated no differently than physical pain. Prolonged physical pain can make someone depressed, while emotional turmoil can manifest physically.

The first time I saw this clearly was when I was a Masters student. I had a patient with wrist pain that I could not budge! I tried everything, every herbal and acupuncture treatment I could think of and still, the pain remained unchanged. At that point I referred him to one of my teachers. I was fortunate enough to be able to observe the office visit and acupuncture treatment. She asked him a very important question which had never occurred to me to ask,“What was happening in your life when the wrist pain started?” As it turns out, the wrist pain first began right after his sister passed away. The location of the pain was on the heart meridian. This energetic pathway runs from the heart, down to the shoulder, elbow, wrist and ends at the pinky finger. No wonder my treatments were not working! I had never treated the underlying cause for his pain…heartbreak.

I saw a similar situation recently in my practice. I fit in a patient in my break because his “back went out” last night. He was in acute pain with severe muscle spasms. Now I always ask patients what was happening in their lives when the pain first started. As it turned out, just before his back began to hurt he had a spat with his girlfriend. He described her as a very unstable person. She wanted him to support her through an emotionally taxing experience and he didn’t have the energy. The load was just too great to carry. So, I treated him with points that relieve low back pain AND points that “calm the spirit”. Calm spirit points are used in Chinese medicine for different manifestations of stress. Some point treat grief while others are used for depression, anxiety, melancholy etc.

Find the association between physical and emotional pain hard to fathom? Even if you have never had musculoskeletal pain as a result of an emotional upset, I bet you have had stomach pain, loss of appetite, constipation or diarrhea after a disagreement or during times of acute stress. Perhaps you have gotten a headache or even a migraine at the end of a stressful day.

I have found that in cases of physical pain, even if there was not a precipitating event, simply having pain for a prolonged period can cause depression, fatigue and listlessness which also needs to be addressed in addition to treating the physical problem. The strength of Chinese medicine is that the whole person is taken into account when treating any disease process. The wise practitioner does not try to separate the emotional component of pain from the physical reality (i.e. the muscle spasm, tendon strain or chronic joint inflammation) Thus, emotional, physical and spiritual pain can be treated simultaneously, setting the stage for a deeper level of healing and more complete recovery.