2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43
Reading articles about psychosomatics on the Internet, we can sometimes come across consonant terms that seem to mean the same thing. Most clients think that the psychologist twists them on purpose in order to stand out) However, in fact, if these articles are written by a specialist, all terms have their real meaning and even pretending to be a somatopsychologist, psychosomatologist or psychosomatics specialist, we make it clear what is special about our work.
The simplest example that can demonstrate the difference between primary and secondary psychosomatic pathology, we often see in terms of oncopsychology and psycho-oncology. At the same time, they can both overlap, which often happens in the work of a specialist in psychosomatics, or be separate areas, and the same psychologists can deliberately provide assistance in a particular of them (some, for example, work in a hospice, others take only for cases of carcinophobia).
Actually, when we talk about oncopsychology, we assume that both the person himself and his relatives, when faced with a diagnosis of "cancer", experience various psychological and behavioral changes. In many ways, the reason for such changes is provoked by the disease itself, the toxic effect of the tumor and treatment, disruption of the functioning of organs and systems, inevitable codependency, etc. factor, improving the quality of life of the client and his loved ones, etc.
Psycho-oncology, on the other hand, suggests that there are a number of psychological reasons that, along with other factors, led the patient to this disease. By identifying such reasons, we can not only help the patient to increase the response of his body to the treatment process, but also by discovering to neutralize the influence of this psychological factor, and in the future, contribute to personal growth, changes in the family system, behavior and attitudes in order to avoid relapse. Also, knowing the psychological risk factors, some psycho-oncologists carry out preventive, preventive work with healthy people.
In fact, in psychosomatics there are always two sides of a psychosomatic symptom. The first indicates that the disease was provoked or received permission for its development with the help of a psychological factor - psychological trauma, prolonged stress, destructive attitudes leading to hormonal imbalance, and sometimes even situational but strong emotional experiences, etc. the way the psychological and mental state of a person changes after he falls ill, in particular in situations where the development of the disease has no psychological reasons (certain viral diseases, radiation or chemical poisoning, burns, disability, genetic pathology, the consequences of physical trauma, etc.) … From here comes the division into primary and secondary psychosomatics.
In fact, such a division occurs with any of the diseases or disorders. In the ICD (International Classification of Diseases), to denote this difference, there is a heading both under somatoform disorders (F45 - when a mental catalyst is primary), and a heading on psychological and behavioral factors associated with disorders or diseases (F54 - when a disease is primary). Of course, there are some nuances about the interweaving of other headings here, but this is not the article about this.
In order to distinguish the nature of the problem with which we have to work, a specialist in psychosomatics uses the so-called "primary psychosomatic questionnaire", which gives a general picture of the relationship between physical and psychological state over several years.
At the same time, working with the client's request, we understand that the mutual influence of the body on the psyche and vice versa occurs constantly and each individual symptom can lead us away from important information. Moreover, some diseases have both primary and secondary signs (for example, neurodermatitis developed due to stress, and a skin defect provoked depression). Therefore, specialists in different directions have their own techniques to determine which of the symptoms is situational and which is stable - respectively, what leads us by the nose, and what is really important for psychotherapy, to which we will return all the time. This makes it possible to avoid many of the most common mistakes in psychotherapy psychosomatics. As in the case when, working with a secondary symptom, a psychotherapist is looking for a psychological cause of the disease itself, while the client's condition worsens due to ignoring the cause of the symptom (illness) and additional retraumatization (for example, suicidal exogenous depression with disability). Or vice versa, when, using techniques for secondary psychosomatics, we try to remove only the disease and the manifestation of the symptom, without seeing that the psychological cause is primary, which in turn leads to the manifestation of a new symptom (for example, anorexia turning into bigorexia or from an ulcer to heart attack).
Recommended:
"Psychosomatics" Is Not What You Just Thought! About Masks Of "psychosomatics", Norm And Pathology
From the reaction of some readers to my notes, I realized that many understand "psychosomatics" in no other way than a collective image of stories that "all diseases are from the brain." However, it is not. To explain, I have grouped my most frequent answers to questions about "
What Does “secondary Benefit” From The Disease Mean And How To Get Rid Of It?
Each time we talk about the meaning of psychosomatic symptoms, we in one way or another touch upon the topic of the "secondary benefit" of the disease. However, not only the term itself causes resistance from clients, but also the common questions "
"You Are NOBODY Without Me." Primary Trauma And Transference Neurosis
"YOU ARE NOBODY WITHOUT ME." This phrase no longer cut the ear. Over the long years of marriage, Marusya got used to her. She got used in the same way as to the alcohol dependence of her husband, his beatings and mistresses. From a young cheerful girl for 7 years of marriage, she turned into an old woman.
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SENSES IN THERAPY
Working with the client's feelings towards loved ones Working with the client and his affection problems - this is working with a little one, a child in need of love. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SENSES In therapeutic work with clients, one has to deal with varying degrees of awareness, identification and expression of their feelings.
Psychological Aspects And Secondary Benefits Of The "losing Weight" Client
The beginning of the article is here Diet - notes from the life of psychosomatic clients If we know that our constitutional characteristics are such that we tend to be overweight, we need to forget diet, as a synonym for fasting, and learn a new meaning of the term diet:
