In layman’s terms, psychological-related somatic symptoms refer to pains here and there that are uncomfortable and for which numerous tests have been done but the cause cannot be found. This has been a problem for the medical community. Some of them are also treated as strange or difficult diseases. After seeing many doctors they either say there is no disease or just say it is anxiety or depression, in fact both views are a bit extreme. The fact that medical tests do not reveal a cause to explain these physical discomforts does not mean that it is not a disease, but a flaw in the medical evaluation system. Nor does it mean that it is an anxiety disorder or depression. These disorders plague many patients, seriously affecting people’s daily life and work, and also plague many doctors who lack knowledge about them. In the past 20 years, many international experts in holistic medicine have made rapid progress in their research, but China’s research in this field is still basically at a purely theoretical level, resulting in doctors working in the front line of hospitals often being at a loss for these disorders. The world’s leading psychosomatic medical organization, the American Psychosomatic Society (APS), in the 2013 fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Book of Mental Health (DSM-5 for short), treats it as a disorder different from anxiety and depression, called psychological factor-related somatic symptom disorder (SSD). This is a major step forward in medicine’s return to a holistic model of mind-body.
Previously, medical names for psychological factor-related somatic symptoms were not standardized, and were commonly used by physicians in various countries, including: medically unexplained symptoms (MUS), general hospital unexplained symptoms (GHUS), and functional somatic symptoms (FSS). Those with a particular organ or specialty are often diagnosed as gastrointestinal disorders, functional dyspepsia, irritable bowel syndrome, cardiac neurosis, neuralgia, etc. These disorders are quite numerous and constitute no less than 30% of the specialist clinics in major hospitals. From a holistic medical point of view, these diseases are collectively referred to as psychosomatic diseases or psychosomatic disorders. Although related to psychosocial stresses originating from life or work-related issues, most of them are not anxiety or depression disorders.
Psychosomatic disorders involve various specialties such as internal, external, gynecological, pediatric, ophthalmology and ophthalmology in hospitals. I would like to explain this on four levels.
1. Psychosomatic disorders emphasize that a person’s illness or health should include both physical and psychological aspects
That is, focus on the overall view of human health and disease, rather than a headache to treat the head, stomach pain to treat the stomach. This is also the original direction of development of medicine, but because modern medicine with the help of scientific and technological advances, excessive emphasis on high-tech means of local treatment, ignoring the thinking of the whole person, it is inevitable that the headache is not good for the head, stomach pain is not good for the stomach.
2, long-term psychosocial pressure can trigger a lot of physical discomfort
Go to the hospital to check some of the problems identified, but not enough to explain the physical discomfort, which in fact means that the results of the examination and our physical discomfort is not much related. There is also a large proportion that cannot be identified as the cause. This is the problem that psychosomatic medicine has to solve, psychological stress in the first, physical discomfort in the second, so called “mind-body” disease.
3, the patient really suffers from some clear physical diseases
For example, tumor, stroke, chronic liver disease, heart disease, or special treatment for some clear physical diseases, such as cardiac stent, pacemaker implantation, or minimally invasive treatment for benign tumor of digestive tract. After various tests, the original disease is in good condition and these uncomfortable symptoms or sensations are neither due to the original disease nor to complications of the treatment. The already existing physical disease leads to negative emotions such as excessive worry, anxiety, short temper or low mood. If these adverse psychological reactions are not recognized and timely intervened, they will in turn affect the neuroendocrine system of human body and complicate the recovery process of the original disease. This is a physical disease in the first, psychological problems in the second, strictly speaking called “body – mind” disease.
4.Psychosomatic diseases also include diseases caused by bad life behavior
Also called modern diseases, such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes (high blood sugar), gout (high uric acid), fatty liver disease, chronic fatigue, insomnia, etc., are related to our improper diet, recreational behavior and improper thinking or working methods.
For example, if we have chronic discomfort in the stomach area (upper abdomen) for a long period of time, including vague pain in the upper abdomen, belching, fullness, acid reflux, etc. or irregular stools, chronic diarrhea, we usually think that there is something wrong with a single organ or part of the stomach or intestines. Some people will repeatedly go to the hospital and ask for gastroscopy, colonoscopy and other examinations, but each time there is nothing else found except chronic gastritis. The effect of taking various western or Chinese medicines for gastrointestinal treatment alternately for years is often not obvious. There are also some people who take “so-and-so heart pills” and “so-and-so heart pills” all year round because of chest discomfort. But the effect is not too obvious. Repeatedly go to the hospital to do heart-related tests, but no heart problems are found.
We tend to overlook something about these diseases, that is, in addition to local symptoms, these patients usually have emotional-psychological problems and sleep problems.
In the case of functional GI disorders, for example, there is usually at least one of the following problems.
1. usually accompanied by many other areas of physical discomfort, often feeling fatigue from which they do not recover easily
2. excessive caution in eating and drinking, not daring to eat this or that.
3, excessive concern for their gastrointestinal tract, such as the time of stool, stool shape and the number of strict requirements. Once which day stool is not the so-called “banana type” or more than one stool will be nervous and anxious.
4. psychosocial stress, which can come from work, family, interpersonal relationships, life events, and fear of serious illness.
5, psychologically speaking is often a byproduct of some excellent psychological characteristics, such as conscientiousness or even top truth, caution, the pursuit of perfection, strict requirements for themselves and others, etc..
