The Concept Of "comfort Zone" In The Therapy Of Psychosomatic Clients

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

In the modern Internet community, a lot has been said about the "comfort zone", and maybe even too much. We joked a little, laughed, scolded, sorted it out, but the sediment remained, and therefore agreed with the clients to call it a "habit zone." Since this thesis is very important for psychotherapy of psychosomatic clients, but unfortunately, it is devalued due to lack of understanding of the essence of the process. After all, introducing this concept, no one assumed that the definition of the “comfort zone” could be reduced to the dictionary meaning of “household amenities” (as speaking of the “flood method”, no one planned to flood the client). In psychology, this did not mean that a person in the "comfort zone" does not experience any negativity (discomfort), and if he decides to leave it, no one promised him all kinds of benefits and so on (this is why it is not always and not always necessary to leave it)). Psychologists nevertheless relied more on the research of those times when science had a more evidence base and received information through unethical and non-ecological experiments on animals and even humans. In this post I will try to describe two key questions - what is actually the concept of "comfort zone" in psychology and what significance it has in psychotherapy of psychosomatic disorders and diseases.

What is the "comfort zone" in the psychotherapeutic sense?

Many of you have probably heard about a series of experiments with baby monkeys and their surrogate mothers, in which the role of attachment and care, the importance of the parenting model, interaction with other representatives of the species, etc. was explained. But it was the importance of predictability of the stimulus that gave us answers to understanding the essence processes occurring in dependent relationships - understanding why a person often prefers to maintain a negative and even dangerous "status quo".

Without going into the details of the organization and research plans, the essence of the described experiment was reduced to the fact that baby monkeys were alternately placed in different cages. The first contained a stuffed "mother" made of a wire frame, which gave milk, but at the end of the "meal" it shocked the cub. In the second, the scarecrow was wrapped in a terry towel *, and also fed, but was not always electrocuted. After a while, the cubs were given the opportunity to choose their own "mother", and surprisingly they preferred the "cold" one who regularly shocked. Having studied the behavior of the kids, it was found that despite the fact that the blow was mandatory, they learned to "cope" with it, being able to delay or skip eating, mobilize the resource ("mentally prepare", which in turn helped to reduce the influence of the factor stress), and sometimes even avoid it by not eating milk. The stuffed animal of the second "mother", despite its greater resemblance to a real monkey, behaved unpredictably and it was not known when and under what circumstances the cub would be hit. With her, the kids began to behave "nervously" and inadequately.

Thus, In psychotherapy, the concept of "comfort zone" implies precisely that zone of predictability, when a person, despite the fact that something bad is happening around, learns to cope with this problem, avoiding, delaying and mobilizing the protective functions of the body to resist the stress factor. A person, as a rational creature, understands perfectly well that no matter how colorful the alternative situation may seem, utopia does not exist, something negative will still happen, but it is not known where, when and how (anxiety goes off scale). In the current situation, everything is clear, and most importantly, effective mechanisms of "coping" (delay, avoidance, leveling, etc.) have been developed. This is what makes the client choose, though not very pleasant, but at the same time predictable (convenient = comfortable) status quo. This situation is one of the reasons why: children from dysfunctional families prefer to live with asocial sadistic parents instead of moving to an orphanage; wives of alcoholics and tyrants prefer such cohabitation to divorce; an employee tolerates inhuman working conditions for a meager salary, instead of being fired, and of course the psychosomatic client builds a scheme of rituals around his problem, continuing to get sick, etc. Not because they feel comfortable = pleasant, but because their comfort = predictability and (!) the ability to influence on the outcome of the situation.

Actually leaving the "comfort zone" symbolizes the realization that the world is not a cage from which it is impossible to leave, but a society, these are not mechanical dolls with which it is impossible to negotiate and learn to interact effectively. And the most important thing is the realization that our life is much more multifaceted and varied than the previously prepared unethical and non-ecological experimental plan, and we ourselves are the authors of our experiments (tests and conclusions), whatever they may be.

