Physical discomfort, even severe, but no evident organic alteration on which to intervene. In many cases it is necessary to surrender to the evidence that the origin of the disorders is above all psychological. And act accordingly.
The symptoms are there, but finding the disease that could cause them seems impossible. The laboratory and instrumental tests are normal or, in any case, free of alterations related to the discomforts that are felt. Yet, stomach pangs are recurrent, digesting is difficult, frequent nausea and disordered intestinal transit.
Or, the vision seems blurred, but the ophthalmologist guarantees that everything is ok. The headache does not give respite, even if you take the analgesic. Low back pain is persistent, but unmotivated, since those who suffer from it are young, moderately active, free of hernias or significant vertebral osteoarthritis. What’s this about?
The cause is not there, but the symptoms are
For centuries, in relation to the scientific knowledge of the various eras, situations of this type have been considered by doctors “imaginary evils”, perhaps worthy of a little understanding, but of no therapy that was not a little rest, a holiday or a better diet. Today, however, they tend to fall into two groups of disorders, partly overlapping.
One is that of “idiopathic” diseases, a pseudoscientific term used not to say too openly that you can not identify the origin of a health problem and do not know how to explain it. The other is that of “psychosomatic” diseases, conditions primarily induced not by an organic alteration, but by the unfavorable influence of a psychological state on one or more physiological functions.
In both cases, there is very little imaginary and the patient’s malaise, although devoid of certain interpretation, is absolutely real. The main difference between the two groups of disorders is that idiopathic disease, at some point, can cease to be so if medical research identifies a plausible organic cause, while the properly psychosomatic one will always remain so because the origin lies elsewhere.
To feel better, the real problem must be taken care of
Given that the symptoms and manifestations complained of by those suffering from a psychosomatic illness are effective, the first step to start improvement is to try to alleviate them. However, in these cases, using a drug against gastrointestinal disorders, pain or muscle contractures may not give any result or offer only a limited benefit because the main problem is psychoemotional.
If you really want to feel better, therefore, it is not to the gastroenterologist, orthopedist or neurologist that you should turn, but to a psychologist or psychiatrist expert in psychosomatic diseases or, to use a more technical term, somatic or “somatoform” symptom disorder.
Often, for the patient with a problem of this type it is difficult to accept that their disorders, so markedly “physical”, can be induced by “trivial moods”, mistakenly considered irrelevant on the organic level, and this greatly delays the diagnosis and resolution of the disorder. Instead, you have to trust and follow the advice.
Clinical experience shows that in 60-70% of cases of somatic symptom disorder, psychotherapy can significantly improve the level of overall well-being (physical and psychoemotional), in proportion to the patient’s willingness to frame the complaints in their actual context and his ability to alleviate anxiety linked to the “dark nature” of discomfort and reacting to the frustration caused by the apparent difficulty of eliminating it.
The key aspect is to learn to better understand oneself and one’s reactions to life events, to be able to recognize one’s psychological malaise and to be aware that mind and body are not two distinct entities, but a continuously interacting whole.
This is demonstrated by numerous scientific evidences. Many fundamental physiological functions, such as digestion, heartbeat, blood vessel tone, immune reactivity, sexual desire and fertility, are in fact directly influenced by neuroendocrine messages sent from the central nervous system to glands and peripheral organs, according to an extremely complex and articulated balance.
Any psycho-emotional discomfort, therefore, can compromise one or more functions of the organism in a severe way, mimicking in all respects a “physical” illness. In addition, the psyche is crucial in defining sensitivity and tolerance to pain, to the point that even the most effective analgesic can prove unable to mitigate a pain of primarily psychological origin, which can instead improve, until it disappears, analyzing the problem upstream.
Joycelyn Elders is the author and creator of EmpowerEssence, a health and wellness blog. Elders is a respected public health advocate and pediatrician dedicated to promoting general health and well-being.
The blog covers a wide range of topics related to health and wellness, with articles organized into several categories.