Hi, the following techniques have helped me quite a lot with anxiety, as
well as some other problems. The basic premise behind mind body medicine
is that symptoms can be the result of psychological causes - the
symptoms are psychological in origin. T...
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Hi, the following techniques have helped me quite a lot with anxiety, as
well as some other problems. The basic premise behind mind body medicine
is that symptoms can be the result of psychological causes - the
symptoms are psychological in origin. They serve a psychological
purpose, and are not in fact physical in origin - though they might
manifest physically. The theory suggests that the unconscious mind is
able to create physical symptoms in various ways - for example,
psychosomatic pain may be the result of ischemia (contraction of the
blood vessels) creating mild oxygen deprivation around nerves, which
creates pain. Thus, back pain, sciatica, etc. are, under this theory,
psychological in origin, even though the pain is physical. There is a
mind- body dynamic at work. In any case, psychosomatic symptoms are an
accepted part of medicine (as far as I know), at least in principle. The
essential premise of this more up to date theory is that mood disorder
operate under the same dynamic as psychosomatic disorders. That is, the
same dynamic behind psychosomatic disorders is also behind mood
disorders. Mood disorders are psychological in origin, though they can
often seem physical. They are, in fact, both. The emotions are a
symptom. The cause is psychological. And the symptom serves a
psychological purpose. The decision to create a symptom - physical or
emotional - is made by the unconscious mind for psychological purposes.
It is not a decision made by the conscious mind, which is why it can be
so baffling to the person involved. The decision is made, so it would
seem, to aid in the repression of toxic emotions in the unconscious. It
accomplishes this by creating a symptom that will distract the conscious
mind, in a way that focuses attention on the body. This seems to aid in
repression. When you blush, the blood vessels of your face dilate. But
the cause is psychological. When you feel a "tar ball" in the stomach
before an exam, the cause is psychological, though the symptom is
physical. When you get a migraine after an argument, it feel like glass
going into your head, but the cause is psychological. Similarly,
reactive depression is an awful feeling that creates a leaden feeling in
the body, but the cause was clearly psychological - you are "reacting"
to a stressor (a stressor that some people would not be concerned about
- after all, if its psychological in origin, the response would vary
between people, wouldn't it?). There is probably also an element of "the
last straw" involved. This also explains the phenomenon of symptom
substitution. That is, one symptom disappears, and another one is
created to replace it. This seems to be because symptoms can lose their
power to distract. Depression is replaced by anxiety (but never at the
same time...). People lose back pain but start to have irritable bowel
syndrome, or panic attacks. It would also help explain the clustering of
different sorts of symptoms in people - symptoms with no causal
relationship, or so it would seem. People with back pain also get
headaches, tinnitus, irritable bowel syndrome, and depression, etc.
Symptoms can be chronic because there is no time in the unconscious.
Toxic emotions in the unconscious can linger for decades after the
"stressor" that caused them. The emotions are usually anger, though
sadness and emotional pain are also commonly repressed. The solution is
psychological, since the cause is psychological. It is to understand and
accept the diagnosis. When people are understand and accept that they
are unconsciously angry (there is often tremendous resistance to this),
there is no point repressing the anger, and the symptom (which is
essentially a diversion) ceases. Apparently, only 10-20% of the
population will accept a psychosomatic diagnosis (in the case of a mood
disorder, the term is really a psycho-affective disorder). The
unconscious mind resists the diagnosis. The list of symptoms that might
be psychological in origin is as follows: depression, anxiety, panic
attacks, phobias, carpal tunnel, "tennis elbow," fibromyalgia, back
pain, sciatica, irritable bowel syndrome, dizziness, tinnitus,
headaches, migraine headaches, anorexia, bulimia, attention deficit
disorder, allergies, asthma, and hysterical symptoms, insomnia and
sexual problems. Anger and aggression often reflect unconscious anger.
"Road Rage" probably reflects unconscious anger. but people who express
anger in this situation probably relieve some of their unconscious
anger, and may not experience as many psychosomatic/ psycho- affective
symptoms as a result. People who have learned to control their anger
have been known to suddenly experience psychosomatic symptoms - the
"release valve" was no longer in place, so a distraction was needed to
aid in repression. Hence the symptoms. Hysteria has all but disappeared
since Freud' s time. That's because it was recognised as psychological
in origin. It then stopped working as a distraction. So new symptoms
came into vogue. Nowadays it is depression, anxiety and back pain.
Repetitive Strain Injury disappeared when it was decided that it didn't
exist. This is less cynical that it seems. Since these symptoms serve a
psychological purpose, they will not work as a distraction unless they
are validated by the culture they are in. In Norway a study of whiplash
injury concluded that it was psychosomatic because it did not exist in
Finland. The reason for this conclusion? It was not recognised in
Finland and there was no insurance and no treatment for it. Nobody
believed in it. And it never happened there. This new theory is also
important for other conditions, because it may play a role in more
serious problems, like heart disease. It has long been suspected that
repressed anger is a causal factor in heart disease. And other medical
problems may also have a mind/ body factor.
Poor and no way out??
