Since I've got into this very crazy situation with my bf that emotionally is very unclear to me, intimacy vs distance issues etc., I've had this pain come and go:

- painful spots in chest/back, sometimes some sort of pressure as well. This feels physical. I do not usually feel any explicit emotion accompanying it.

My question: Is this kind of pain commonly experienced by people in heavy stress?

More background: I have highly alexithymic traits. I was in stressful situations before but they were not affecting me emotionally. I used to be very closed but I'm more open now (long story, and I'm not sure if I'm not TOO open now, from one extreme to the next!) and this pain thingy is unfamiliar to me.

One more characteristics I noticed is, I had it a couple weeks ago the first time - which was not even this situation as it explicitly didn't start yet but I was reading some book on emotions and something affected me EXTREMELY negatively - and I noticed that even though the emotion itself only lasted for a short time, the after-effect in the chest/back was still around next day.

In this first case, I did have an extremely negative emotion that led to it, yes, since then not really any conscious emotion that I could see as connected to the pains. It sure felt like dying tho' with that emotion, it was that extreme. I would name it but I can't, I just know how bad it was. I don't think I even saw it "fully" if that makes sense. It was unfamiliar, too.

I appreciate any input.