Why does our chest hurt when we are sad?

Emotional pain is an invisible wound of non-physical origin. And despite this, it impacts, burdens, weighs and causes discomfort. So much so that many wonder why when we are sad our chest hurts. It’s like having an invisible dagger right in the center, a slab that suffocates and presses us every time we breathe.

It is as if the brain wants to remind us that sadness is there, as if it were a program that has been installed in our mind. This emotion adheres to the body like a second skin that makes our movements heavier. It forces us to stillness, to that immobility that invites us to curl up into a ball and enter the deep and solitary recesses of introspection and reflection.

The striking thing is that this is precisely the objective of that psychophysical state. That we stop, that we leave everything, that as astronauts we explore the infinite vastness of that internal reality to understand it, to better adapt to what surrounds us. Physical discomfort and even body pain also fulfill their methodical purpose…

The reason why your chest hurts when you are sad

The natural trigger for sadness is always loss.. Now, we’re not just talking about losing someone or experiencing a breakup. We are sad when something that was meaningful to us is no longer there—a job, for example—when what we want doesn’t come or what we took for granted changes. A disappointment is also a loss, because what gave us meaning is no longer present.

This type of emotional pain forces us to move through the void of different types of absences and meaninglessness. This, in turn, generates different degrees of suffering for us. Paul Ekman, pioneer in the study of emotions, indicates that Sadness is experienced in different degrees: from simple confusion to anguish and despair.

It is not difficult to deduce that this emotion has significant psychophysical correlates. Generally, the higher our emotional suffering is on that sadness intensity scale, the greater the symptoms. Stress is the main reason why Our chest hurts when we are sad. We analyze it.

When the brain interprets emotional pain as a threat

Chest pain generally appears when our suffering is intense or sustained over time.. It is common for this highly intense psychophysical effect to appear in duels. Losing someone or suffering an emotional breakup are two common triggers. Also the periods of crisis in transitions, as well as the most painful disappointments.

What happens in these cases is the following. The body interprets this intense and persistent emotional experience as a threat. and, consequently, develops a stress response.That stress response releases hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. Blood pressure rises and the brain decides to send higher levels of oxygen to the muscles and not so much to the heart or lungs. It does this in an attempt to facilitate attack or flight behavior. Consequently, we experience a certain sensation of suffocation or pressure due to these hormonal and physiological alterations.

Broken heart syndrome, emotions taken to the limit

When asking ourselves why our chest hurts when we are sad, it is interesting to talk about a cardiac syndrome. It was in 1991 when cardiologists in Hiroshima (Japan) warned of a heart disease that manifested itself mainly in women. They called it broken heart syndrome and it consists of a (temporary) left ventricular dysfunction caused by emotional stress.

Research, such as those carried out at the University of Utrecht, talks about this heart condition. What was learned with the discovery of this condition is that intense sadness, anguish, and suffering can cause reversible stress cardiomyopathy.

What can we do when sadness becomes painful?

Sadness not only translates into pressure in the chest. It makes our muscles heavy, reduces our attention levels, and alters our appetite. What can we do in these situations in which this emotion almost becomes a heavy suit that sinks us to the seabed of our suffering?

The first thing is to deactivate the intolerance towards negatively valenced emotions.. It is true that no one likes to feel them. That hurt, distort, numb and stop our lives, turning us into someone we don’t like. However, every emotion wants us to give it presence and not hide it under our bed, in the darkest corner of our mind.

Let’s look for someone who will listen to us without judging, let’s vent the pain, the absence and the frustration by talking. Let us devise innovative solutions and not feed the worry that immobilizes and rusts the sorrows even more. Let us accept what cannot be changed and change what requires a new existential formulation.

At the end of the day, sadness only wants us to talk to ourselves, and that exercise will extinguish regrets and allow us to breathe again; without pain.

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