Serotonin levels are related to how you feel pain. Since my most recent injury, even though it doesn't cause pain, my migraines have skyrocketed. I found out that's why they use pain medicines like Lyrica and Cymbalta with anti-depressants.
I've been treated for major depressive disease (treatment-resistant) and anxiety for 15 years. I've been on Cymbalta for about six years. Cymbalta does act as a pain reliever in addition to its anti-depressant effect. Sometimes it's used for fibromyalgia. I don't know why doctors are still prescribing Effexor, an older, similar drug when Cymbalta, a newer, cleaner drug exists.
You're right that depression (rooted in part in low serotonin levels) will adversely affect your health in various ways, given that depression itself is a physical disease like any other. There's interplay between physical and mental. All or most pain is physical. It's biology and chemistry, not metaphysics.
Anxiety will also severely harm your health. Problem is, like depression, it isn't something you can control by will. You can take Librium or Xanax for anxiety, or Robaxin for a muscle relaxant, like I do, in addition to all the other things doctors recommend for depression and anxiety. But these are treatments, not cures.
I can't take Prednisone, a steroid used for all kinds of things. Years ago my vet gave it to my terrier for itchy skin rashes. I was given it for depression. I sank like a stone. My mom had the same reaction. So I made a point of telling my neurosurgeon this.
All my life I have had trouble relaxing. As soon I as start working on something, no matter what it is, as soon as I concentrate, I tense my shoulders, back, and other muscles: driving, mowing, reading, working, writing. I'm not sure I can make a grocery list without tensing up. Even when I stand I tighten my back, buttocks, and legs. Seriously. It isn't that I'm always nervous, though I can be anxious. It's just a long habit. I have to remind myself to lower my shoulders, for example, when I'm driving. All while trying to maintain good posture, which I have had to learn, rather than my usual slouch.
I grind my teeth at night (TMJ) and so wear a mouthpiece. My jaw muscles are overgrown and as strong as a terrier's. Think of how that kind of pain, or tension, can extend from the jaw, down the neck and back to the waist, muscles and nerves intertwining. Here, too, depression and anxiety likely are a factor. All of these things contribute to pain, and not all pain shows up on x-rays, CAT scans, or MRIs. Reading an MRI, for example, is a surprisingly subjective matter.
I think of all the people out there at work, sitting all day, probably in uncomfortable chairs, working and living under impossible, merciless pressure. No wonder back pain is an epidemic. Maybe we all ought to think about working less. A four-day work week, or a daily siesta. A fantasy of mine that will no doubt come to nothing.
I thought computers were supposed to make life easier.
