A Healthy Mind In A Healthy Body

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Why does an excellent student, who is ready to stay awake at night because of the "five", so often have a stomach ache? Why does a toddler, who can’t get used to the tough routine of kindergarten, not get rid of enuresis in any way? What caused a sudden suffocating cough in a child vacationing at sea with his family? These and other issues are dealt with by psychosomatics - a science at the intersection of medicine and psychology, which studies the influence of psychological factors on diseases of the body

Unity of soul and body

The very word "psychosomatics" consists of two bases: psycho (soul, psyche) and soma (body). “Soul” in this case is also the emotional state of a person. And the emotions that we experience always have a "body reflection". For example, in anger, we often feel holding our breath; face turns red with rage, fists clench; from fear "knees tremble", etc. There is and even fixed in stable terms a close relationship between the states of the mind and body.

Historically, modern European medicine has been following the path of treating bodily ailments for a long time - in isolation from the patient's emotional state; along the path of finding a specific pill for a specific symptom. However, it often happens that the medicine helped one child, but the other, with the same symptoms, did not. Or, for example, like this: children go to the same kindergarten group, are in the same conditions, eat the same food, but someone gets sick during a flu epidemic, and someone even manages not to sneeze. It turns out that there are some additional factors that protect one baby from illness, and put the other in bed with a thermometer in an embrace. Which? Psychosomatics experts believe: in such cases, it is necessary to pay attention to the child's state of mind and, of course, look for opportunities to improve it.

Joy, sadness and a little physics

Given: two children. One is cheerful, cheerful and quite energetic. The second, for some reason, is often sad, depressed. Question: who will be the first to catch a viral infection? Most likely, the second is correct - because as a result of his emotional state, his energy is reduced.

What is energy in this case? Let us recall school lessons in biology and physics: fluids constantly circulate inside our body - blood, lymph. And around a moving body a certain field is always created - and around the human body too. It is this field of esotericism that is called the aura; it is this that creates our energy shell. If the inner movement is uniform and stable, then a person's field is harmonious and even. But an emotionally altered state causes disruptions. It is with them that psychotherapy works and helps to eliminate.

It is believed that experiences are the basis for all diseases in children and adults. A number of ailments have also been identified, in which the psychosomatic nature is most clearly revealed. This is:

Frequent ARVI

The notorious often and long-term ill children are, in most cases, babies with a disturbed emotional background. Something in their childhood life is going wrong. They would have to react to this "not so" with tears, cry more often, but crying in our educational culture is traditionally not favored. Even parents, set by nature to protect their children, cannot help them understand themselves and the situation, sometimes preferring to simply prohibit “roaring”. So there is tension in the zone that is called upon to react, which is "responsible for crying" - the eyes and nose.

• Here is a vivid example: a boy formally attends kindergarten, in fact, he spends two or three days in a group, and then falls ill for a week. At some point, the attending pediatrician uttered the clever word "psychosomatics" and referred the little patient to a psychotherapist. At the reception, it turned out: a child with unstable emotionality, explosive, quick-tempered - and very active. At the same time, it is difficult for him to control himself, his behavior goes only along the path “I want”. At the age of three, he went to kindergarten - and from that moment he immediately began to get sick. He constantly has to restrain himself, to drive himself into the strict framework of kindergarten life (do not fight, do not run, do not shout, sit down - hands on his knees …) Meanwhile, the baby does not yet have a physiological readiness to control himself. He tries, often out of fear of punishment, but it turns out badly - the age of three itself interferes, which is not in vain called crisis. All the time crying about the fact that it is "built" will not work: the boys do not cry. But you can get sick - and spend a week with a loving mother.
• Can lead to frequent SARS and constant anger containment. Is it bad to fight? - Certainly. And how to react to children in the same kindergarten who love to be teased? The child clenches his fists, is ready to go on the attack - but does not go: the educators will punish. The kid involuntarily uses the reaction that was laid down for him by his mother: she, too, does not react to any troubles with tears, but gets angry with restraint and as quietly as possible. As a result, there is tension, no discharge, no stable emotional background either. There is a constant psychological background for ARVI, moreover, weighed down by a cough.
• Or even simpler: a quiet, homely child is so attached to his mother that it is difficult for him to be in kindergarten. There are strange aunts and loud children, there is tasteless, incomprehensible and bad - but mom needs to go to work, and dad too. However, if you have a fever and a sore throat, your mom will not go to work and will stay at home with you. As simple as an orange.

