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Please consult your physician
if you have any medical symptoms or medical conditions.
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Psychosomatic symptoms appear
to originate in, or are worsened by, a person's beliefs, emotions
and relationship habits. Many psychosomatic symptoms seem to be
meaningful communications, and many somatic diseases appear to have
psychosomatic components. When does a disease make sense?
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What are Psychosomatic Symptoms?
Some body (somatic) symptoms have no known physiological basis.
Some symptoms seem more related to beliefs and emotions than to physical damage
or biological causes. These symptoms can range in severity from mild headaches
to phantom pregnancies to cancer, and can include nausea, abdominal pain and
chest pain, breathlessness, diarrhea and giddiness and muscle pains.
Although all illnesses seem to involve the mind (psyche) and body
(soma), there appears to be little agreement as to what symptoms should be called
psychosomatic. Sometimes, emotional components seem particularly important,
and influence not only the onset of an illness, and may worsen the symptoms.
Beyond biology is psychobiology.
Like many doctors, we believe that illnesses such as
asthma, eczema, heart problems, hypertension, migraines and ulcers are
strongly influenced by emotions and beliefs - and therefore by relationships
which generate emotions and beliefs.
Often, anxiety, stress or depression seem to precipitate
physical and emotional complaints. And relationship disappointments can
precipitate anxiety, stress and depression.
What is the difference
between Somatic and Psychosomatic complaints?
Some people exaggerate or deliberately fake symptoms
to avoid examinations, work or military duty and it can be difficult
to know if a symptom is real. This table may be useful.
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Reported Differences between Somatic and Psychosomatic Pain* |
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Somatic
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Psychosomatic
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- Somatic pain is unrelated to emotions and relationships.
- Somatic pain has an anatomical distribution.
- Somatic pain reflects tissue damage.
- Somatic pain
may come and go, and be worsened or relieved by specific measures.
- People describe somatic pain with words like burning
or
stabbing etc
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- Psychosomatic pain may follow an emotional or relationship disturbance.
- Psychosomatic pain may not have an anatomical distribution.
- Psychosomatic pain may not be related to tissue damage.
- Psychosomatic pain tends to be constant.
- People have difficulty describing psychosomatic pain.
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Which Relationships require
Psychosomatic Symptoms?
Psychosomatic symptoms can affect people at any age. They
are more likely appear during times of stress, such as divorce, examinations,
overwork, military service and other life challenges. Mild temporary symptoms
(e.g. headaches, nausea, sleepiness, blurred vision) may appear during intense
conversations about life goals, partnership expectations and other important
relationships.
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During our coaching session I had a
headache which moved. It was weird. Then we noticed that different headache
locations corresponded to different relatives. My mother-headache was back
left, for example ... |
Often a key issue is communication. Psychosomatic symptoms
seem more common in children and in people who cannot communicate well,
especially those people who do not communicate important emotions and who
habitually hide or deny their feelings.
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Since I was a child, my glasses
gave me a sense of safety.
If I take them off - people become blurred and I can ignore them.
Sometimes I fear seeing people too clearly.
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How many people are taught how to communicate feelings?
Children are often punished for expressing emotions (a prime example may be
anger) that their parents do not want to acknowledge or respond to.
Many people appear to swallow their anger ... and later either explode
with rage about something trivial or have chronic disease symptoms in the
body locations where the suppressed emotion feels centered.
People appear to develop psychosomatic symptoms to
cope with stress and relationships. We find that psychosomatic conditions
are often linked by family dynamics, role modeling and identifications.
For example, chronic sadness,
chronic anger, chronic shame and
chronic anxiety seem to be passed on
from one generation to the next . Often, children follow where parents lead.
Solutions for Psychosomatic Symptoms
We coach people to resolve relationship enmeshments and
disappointments, from which unpleasant emotions and beliefs seem to drive
dysfunctional behaviors and physical symptoms. We find that if
we help people resolve the relationships that underlie psychosomatic
conditions (and if body tissues have not been irreparably damaged or
removed), then those conditions may seem to magically disappear.
We expect to find multiple factors that lead to
psychosomatic symptoms. Finding all the benefits of a symptom
set is complex. If we coach you, we observe and respond to your non-verbal
signals and body language at least as much as we listen to your vocalized words.
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I don't seek one "cause"
for a psychosomatic symptom - I seek ten!
If I only find six "causes" - I keep looking! Martyn |
Some health professionals recognize the importance of
dealing with relationship factors of disease symptoms and try to heal
whole people, rather than just body parts. And yet many people diagnosed
with psychosomatic disorders have told us that their doctors reacted as if they were insane.
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Listen to body language with your
eyes! If you wait for a person to explain everything ... you may wait a long time. Assume that those little gestures and
fleeting expressions are full
of meaning ... in a language that you can learn. Martyn
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People often need a safe space and a
good listener to talk about their feelings and relationships. We
provide this space to help people gain insights into how their symptoms
make sense in their lives.
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I had migraine
headaches for many years - and only one since our coaching last year. I
found that I was following my mother - whose headaches allowed her to
avoid anything she did not like ... I also used my
headaches to get sympathy from my father. |
Online Coaching for Health
People who want to manage psychosomatic
symptoms can benefit from support, understanding and compassion (but not sympathy,
which often encourages people to stay in bad states) of family and friends. They
can benefit from a coach who will listen and provide supportive feedback.
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Don't confuse compassion with sympathy!
Compassion can motivate people act like adults, while sympathy can motivate
adults to act like children. Martyn |
It can be spooky watching symptoms vanish! This is commonplace
with headaches, nausea and phantom pains, but some physical symptoms look like Hollywood
special effects in slow-time!
If you have strange symptoms, examine your whole lifestyle.
Could you be allergic to a common food or food additive? Consider your current
and past relationships, and how you deal with stress and conflict. Examine your
weight or sleeping habits. Do your symptoms follow a stimulus or trigger - perhaps a meeting
with someone, or an emotion?
Give
yourself space and time for insights and integration. Even after one or two
online coaching sessions with us, people often say that they have interesting
insights for a few days.
Please consult your physician
about any opinions about medical symptoms or medical conditions.
Help with Psychosomatic Symptoms
*References
Rafael
Fernández Martínez and Fernández Concepción Rodríguez (Spanish)
Casey PR; Tyrer PJ. (1986). Personality, functioning and symptomatology. J
Psychiatr Res. 20:363-374.
Trethowan WH.
Psychiatry and the seven ages of man. Journal of the Royal Society of
Medicine. 1988 Apr;81(4):189-93.
Plagiarism is theft. Copyright © Martyn Carruthers 2008-2012
All rights reserved |
