Crowd Facts: Social pain is similar enough to physical pain that Tylenol can help numb it.

Social pain is similar enough to physical pain that Tylenol can help numb it.

People tend to consider physical pain to be something completely separate from emotional pain. Interestingly, social pain can affect the brain in extremely similar ways. When you experience physical pain, there is the actual “sensory experience” of pain and there is also the emotional reaction to it when your brain decides the extent of pain you are experiencing.

This same emotional reaction to physical pain is part of the experience of the pain of social rejection. Researchers tested the theory that you might be able to treat the pain of social rejection like you treat physical pain. What they found shocked them. People actually taking pain medication had less pain from social rejection than people who were only taking the placebo pill.

They also found that people who are more sensitive to physical pain are also more sensitive to social pain. Of course, researchers caution that you shouldn’t just take Advil for everything. Numbing social pain might not actually be a good idea. Social pain does serve a purpose in shaping a person and their actions.

The research just shows how emotional pain is just as real as physical pain, and could also inform treatment for when social pain is extreme.

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