Psychological Problems That Lead Us To Psychosomatics (exercise)

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

Not so long ago, many of us did not even realize that the cause of the disorders and diseases of our body could be some kind of psychological attitudes or our destructive behavior. Already today, one way or another, we have clarified these issues for ourselves. And at the same time, since the topic of psychosomatics very often pops up in parapsychological currents, it still remains not completely clear how this can be "treated" and what can really help here. In various articles on psychosomatics, I have already written about what “a psychologist-psychotherapist can or cannot do” when working with psychosomatic patients (for example, that a psychologist does not heal and does not see right through you, so that by one diagnosis, tell what problem caused the disease). We also discussed the nature of the methods used, or rather the fact that scientific methods have advantages over parapsychological ones precisely because they can prove the interdependence of the disease with a specific problem and feedback, if it really exists.

In this post, I will also focus on the scientific approach used in psychosomatic medicine. Since most often a client who is fond of esotericism and parapsychological teachings has his own idea and understanding of how “psychosomatics” works and, accordingly, how to treat it, and often the “help” of a psychologist-psychotherapist only “bothers him” if this specialist does not work with the same parapsychological techniques.

To a person of a scientific nature, such an approach, first of all, seems strange. And not so much even because he does not believe in him, but because he does not know and understands him. Indeed, in medicine, everything is very simple, you come to the doctor, he prescribes an examination, studies the results, prescribes drugs or other corrective methods, and you begin to be treated. After a while, you have a result or a repeated examination and a result.

When the doctor says to the patient, "This is psychological for you," the spectrum of feelings that rush over the patient is quite different. Starting from the thought that the doctor is simply incompetent, or they want to dismiss him, do not believe him and consider him a simulator, and ending with the thought that he means some kind of psycho, or incredibly hopeless - incurable. And now what i can do? The doctor cannot help him (and the second and third, as a rule, too), the organ really hurts or the disorder interferes with normal functioning, but there is no pill for this. The patient diligently begins to study various kinds of literature, tries to understand what kind of "psychogenias" and so on, and in general, theoretically, the connection between the psyche and the body becomes clear, he understands that everything is in order with him and that the doctor is really competent, because directs it to related specialists. But how all this concerns him personally is generally incomprehensible. After all, please note that a psychosomatic disorder or illness is nothing more than a projection of SUPPRESSED experiences, REPLACED or written off as non-existent. Why should he go to a psychologist? He is so used to ignoring his psychological problems that they had no choice but to somatize …

Partly in this case, keeping a structured diary, which I wrote about in one of the previous articles, can help. However, it is precisely the case when the client does not understand what “all this means,” but the symptom has not gone anywhere, but it may have intensified or a new one has appeared.

Then there is nothing to do. Hanging his head and plucking up courage, the client comes to a medical (clinical) psychologist or psychosomatics specialist and says: "I have health problems, but the doctor said it was psychological."And a pause, like “I believe him, since I came to you, but if you say that this is nonsense, I will laugh with you with pleasure, because I can’t even imagine what such psychological problems could have done this to me”. Of course, clients are different, and different techniques and exercises can help everyone face their problems and start solving them. Nevertheless, at the initial stage, the following is suitable for most.

I suggest taking a piece of paper and listing everything that the client has to endure in this life. Starting from the fur of a dog in bed or the gnashing of a knife on an empty plate and ending with a mother-in-law / mother-in-law who is just crazy or financial problems, etc. The more honest and detailed the list, the better for the client himself. As soon as abstractions like “wrong, wrong, or inconvenient, etc.” interfere with the creation of a list, I ask you to clarify what exactly is wrong and what exactly is inconvenient. I recommend that you do not read further, but try to do this exercise, so to speak "for yourself." Create your own "black list", which you can work on later.

After the list is finished, we take it and divide it into two others - "I will endure this, because …" and remember that "when we cannot change something, we can change our attitude towards it." This formulation of the question contributes to understanding why we choose "this" to leave unchanged in our life. And the second - "I do not want to endure this, because …".

Then we take the second of the resulting list and divide it by two again - “I don’t want to endure it and I know how to change it” and “I don’t want to endure it and I don’t know what to do about it”.

It is the last of these lists that will, one way or another, constantly pop up in psychotherapy, and it is he who can form the basis of your request to a psychotherapist. Also, a specialist in psychosomatics may invite you to think about how your psychosomatic disorder or illness helps to endure everything that you “don't know how to change”. And if at first glance this connection is not obvious, then working with a psychotherapist, one way or another, will soon lead you to understand this. The list “I don’t want to endure it and I know how to change it” just expects a magical stimulus and it would be better if you yourself became this stimulant;)

psychologist-psychotherapist, psychosomatics specialist.