Rejection Pain

Breaking up can be hard to do, but it can also be physically painful.

Some people describe getting dumped like a "punch in the gut" and they may be closer to the truth than they thought.

Researchers have found that physical pain, like from being hit or maybe twisting an ankle, and the pain of rejection, like getting dumped, may actually "hurt" in the same way. It turns out that both of these things activate the same pain processing pathways in our brains.

Researchers used functional MRI's to examine volunteers. One group looked at pictures of their ex-partner and thought about the breakup, the other group experienced pain similar to that of picking up a hot cup of coffee. Surprisingly the same area of the brain responded in both cases. So, it seems like what most of us have felt from time to time, that rejection hurts, is actually true.

But besides simply being something interesting, this new finding gives researchers more insight into how social rejection could lead to more physical symptoms. And since some of us handle pain and or rejection better than others, it can also help us figure out how to treat both.