The Surprising Power of Support: Research on How Love and Support Impacts Trauma Recovery and Buffers Pain

Love and Support Have a Positive Impact On The Brain And Body:

Love and support has been found to reduce the brain’s response to threat and facilitate recovery on a biological level.
Research shows that feeling supported and loved (and even being reminded of this) lessens the brain’s response to threat, reduces pain, improves coping during stressful situations, and facilitates emotional regulation and recovery in the aftermath.
Studies on PTSD as well as many other conditions that involve excess negative emotions and fear overwhelmingly demonstrate a strong correlation between recovery and social support,

Norman, L., Lawrence, N., Iles, A., Benattayallah, A., & Karl, A. (2015). Attachment-security priming attenuates amygdala activation to social and linguistic threat. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 10(6), 832–839. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsu127
Taylor, S. E., & Master, S. L. (2022). Social support and its effects on the neural correlates of stress and emotion regulation. Journal of Neuroscience Research, 100(4), 567-580. https://doi.org/10.1002/jnr.24998