People who have a higher sense of personal human connection and belonging can have an easier time with chronic pain, according to a new study.
“The experience of rejection and disconnection reliably amplifies pain,” the study published in the journal Emotion states.
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One’s experience with pain can be altered by environmental, psychological, and physiological factors.
“Psychosocial factors are not peripheral to someone’s sense of chronic pain; they are central,” primary author Jennifer Baumgartner, who is a program director in the Clinical Research Branch of the Division of Extramural Research at the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, said. “Connecting with people and seeking out positive, healthy connections within your social environment is critical.”
Researchers in the new study found that a lower sense of social connection was associated with higher levels of chronic pain.
“Social support is really important for things that could potentially be threatening, such as stress or pain,” Baumgartner said. “Having an internalized feeling of being connected with people has an effect on our physical sensations.”
Part of the reason may be different anxiety levels between those who feel social connection and those who do not.
In the study, persons who felt more connected had less anxiety, meaning they had a sense of being able to rely on others in a time of need, Baumgartner said.
“Anxiety is strongly coupled with pain, exacerbating people’s surveillance of pain within their body,” she said. “So, having less anxiety is protective — no matter what intervention you receive.”
Co-author Laura Case of the University of California, San Diego said friendly social touching, like hugging, can reduce pain. However, as those kinds of touches are rarer for those who are less socially connected, part of a solution could be things like weighted blankets.
“If you have difficulty feeling close to others, maybe there are some sensory ways to get around that and help your pain,” Case, who studies sensory pathways, said. “Deep pressure is calming because it’s associated with the safety of being close to someone else, of being held and protected.”
Weighted blankets were a large part of the study, showing heavier weights could somewhat mitigate the higher levels of pain felt by the lonelier participants.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chronic pain affected nearly 21%, or 51.6 million, U.S. adults.
Such pain, according to the CDC, can be “debilitating,” affecting many aspects of human life experience. It has been linked to depression, dementia, higher risk of suicide, and substance abuse.
Recently, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy published a health advisory on what he deemed an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation” as dangerous to one’s health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Murthy’s report suggested becoming involved with community-building activities and groups and added, “Religious or faith-based groups can be a source for regular social contact, serve as a community of support, provide meaning and purpose, create a sense of belonging around shared values and beliefs, and are associated with reduced risk-taking behaviors.”
According to clinical social worker and psychoanalyst Erica Komisar, “loneliness is merely the symptom of society’s degradation of family structures, faith, and meaningful friendships.”
Komisar pointed out that one glaring omission from Murthy’s report was family as a solution to loneliness.
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“Spouses, parents, siblings, and children offer valuable support and often unconditional love,” she wrote for the Institute for Family Studies. “Yet, the trend of individuals moving away from their families to work and/or live in other parts of the country or world has resulted in the fracture of the family support system.”
“Gone are the days when three or more generations lived together in the same house, all taking care of each other,” Komisar said. “We have outsourced the care of our parents and children, denying them the chance to enrich each other’s lives.”
