How Personality Causes Back and Body Pain

Zero Pain Now Podcast: Pain Facts & Treatment - Back Pain / Body Pain / Fibromyalgia

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There are certain personality traits that are much more likely for people to experience pain. Number one, by far and away, is the perfectionist. Perfectionists strive to be perfect, because they want to look perfect – not to themselves, to other people. That is enraging and really, really difficult. Perfectionists repress emotions, and the end result is pain.

The next group are do-gooders, people that are always out to take care of other people. They're the ones taking food to the homeless. They're doing wonderful things, yet it's not okay to have a full breadth of emotions. They have to look like do-gooders, they have to feel like do-gooders.

They have to feel good, they have to look happy and peppy, and they're not willing to show the anger. What could be more enraging to somebody who wants to take care of homeless people than that there are homeless people? There are a lot of reasons for do-gooders to be angry, to be rageful. They repress the emotions. That leads to pain.

People pleasers. People pleasers always have to look good to other people. Can you imagine? Many of you out there, you know how hard it is. You're always putting people's needs in front of your own. When you put people's needs in front of your own, it's frustrating. It's enraging. It's angering, and you don't take care of yourself. You're not meeting your own needs. People pleasers repress emotions, go on.

Spiritual people, very, very common that spiritual people repress emotions, because when you're spiritual or religious, you're taught anger is not okay, rage is not okay, love is great, peace is great.

The light emotions are fantastic. The heavy, negative emotions are not okay. Yet, we're human beings. We have a full breadth of emotions. We have all those emotions, and just by acknowledging them is okay. Pushing them down starts the physical process that leads to pain.

People that are compulsive, people that are sensitive to criticism. You can imagine, if you're sensitive to criticism, you're going to be very cautious about how you act, how you behave, what you show, what you don't show, so that other people won't criticize you.

Again, these are classic traits that lead to repression. They're not bad traits. These are great traits. Every trait is beneficial, in some context. The problem is, when you use it in the wrong context or when it drives you, that's where the compulsive comes in, when you're compulsed to repress these emotions and look a certain way.

You start this process, this process that leads to pain, Diversion-Pain Syndrome. There's nothing wrong with any of these traits, it's just the process of what you do in your head that starts the path to pain.

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