2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43
O., a 39-year-old man, sought psychological help for the onset of disturbing symptoms of a psychosomatic nature. 2 months ago, he was faced with "interruptions in the work of the heart", manifested in tachycardia, dizziness, pressure surges. During this time, O. underwent several thorough examinations with a view to looking for cardiological or vascular pathology
However, all medical examinations ended in vain - the doctors stated the absence of any pathology, O. was, from the point of view of somatic medicine, a practically healthy person. Nevertheless, the described symptoms continued to bother O., and the head of the department of the clinic, where O. was undergoing the last examination, referred him to me.
At the time of seeking psychotherapy, O.'s symptoms were also joined by a pronounced fear of dying from cardiac arrest and the inability to leave his home at all. Relatives brought him to the reception. The phenomenology of cardiophobia and agoraphobia described by him practically paralyzed his professional life - O. was a fairly successful businessman, who, in addition, had many immediate professional plans. Of course, in the focus of attention of the therapeutic request O. placed complaints about the symptoms that tormented him, and O. did not leave the conversation about her during the first few sessions.
When O. was able to distract himself from somatic complaints for a while, I was able to inquire about the peculiarities of building relationships with the people around him. This conversation caused some difficulties for O., since he did not see any practical reason to talk about anything unrelated to the symptomatology that worried him. O. outwardly looked a very masculine, somewhat detached and unemotional person, his speech was short and abrupt. It seemed that no events could touch his heart. According to O., he always lived and was brought up in situations that suggested that "worrying and getting upset is not like a man." A sort of "steadfast tin soldier". This state of affairs and, in fact, O.'s story itself caused me sadness and even some pity for O. - not being able to relax for more than 30 years seemed unfair to me.
An important fact in O.'s story about his relationships with loved ones was the following fact - the closest person to him, despite the lack of warmth in contact, was his father. He was a very important and authoritative person for O., "taught him a lot" and "brought up well." But recently my father died of a sudden heart attack. And it happened about 2 weeks before the onset of the first "heart" attack in O. (an amazing coincidence ?!).
I asked O. how he experienced the death of his father, to which he thought for a long time and replied: “I experienced it. It was hard. " I asked if he had the opportunity to share with someone his experiences related to the death of his father, to which he replied in the negative and said that he did not see any point in this - “not only is it bad for yourself, but also to make others suffer ".
I expressed my sadness that "it must be difficult to be alone with your pain." At that moment, O.'s eyes filled with tears, and he began to say that his father "was a very good man."
I suggested that O. share, if he wants, with me his experiences, with which he has remained alone until now. Needless to say, this idea aroused intense fear and bewilderment for O.
At the same time, he continued to cry, still being out of contact with me. My heart was filled with pain, I said that I am very sympathetic and condolent to him. He looked at me for the first time attentively and for quite a long time. I told him that it would be important for me if O. could talk about his experiences, not being alone with his pain, but using my presence. O. seems to have been shocked that his feelings might be interesting and important to someone else. As a matter of fact, they (feelings) were most often uninteresting to himself, he considered the emotional part of his life as an annoying atavism, which, unfortunately, had not yet atrophied as unnecessary.
O. said that it would be important for him to talk about his feelings with someone, and began to tell me in some detail about the experiences of the first days of his grief. At first, he was not very good at “giving in to his feelings,” but over time he was able to learn how to place them in our contact. After a while, he allowed himself to talk about his feelings with his wife, which was "a complete surprise" for her. Nevertheless, the wife was able to support O. in this process. After a fairly short time, O. came to me on his own, saying that his fear had become much less.
Attacks of cardiophobia have become much less frequent.
At present, O.'s therapy is experimenting with restoring his ability to perceive and experience feelings, which turned out to be very interesting, exciting and resourceful for him.
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