In other words, the psychotherapeutic element of "getting out of the comfort zone" consists in broadening one's horizons, obtaining objective information, mastering the skills of effective interaction and achieving the result necessary for each individual individual, developing constructive behavioral models etc. Due to the fact that the stress factor is an inevitable (and most importantly, not necessarily negative) phenomenon of our existence, one of the main therapeutic tasks, we note the skills of prevention, recognition, confrontation and / or leveling the consequences of stress. When establishing a trusting relationship, the psychotherapist becomes a support, a guarantor of the safety of the transition from the zone of actual development to the zone of the nearest.

The meaning of the concept of "comfort zone" in psychotherapy of psychosomatic disorders and diseases

In psychotherapy of psychosomatic disorders **, two main meanings of the concept of "comfort zone" (habit zone) can be distinguished.

First gives us answers to questions about the likely causes of a particular psychosomatic disorder (e.g., lack of vision for depression; creating protective rituals for OCD; fixation on a traumatic event with phobias) or psychosomatic illness (choosing a specific behavior model for a particular disease gastrointestinal tract, sss, etc.; sublimation of unused energy due to the limitation of the development zone). Then, analyzing the client's lifestyle and his individual model of interaction with the environment, we: understand why and where exactly he is "stuck"; what is its mechanism for suppressing anxiety; what situation he maintains (endures), sublimating negative experiences into a bodily symptom and what needs to be done so that he can move on.

In psychotherapy of psychosomatic disorders and diseases, choosing a way out of the zone of habitual coexistence (comfort zone), we always stipulate that in specific areas the patient's life will no longer be the same as before. Since there is no point in returning to scenarios and attitudes, behaviors and habits, to the lifestyle that brought the client to the psychotherapist's door. And only if the client is ready for such changes can psychotherapy be effective. Yes, it will be long lasting because:

- a patient who is accustomed to controlling the situation hardly trusts other people (and being in the comfort zone and hypercontrol are inseparable parts of the whole);

- he also constantly tries to return himself to his former self (younger, successful and carefree, living in a different time continuum, in the social schemes of the past);

- he will experiment and look for other models, not all of which will be suitable, which undermines trusting relationships in the process of psychotherapy;

- he will have disruptions to return to previous, ineffective and destructive, but predictable scenarios, etc.

This zone is partly comfortable also because you don't have to strain so much. And the majority "do not strain" until the problem grows to the extent of sublimation through the body, when a person simply cannot ignore it. Nevertheless, with a steady desire to return and maintain health, he will succeed. What exactly the new way of life will be depends on the client himself, his history and his “introductory” (including constitutional predisposition - healthy psychosomatics), however, without significant changes, truly psychosomatic pathologies remain “incurable”.

If the desire and persistence end the faster, the more the client receives information and experience of working with a psychotherapist, it comes to second meaning "Comfort zones" in the process of psychotherapy - "secondary benefit". When the notorious meaning of “convenience” in the term “comfort zone” also implies that the existing problem or situation helps a person to receive various benefits that he does not know how (or does not want) to receive otherwise. It can be both psychological bonuses from the social environment (sympathy, support, attention, sharing of responsibility) and quite material (physical assistance and even financial).

It often happens that as a result of diagnostics and psychological analysis, the so-called. "Symptom functions". He understands how an existing disorder or disease helps him. However, by putting on the scale the price he pays for the symptom and the effort it takes to achieve what the disease provides in a constructive way, the client chooses to keep his disorder to himself. Figuratively speaking, it continues to remain in the “comfort zone” (habits), where all rituals are worked out to the details and do not require special investments, including material and physical: “yes, it’s inconvenient, but it’s better that way”. Then a person becomes dependent on his illness, and people around him become codependent, which in turn can cause psychosomatic disorders in them.

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* You can learn more about the "models" of the stuffed animal and their meaning in the experiments of G. Harlow.

** when writing an article, I draw the reader's attention to the fact that, contrary to the popular opinion of popular psychology, in scientific research not every disease is psychosomatic and not every somatic disease is considered through the prism of psychogenicity.