mind body medicine and mood disorders

[lzeukial]

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.

[The_Real_David_Charles]

Dear Izeukial,

Are you studying medicine, therapy or psychology ?

Your thread has a lot of information and will surely be useful to those willing to absorb it all.    Also, Freud only studied hysteria in woman.

Adios, David.