Seven Sources Of Psychosomatic Illness

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

Psychosomatic diseases differ not only in localization (what hurts and where), but also in the way they occur, so to speak. Sometimes such a "source", the reason may be an inadvertently spoken word ("my heart hurts for you" and now the heart has already taken it in earnest!..), and sometimes the benefit that the patient has from the disease for years does not allow him to part with it.

1. Internal conflict, conflict between parts of the personality, or subpersonalities

Subpersonalities are those voices that often argue in our heads. The simplest example of internal conflict is the conflict of various desires. “I want that beautiful dress, but it's expensive. But I also want to save money! " Or the conflict of desire to be a good wife - home, caring and forget about a career - conflicts with parental attitudes "a woman should have a good job and not depend on her husband."

2. Motivation or conditional benefit

This is one of the most serious causes of psychosomatic illness. In psychological practice, very often it is with her that you have to deal with when you work with diseases and symptoms. The difficulty lies in the fact that the benefit does not allow recovery, the person (unconsciously) does not want to let go of the symptom, because he serves him "good", in some way makes life easier. The simplest example is when children with a lack of attention from their parents get sick in order to attract him. Sometimes adults do it too. Sometimes illness allows us to rest in this way (if we do not allow ourselves to do this) or to avoid unpleasant responsibilities. In adolescents, for example, subfebrile temperature, IRR are often found, against the background of increasing loads, difficulties with study and problems in communicating with peers. There is even an expression in psychology - "going into illness", that is, this is a way of avoiding, "running away" from anything.

3. The effect of suggestion

Suggestions from other people. In my opinion, it can manifest (act) in two ways: on the one hand, when there is simply a suggestion about health or ill health. If the parents are concerned about the child's physical health or sickness, they constantly measure the temperature, get scared of every sneeze and "by the way" say how "painful" it is. A child can actually "absorb" this attitude and grow up weak and frail.

On the other hand, suggestion may not be direct, but very indirect. For example, you cannot be angry (that is, show and express anger), but if it is, then you have to hide it, squeeze it in yourself and choke on it. And any unexpressed, unconscious emotion is a path to psychosomatic illness (for example, anger, anger are associated with the liver). Or another example is given by the authors Stefanovich I. V., Malkina-Pykh I. G.: if a girl was taught that sexual relations are something shameful, dirty, she will be afraid of them, avoid them in every possible way, or by entering into them, experience a whole a range of unpleasant emotions. This, for sure, one way or another, will not have the best effect on her women's health.

4. "Elements of organic speech"

Psychosomatic diseases are interesting in that the symptoms very vividly describe the real problem of a person, openly "talk" about it. The symptom may be the embodiment of some common phrase. Pay attention to your speech and the speech of others. "My head swells from this" - and indeed, a person begins to suffer from a migraine. Or “the heart hurts for him” … We, psychologists, often ask our clients to simply describe the disease, symptom with epithets, verbs: what is it like, and what does it do with it? For example, about skin diseases I had to hear such descriptions of "dry", "irritated", "constricted" - and the client admitted that in life she is often irritated, but in communication she is dry, constrained. Or another client described the pain “I'm tired of enduring this pain” - but in life she chose to be in difficult painful relationships (chronic pain), being afraid to leave them and endure acute but passing pain.

Therefore, I am very careful about my words (and not because of superstition to "crack", but rather from unwillingness to "somatize" the mental process), but at the same time I listen very carefully to someone else's speech - after all, you can hear so many things, not only interesting, but also very truthful.

5. Identification

Similarity to someone, such as a parent or an ideal. Perhaps it is this mechanism that explains the inheritance from generation to generation of certain diseases, which, strictly speaking, are not genetically (inherited) transmitted, but are recognized as psychosomatic diseases: for example, hypertension. I met many families where it was passed down from generation to generation, as well as some character traits, a kind of worldview, which, I think, determine its development.

6. Self-punishment

If a person feels wrong or guilty, he will unconsciously seek punishment. For example, if a person acts contrary to his (parental) attitudes, does not do what was customary in his family (even if a new way is better for him), he too may begin to feel guilty (as in childhood). Injuries are the most common in this situation. Have you ever noticed that if you are very angry, literally boil with anger (but do not give him an outlet and think that you are wrong), then suddenly for some reason it starts to burn hot, boiling or knocking, in short, you hurt yourself, why anger is either intensified or replaced by resentment.

Or look at children: when children, having been naughty in a fit of play, suddenly fall down, bump into each other and start crying loudly. Although before the incident, the adults had already warned the children, asked them to calm down. It's just that children (except for the parental framework - prohibitions) do not have any formed regulators of their own activity, except for their own body - this is what slows down an overexcited child, when even a parent can no longer pacify him.

7. Painful, traumatic experiences of the past

It is considered the most serious source. Serious because, on the one hand, these are most often childhood traumas that were long ago (i.e. they are deep). Therefore, they can be supplanted or well forgotten. On the other hand, even if the client and the psychologist are not yet aware of their presence, this does not mean that nothing of the kind affects the client and his life and health. Also, this episode may be very insignificant at first glance, and the client may not consider it necessary to talk about it.

* The article uses materials from books by I. G. Malkina-Pykh