Bronchitis and asthma

The next most frequent psychosomatic diseases are bronchitis, turning into asthma. By the way, asthma is the first disease whose psychosomatic nature was generally recognized. What leads to bronchitis and asthma in children?

Excessive pressure from parents, or pressure from society, which is perceived by a small child again through mom and dad. For example, one frivolous mom lets her child laugh out loud on the bus, sing songs on the street, and jump around on the sidewalk. The other demands to behave in public places quieter than water, below the grass - because she has clearly learned: a noisy child interferes with everyone, and it is better to literally shut up his songs herself than to wait until those around her, her mother, are ashamed. Both are not very right - the frivolous has a great chance to expose a child, unaccustomed to restrictions, unexpected rejection at school, and hence the occurrence of diseases. Another, seemingly attentive to people, voluntarily transfers her relationship with society to her child. In the second mother, the child is more likely to be at risk for problems with the bronchi.

There is also an overprotective mother who tries to protect her child from the "evil world" as much as possible; she herself ties the laces on his shoes, herself answers the questions addressed to him, and if the surrounding adults have any complaints about her baby, she turns from a cute hen into an evil tigress - if only the child is not offended. As a result, the child and his mother seem to merge - and, again, he has no normal interaction with society; the world is still perceived as hostile.

Congenital malfunctions are possible: if the child was born with the help of stimulation, caesarean section, there was an umbilical cord entanglement, etc. Example: the baby was stimulated, that is, he himself was not yet ready for childbirth. Violent action leads to increased anxiety and, accordingly, to a predisposition to spasms in general, including in the thoracic region. When entwined with the umbilical cord, the child is faced with the inability to breathe normally. Then the spasm stops; the child began to breathe, everything is fine … But - there was still a violation; then imprinting is triggered - capturing the first moment, which turns into a stereotype of reaction. The bronchi become the baby's "weak point"; there is a predisposition to bronchitis and asthma.

Gastrointestinal diseases

They are traditionally psychosomatic. Everyone knows that malnutrition, hereditary predisposition, Helicobacteria lead to gastritis. However, all these factors do not cause illness in all children. Today, many experts believe that prolonged stress - and even character traits - play an important role in the appearance of digestive problems in a child. The words "stinging", "bilious" did not arise for nothing: after all, a typical "ventricle" is a person in constant tension, feeling unprotected from the world, and therefore easily bursting. Why do our children become like this?

One of the reasons is excellent student's syndrome. Excellent students are not those few darlings of fate for whom science is easy and simple, but more often they are hyperresponsible hard workers, those who are afraid to upset their parents with a “four” very often suffer from gastritis and duodenitis. When it comes to seeing a psychotherapist, they often describe their feelings like this: a heavy bag hangs over their shoulders. And it is not surprising: after all, they often say - the responsibility falls on the shoulders. For the most part, these are stooped children; a block in the shoulder girdle interferes with normal blood flow, interferes with the passage of nerve impulses from the spinal cord to the brain. There is no normal blood supply to organs, there is no "friendly" movement of all energizing fluids in the body. Often, these children suffer not only from the gastrointestinal tract - they may have asthma, and vegetative-vascular dystonia, and headaches. The task of the psychotherapist is to teach such a child to relax, and instead of exorbitant efforts from "carrying a heavy bag" to learn to "learn easily" and with pleasure.

Enuresis

It is usually diagnosed by the age of three or four; before that, the child, as they say, “has the right”. Why is the child “doing this” - from a psychological point of view? To draw the attention of parents to something that, due to age, is still difficult to say in words.

At the age of three, children begin a crisis called "I-myself"; the process of socialization starts. The period is difficult, potentially conflicting. If the parents at this time do not feel the child, do not support him in his striving for independence, do not help him go through this period as painlessly as possible and press with inhibitions, the protest of a growing up baby can be expressed as enuresis.

Difficulties in socialization in kindergarten can lead to a similar problem; inability to improve relationships with peers.

For a long time, children with hyperactivity cannot learn to wake up dry due to purely biological reasons: the controlling function of the brain starts up a little later than normal.

One more point: if a child experiences general stress, the surrounding emotional background is unfavorable for his development, this is again a suitable ground for the occurrence of enuresis.