6, there are different degrees of sleep problems; as you can imagine, so many problems intertwined, just rely on some drugs for the stomach or intestines can not solve the problem. It is necessary to understand and treat such gastrointestinal diseases from a holistic perspective.
Psychosomatic medicine embodies the bio-social-psychological-medical model, which treats people as a complete system. Therefore, it can also be called holistic medicine. It takes into account both biological factors and the role of social and psychological factors in the generation, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Modern Western medicine, on the other hand, looks at human health and disease from a single biomedical model, viewing the human being as simply a biological machine or a simple sum of individual human organs. So, mind-body medicine focuses on both the disease and the person who has the disease. The biomedical model, on the other hand, focuses on the organs of the human body, emphasizes the role of technology, and sometimes pays insufficient attention to the person who is sick. Once there is a physical discomfort, check all the “parts” of the body and there is no major problem, the modern single biomedical model is powerless. Many people are confused when they go to the hospital. What is the confusion? It is repeatedly run to the hospital, see a lot of doctors, do a lot of tests, take a lot of drugs, the result is more and more disease, the original those discomfort is not good, the doctor’s explanation also varies, they are going to the hospital to see the doctor becomes more and more confidence, the heart more and more nervous, more and more distressed, of course, the quality of life is getting worse and worse.
So is there any simple way to alert us to the possibility of psychosomatic diseases?
In fact, the diagnosis of psychosomatic diseases is very strict, and the most basic premise is that no specific disease is found after systematic examination in a regular hospital or even if some abnormalities are detected, they are not the real cause of physical discomfort, or the results of the examination are not enough to explain those ailments in the body. For patients, the possibility of psychosomatic diseases should be considered when they have the following phenomena
1. when you have more than two discomforts.
2. when seeing different doctors with different diagnoses or explanations for the condition.
3. having insomnia, including difficulty falling asleep, waking up in the middle of the night, waking up early, and a transitional emphasis on sleep duration
4. chronic long-term fatigue.
Specifically, when we have long-term gastrointestinal discomfort, or chest tightness, panic attacks, or even premature heartbeat that cannot be explained, coupled with insomnia and long-term unexplained fatigue, we should pay attention to the possibility of cardiac-body disease and seek consultation with the relevant doctors to receive reasonable treatment, so that we can avoid wearing such as “old stomach disease This way, we can avoid wearing the hat of organ diseases such as “old stomach disease”, “chronic enteritis”, “coronary heart disease” or “viral myocarditis” and improve our quality of life.
Is psychosomatic disease a “disease of the mind” or “mental illness”?
Many people, including some medical professionals, do think so, either saying that there is no disease, or that it is a disease of the mind, psychological problems, or directly say that it is anxiety or depression, and even some people think that it is a mood or to get some kind of benefit and pretend to be sick. These are all a misconception.
It should be said that psychosomatic illnesses are indeed related to the way people think about problems or psychological factors, but never simply “thought disease” or “psychological problems”. Depression and anxiety disorders also have strict diagnostic criteria. It is not anxiety disorder if you are worried about your illness, or depression if you are depressed.
Psychosomatic disorders have many physical symptoms and pains, which are objective and not just “sicknesses”. Many psychosomatic illnesses have their origin and symptoms related to our worry, fear or dread of certain illnesses. For example, if someone in the family has had esophageal cancer, it is likely that they will be more concerned about whether their esophagus will have problems someday, but after a long time or a hospital check, many people will stop worrying about it. However, some people will be worried all the time, and after a long time, they will feel something in their throat, and they can’t spit it out or swallow it. It is very painful.
For example, some people have been born with hepatitis or hepatitis B virus positive, which is usually called “small three yang, big three yang”. They will always worry about the coming of cirrhosis, liver cancer, long-term high attention to the liver area, what the wind blowing on the nervous anxiety, over time, will always feel discomfort or tingling in the liver area, some people also eat the so-called “liver medicine” for years. If these diseases are simply treated as a disease of the mind, using simple words such as “don’t think too much, don’t think nonsense” to persuade them is non-professional, and therefore is not helpful, and can even be said to be very rude. At the same time is not simply rely on counselors can solve the problem of the type of “psychological problems”.
What are some ways to prevent psychosomatic diseases?
1, to establish a new concept of health
Not to say that going to the hospital for a comprehensive physical examination, no disease is detected is healthy. This is only half right. The World Health Organization’s definition of health is “the absence of disease and illness in the body, mental and social integrity”. Mental and physical health is the real health. Commonly speaking, it is the mind and body health.
2, pay attention to often adjust their own way of thinking, work and life style
Learn to manage the pressure from study, work, family, emotional and interpersonal relationships, scientific self-stress reduction.
3, do not rely on their own from books, magazines or the Internet to see the so-called medical common sense, to their own medical treatment
If you have questions to ask the doctor, do not take some of the human body is a normal physiological phenomenon as a disease.
4, to maintain a good sleep
If the sleep is not good, tell the doctor when you see the doctor. Long-term poor sleep should pay attention to treatment.
5, to appropriate physical exercise or outdoor activities is important
Especially after people reach middle age.
6.When suffering from unexplained physical symptoms and repeatedly visit the doctor, it is recommended that in addition to describing a body organ problem to the doctor, take the initiative to communicate with the doctor about emotional and sleep problems
In this way, it is possible to receive timely and correct treatment from experienced doctors and to relieve the pain caused by this.