When Your Body Keeps Score: Physical Symptoms of Emotional Pain

The headaches that come with conflict. The stomach trouble that arrives with anxiety. The exhaustion that follows emotional stress. Have you noticed how your body speaks the language of your emotions – sometimes more clearly than your conscious mind?

At Televero Health, we work with many people who come to us initially for help with physical symptoms – chronic pain, digestive issues, sleep problems, persistent fatigue – only to discover that these bodily experiences are deeply connected to unprocessed emotions or psychological stress. They’re often surprised to learn that their physical symptoms aren’t “just in their head” or separate from their emotional lives, but are actually their body’s way of expressing what hasn’t been processed emotionally.

Maybe you’ve noticed this connection in your own life. Maybe you get headaches during periods of high stress. Or your stomach rebels when you’re anxious. Or your shoulders and neck tighten during conflict. Or you experience flare-ups of chronic pain or illness during emotionally challenging times. These aren’t coincidences or weaknesses – they’re evidence of the profound, bidirectional connection between your emotional experience and your physical body.

The phrase “the body keeps the score” – popularized by psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk’s work on trauma – captures an important truth: our bodies don’t just carry us through life; they record our experiences, especially those that haven’t been fully processed emotionally. When emotions aren’t acknowledged, expressed, or integrated, they don’t simply disappear. They often get translated into physical sensations and symptoms – the body’s attempt to communicate what hasn’t been processed consciously.

This mind-body connection operates through several pathways. The autonomic nervous system activates physiological responses to emotional states – racing heart with anxiety, muscle tension with stress, digestive changes with fear. The immune system responds to emotional states, potentially becoming suppressed during chronic stress or activated during certain emotional challenges. Hormonal systems shift in response to emotional experiences, affecting everything from energy levels to pain perception to sleep patterns. These aren’t psychosomatic in the dismissive sense; they’re real physiological processes triggered by emotional states.

This connection becomes particularly powerful with unprocessed difficult experiences. When emotions like grief, fear, anger, or hurt aren’t fully acknowledged or expressed – perhaps because they weren’t safe to feel, or you didn’t have support to process them, or they were simply overwhelming – they don’t just dissipate. They often get stored in the body, emerging as physical symptoms that might seem disconnected from their emotional origins.

We see this dynamic manifest in countless ways. The person whose chronic neck and shoulder pain relates to long-held tension from always having to “be strong” and never show vulnerability. The individual whose digestive issues flare during periods of interpersonal conflict, especially when they struggle to express their needs directly. The client whose persistent fatigue isn’t just about sleep quality but about emotions that have never had space for expression, leaving the body perpetually on guard and unable to fully rest.

If you’ve noticed physical symptoms that seem connected to emotional states, know that this doesn’t mean your physical experiences aren’t real or deserve less attention. Quite the opposite – it suggests that true healing may require addressing both the physical manifestations and their emotional underpinnings. It’s not about choosing between physical or emotional approaches, but about recognizing how they’re interconnected and need integrated care.

In therapy, we help people develop this more integrated approach through several pathways. First, by increasing awareness of the specific connections between emotional states and physical symptoms in their unique experience. Then, by developing skills to recognize and express emotions that may have been suppressed or disconnected. Finally, by working with both mind and body to process experiences that have been stored physically rather than integrated emotionally.

This work often includes practical elements like learning to recognize the bodily sensations that accompany specific emotions. Or developing tools to regulate the nervous system during stress responses. Or creating safe ways to express emotions that have been held in the body. Or working directly with the body through approaches that recognize its role in storing and processing emotional experience.

What many discover through this process is that addressing the emotional dimensions of physical symptoms doesn’t mean ignoring or minimizing bodily experience. It means honoring the body’s wisdom and working with rather than against its attempts to communicate what needs attention. It means recognizing that lasting relief often requires addressing both the physical manifestations of distress and the emotional experiences they’re connected to.

They also discover that the body isn’t just a source of symptoms but a powerful ally in healing. When we learn to listen to the body’s signals, to work with rather than override its communications, to engage it as an active participant in emotional processing, new possibilities for integration and wellbeing often emerge.

This doesn’t mean that every physical symptom has a direct emotional cause, or that addressing emotional aspects will resolve all physical challenges. The relationship between mind and body is complex and bidirectional, with physical health affecting emotional wellbeing just as emotional states influence physical functioning. Medical care remains essential for many conditions, even as emotional dimensions are also addressed.

But it does mean that creating artificial divisions between physical and emotional health often limits healing. That the body deserves to be listened to, not just treated. That symptoms might be not just problems to eliminate but communications to understand. That true wellbeing emerges not from treating mind and body as separate domains, but from recognizing and working with their profound interconnection.

Because the truth is, your body is keeping score – recording your experiences, holding your history, expressing what might not have found voice in words. And lasting healing often comes not from silencing these bodily communications, but from learning to listen to and work with the wisdom they contain.

Ready to explore the connections between your emotional and physical experiences? Start here.