(is pain considered an emotion?)I was thinking last night about how pain seeks comfort through many illogical methods which are often encouraged by emotion but only cause more pain. Does someone have a post that covers this?

Hi slowbitz,
Welcome to the forum. I thought this was a great question but i couldn't think of a thread which addressed it. But here's my quick take.

A lot of people in therapy who are dealing with a great deal of pain usually have a troubled childhood in which they suffered some form of neglect or abuse. And they engaged in behaviors that made total sense at the time because they were the only way to survive which was the most important thing at the time. But then you grow up and there are a lot of things you learned then to cope which then become problematic when you apply them to other people and other situations but they're deeply engrained behaviors because they're what you turned to in times of stress. So parts of your brain essentially reacts to you being in pain with "DO THIS, DO IT NOW" because that's what you did when you were in trouble and it worked. That's why you have to experience something different with your therapist over and over to learn a better way.

There's a great book that talks about how we lay down our pattens of behavior from a neurobiological standpoint and why what we know doesn't have all that strong an influence.
A General Theory of Love by Thomas Lewis. I don't have time to post the link but you can find it at Amazon.

AG

Thanks Attachment Girl - I'll get the book. I read an article that classified love as a motivation (through neuroscience research)not as an emotion. I just wondered if there is a chart somewhere that defined pain,love,etc...

Slowbitz,
That's what I loved about the book, they talk about the neurobiological basis of attachment and how we are hard wired to need relationships but they also recognize love as being at the center of those relationships. They deny neither the science nor what we know to be true within ourselves about our feelings. Really awesome read. I hope you enjoy it.

AG