Atopic dermatitis

This skin disease (dryness, rashes, itching, in severe cases - compaction and cracking) manifests itself already in infancy - in the first year of life; less often - up to one and a half years. It is generally accepted that its nature is allergic; pediatricians often associate it with complementary foods introduced too early, with the fact that the baby is fed with food that is still too early for him - especially since symptoms of atopic dermatitis appear, usually against the background of problems with the gastrointestinal tract. The work of this department is getting better in the child in the first two to three weeks of life, and if the relationship with the mother was not ideal, for example, because the mother was not ready for real difficulties in caring for the baby, or the lack of peace and understanding in the family, the child's organs cannot develop fully. Neurological disorders are also observed in 80% of children with atopic dermatitis; most often it is the instability of the cervical and cervicothoracic spine. That is, the relationship with the nervous system is already evident. If we talk about the psychosomatic nature of atopic dermatitis, then in general it is a signal of a dysfunctional relationship with the outside world. Perhaps the baby himself feels too vulnerable; it is possible that the problem is with the mother, that she refers to the world around her with excessive anxiety. Atopic dermatitis is more difficult than other psychosomatic diseases to be corrected with the help of psychotherapy as an early, profound disorder.

In all these cases, the maximum result from the work of a specialist psychotherapist will be when he interacts with the family as a whole, and not only with the child himself.

How is it treated?

Or even so: what to do?

• The ideal scenario is as follows: a sick child is taken by parents to two specialists at once: to a specialized one for a specific disease, and to a psychotherapist. If the same chronic gastritis is treated only by a gastroenterologist - he will cope with the investigation, but not with the psychological cause. This means that there is no guarantee that the problem will not return. Going with all diseases only to a psychotherapist is also not always correct. "Psycho" and "soma" work in combination - therefore, we must go from both sides; symptom-specific specialists cannot be ignored. If the disease has begun, if the child's body gives alarms, then the feeling stuck in the body has already taken root. For it to let go of the stereotype, psychotherapy is needed; and for it to heal faster, a doctor is needed. By the way, there are already medical and psychological centers abroad that deal with psychosomatic diseases.
• Until the child reaches the age of fourteen or fifteen, psychotherapeutic work is necessary both with him and with his parents - jointly or in parallel. There are frequent cases when such psychosomatic diseases of a child as bronchitis, asthma, enuresis were eliminated exclusively when working with parents. If the child is already four to five years old, the specialist can conduct sessions with the child separately from the parents, without fail working with them. Until the age of four, either family therapy or work with parents to solve their problems and normalize the relationship with the child is adequate.
• With a delay in the formation of individual functions, asynchrony in the development of the brain, children's neurocorrection has proven itself to be excellent. In particular, it can improve control function - that is, help cope with enuresis and encopresis, and more.

Is the world going crazy?

Alas, now the number of children with psychosomatic diseases is growing. Experts believe that the reason is the unfavorableness of the general emotional background, neurotic factors that press from all sides - primarily on adults. You need to get a job, you need to stay on it, to break higher - and the person constantly twitches, worries. And then this person becomes a mother-to-be - and works at the same pace during pregnancy, instead of plunging into himself, watching the birds in the sky and enjoying the music of Mozart. As a result - a difficult pregnancy, difficult childbirth, possibly a cesarean section. Among today's children there are a lot of "caesareans", respectively, there are many psychological problems, the immaturity of certain brain functions - after all, some of these functions are normally "completed" immediately at the time of childbirth. Then - mom needs to go to work early; again tension, which cannot but affect the child.

The child grows, from a baby to a preschooler; his leading activity - the one in which he lives and develops - is play. And in today's world, the traditions of the game, unfortunately, are being lost; modern young mothers themselves did not go through this stage as they would like - most simply do not know how to play with a child. There are no yard companies of different ages in which the younger ones learn from the older ones; there are no games in the amount that children need; instead of salochki and blind man's buff - continuous developmental activities. The child does not receive an adequate emotional response from the mother, the mother responds inadequately to the child's tension - and a closed chain is obtained. Since the baby somehow needs to convey his emotional state to his mother, he expresses it through somatic diseases. The task of the psychotherapist is to understand what went wrong and when, return to that stage and help the mother compensate for what the child did not receive. When this happens, there is recovery - or at least the success of medication.

Substitution

If we talk about schoolchildren and older preschoolers, now they all have general physical inactivity. Already at the age of six - preparation for school; for the first few grades, children are forced to sit a lot and "work with their brains" instead of running and jumping as much as they want, as nature should. There are so many costs that are inadequate for this age. This deprives the child of the opportunity to be healthy, and he starts to get sick.

Consultant: Olga Vladimirovna Perezhogina, psychologist, psychotherapist.