Psychological conflicts hidden in physical symptoms

Whenever I attend a party, people ask me about my profession, the answer “psychiatrist” will always make everyone’s jaw drop, from their surprise and curiosity I can feel that this profession is unfamiliar to all of us, and seeing a psychiatrist is naturally even rarer. The main reason should be influenced by the traditional Chinese culture, “joy and anger do not show color”, “deep city” and other socially accepted and revered behavior, so that we are ashamed of verbal expression, naturally, the body expression has become our habit. People have been accustomed to use physical symptoms to express the pain in the heart, such as headache, dizziness, insomnia, chest tightness, panic, abdominal distension, stomach pain, etc. are our usual way of expression, but also permitted by the custom, the family will accompany us to see the neurology, cardiovascular, gastroenterology and so on. However, when we have negative emotions and show our happiness, anger and sadness, we are often not accepted by social customs, let alone receiving support and care for our emotional and spiritual needs, and may even be regarded as mentally ill, and our family members seem to have a sense of shame. In addition, the previous biomedical model focuses only on physical symptoms, from the cellular biochemical molecules and other microscopic point of view of the study of the human body, however, people are not inorganic composition of the mechanical individual, people are desires, thinking, emotions, organic life form, physical symptoms are often caused by the emotions, and changes in emotion is determined by the cognitive and personality. Modern medical psychology is such a discipline: the study of externally observable somatic symptoms and behaviors, as well as the internal psychological processes associated with them (emotions, cognition, personality, etc.). At present, the physical symptoms of many diseases and pathological behavior are the external manifestation of psychological conflicts, such as the most common in childhood ADHD and Tourette’s syndrome, children will not use language to express the inner world, but will be expressed through the external behavior and physical symptoms, they are through excessive behavioral actions, and involuntary squeezing of the eyebrows, grinning, shrugging, abdominal twitching, and other muscle contractions to vent their inner conflicts, such a child Although the symptoms are controlled in the short term by taking medication, the psychological conflict cannot be solved by medication, so the physical symptoms of the child will recur. For example, Zhao Mou (a pseudonym), 10 years old, because of the symptoms of blinking repeated visits to the pediatrics and ophthalmology department of the provincial hospitals, taking drugs for 2 years the symptoms are not eliminated, and then transferred to the psychological outpatient clinic, after five sessions of family psychotherapy, the family model can be changed, and the child’s symptoms of blinking disappeared very quickly, and the mother of the child finally lamented that: “Finally, the child’s disease is seen clearly, and the two years without stopping the drug, the Not only affected the child’s physical and mental health, but also spent a lot of money, if I had found you early child adults have to suffer a lot less ah!” If I had found you earlier, my child and adults would have suffered a lot less! Later, the mom introduced several more such children to the clinic. Adult patients with depression, in addition to low mood, loss of interest, waking up early, dizziness, headache, insomnia, back and limb pain, chest tightness, panic, loss of appetite, abdominal distension, abdominal pain and diarrhea, constipation, fatigue and other somatization symptoms, but also a common clinical symptoms, after repeated examinations, there is no indication of organic diseases, symptomatic medication after the effect is poor, and finally with the idea of trying to consult the psychiatric outpatient accidentally obtained satisfactory! The effect, similar to such patients in the psychological outpatient clinic is very common. For example, Zhang Mou (a pseudonym), male, 40 years old, chest tightness and panic for many years, accompanied by numbness of the left side of the limbs, repeated visits to provincial and local hospitals in the heart, brain department, did not check out the obvious organic diseases, infusion therapy is ineffective, and finally transferred to the psychological outpatient clinic, through the psychodynamic therapy, the symptoms quickly disappeared, and finally the patient had a deep feeling that: “I really did not think that I was a psychological conflict! Caused by physical symptoms, a long time ago, I knew that there are psychological outpatient clinics, but always feel and their own very distant, thought that is to see the place of mental illness, this time I was courageous, with the idea of trying to walk in, I did not expect the psychological conflict resolution, the body’s symptoms also disappeared, if I had come to this wouldn’t have spent so much money, to bear so much pain. Li mou (a pseudonym), male, 60 years old, the initial diagnosis of body pain is obvious, sweat more, constantly with a towel to wipe the sweat, emotional irritability and depression, fear of fainting dare not go out alone, many times hospitalized for treatment of the symptoms did not improve, the use of acupuncture treatment, the pain sweating is more pronounced so to come to the clinic, after psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral therapy for more than 10 times, and with the use of traditional Chinese medicine and antidepressant medication, the patient’s pain sweating symptoms basically disappeared! The patient’s pain and sweating symptoms basically disappeared, and his social functions returned to normal, he was able to do housework and help his children to go to school, and the family was close and warm and had a good time. Hysteria patients in addition to exaggerated emotional expression, physical expression of the same amazing, seizures can be seen when the wind, eyes upturned, chest tightness, shortness of breath and other symptoms. Wang Mou (pseudonym), female, 26 years old, daytime recurrent episodes of fear, near-death feeling, accompanied by panic, chest tightness, shortness of breath, dizziness, excessive sweating, gastrointestinal discomfort, etc., with as many as 10 or more episodes per day, electroencephalograms, lu brain CT examination did not show any abnormality, many times in the provincial hospitals in the Department of Neurology, and even admitted to the ICU, but still could not solve the recurring symptoms, and then asked for a psychiatric clinic consultation, through the administration of The symptoms quickly disappeared after five sessions of anti-anxiety medication and psychotherapy. Zhang Mou (a pseudonym), female, 22 years old, due to recurrent episodes of head and neck backward stiffness, eyes upturned to the clinic, frequent episodes of 1 month, each episode of intramuscular diazepam to relieve, the clinic has been taking traditional Chinese medicine for 9 months, but still recurring symptoms, through the psychodynamic therapy for 5 times, the patient did not have a recurrence of the disease, tracking follow-up for six months of normal work and life, no recurrence. It can be seen that medical psychology not only studies the usual emotional disorders, but also involves the physical symptoms and behaviors caused by emotions. Psychological counseling is not the ideological education that people imagine, but a kind of verbal pure natural treatment, which can play a therapeutic role that can not be achieved by drugs. Psychotherapy is to present the patient’s psychological conflicts and early experiences in the counseling room, and through the remodeling of the psychological structure, to achieve a relative balance between the various parts of the psyche, to help the visitor to resolve psychological conflicts, the external physical symptoms naturally disappeared, and ultimately to improve the quality of our lives. At present in foreign countries to see a psychiatrist is a very common thing, up to the president of the country down to the ordinary people, have their own psychiatrist, they will regularly seek the help of psychiatrists to remove the mental garbage, and psychology in the country is in its infancy, although China’s hospitals at all levels in recent years has been established one after another psychological clinics, still not familiar with, it seems that people think that psychological clinics to see the psychiatric illness, psychological counseling is the Ideological work, many of the diseases belonging to the psychological outpatient clinic is clearly diagnosed clinical departments, according to researchers clinical survey statistics general hospitals two-thirds of the patients should consult the psychological outpatient clinic. Therefore, the knowledge of psychology urgently needs to be popularized, and we continue to work hard to provide psychological assistance to the majority of patients from multiple perspectives and in multiple ways.