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We are glad to welcome you, dear readers of the site! Psychogenic pain appears not due to a violation of any physiological processes in the body, but due to psycho-traumatic situations.
When a person simply has not coped with stress, or the intensity of stress is so high and stable that it causes concomitant mental disorders in him.
For example, depression, phobias, anxiety, and so on. Which, of course, are accompanied by pain in various parts of the body, organs.
Symptoms
How to determine that the nature of the pain is psychogenic? Sometimes it’s not easy, but it’s possible. The main signs that will help you find the answer:
- Monotone. Unpleasant sensations can accompany a person for a long time. That is, not only for hours, but also for days, weeks, months, years. At the same time, being examined in clinics, no visible disturbances in the body can be found. For example, a person complains of problems with the heart, which constantly pulls, then tingles, making it impossible to calmly take a breath. But the cardiogram shows that it works like a clock, and there are no failures.
- Intensity. Sometimes the patient characterizes the pain as «exhausting» and «unbearable», although the presence of a true illness usually does not cause such strong sensations. And this does not mean that he is lying or too impressionable. He really “goes crazy”, trying to withstand it, and every day more and more often comes to the idea that there is no more strength to continue in the same spirit. Therefore, among such patients, attempts to commit suicide are often observed. They not only do not see a way out, but simply want to stop the stream of consciousness in order to feel peace and tranquility, getting rid of suffering.
- Chronic nature. Each person has his own “favorite” way of reacting to traumatic situations, a type of behavior, a mechanism for protecting the psyche, and so on. So, let’s say, if you do not allow yourself to experience or show anger, it will «get stuck» in the body. After all, we can control the expression of feelings, but their occurrence is not. Accordingly, finding no way out, the energy simply remains in some place and brings changes to it. Mostly destructive. For some, this is the head. And without defending their boundaries, without expressing their dissatisfaction, a person experiences migraine attacks. In this case, we can talk about a chronic manifestation.
- No response to drug treatment. Or the effect is present, but temporary. Which is not surprising because, in fact, the struggle is with the symptoms, and not the very cause that provoked their appearance.
- «Wandering» character. While the person is actively engaged in the treatment of the stomach, the pains move to the region of the heart, then the head and teeth begin to bother, shoot again in the side and twist the stomach. It seems that she does not have a single healthy organ, something constantly torments her and does not allow her to relax. Although in fact there are no special violations, everything functions without failures, and so on.
- There is a relationship with mood. That is, the patient experiences a deterioration in well-being at times when he is upset or angry.
- Absence during sleep. The malaise makes itself felt only during the hours when a person is awake.
Causes
Stress or mental trauma
For example, divorce, loss of a loved one, dismissal, financial collapse, and the like can be attributed to the root causes of psychogenic disorders.
A person, having experienced a powerful emotional shock, seems to “fall out” into a disease, unable to cope with stress. This happens for various reasons, mostly the traumatic situation turns out to be stronger than his mental capabilities.
It happens that at some point he is not in the resource, respectively, there is not enough energy to solve the situation constructively.
Sometimes pain is a reaction to certain events that a person did not cope with in childhood.
For example, the mother was caring and tender only at the moments when the baby was unwell, at other times remaining unresponsive to his need for love. So he «got sick» every time he desperately sought attention from a significant parent.
Gradually, this pattern of behavior became fixed and already in adulthood, feeling a lack of warm feelings, a person “falls out” into a disease.
This happens unconsciously, which only complicates the process of making a diagnosis, especially if there are no special disorders in the body that cause such severe pain.
Comorbid disorders
Painful sensations of a psychogenic nature are sometimes considered a manifestation, that is, the main symptom of some diseases.
For example, when depressed, a person is in a sad state. Against the background of which he may be disturbed by migraines, arrhythmia, pain in the stomach, and so on.
They also make themselves felt in neurosis, asthenia, phobic disorders, vegetative disease, chronic infections, intoxications, neurasthenia …
There are somatic disorders that masquerade as a stomach ulcer, stroke, food poisoning, heart attack, gastritis, cardioneurosis, vegetative-vascular dystonia, hypertension, arrhythmia, and so on.
A person complains of attacks of pain in the head, back, breathing problems and even skin diseases.
Sometimes surgical operations are prescribed, after which the patient’s well-being returns to normal. But after a short time, the attacks occur again.
After all, the defense mechanisms and types of reactions to stimuli remained the same, respectively, the problem was not eradicated, but only its symptom.
Characteristics of character
There are especially impressionable personalities who are usually called hypochondriacs. This is due to the fact that they are extremely anxious and overly concerned about their health.
As soon as they read or hear about some terrible disease, they will immediately find all its signs in themselves. Why will they lose sleep, and every minute they will think about death, about how to be saved.
They will go to the clinic for examinations and will undergo them until the doctors confirm that they are completely healthy or that they do not directly have this frightening disease.
But the news about the absence of pathologies does not please them, but rather disappoints them. And it suggests that they just came across bad specialists who failed to recognize a terrible disease. And they will look for others, take tests for the hundredth time, until they hear that their fears have been confirmed.
The most interesting thing is that from fear and anxiety, being under the influence of negative thoughts, such a person will really feel unwell.
For example, being terrified of dying from a heart attack, he will indeed experience nausea, shortness of breath, increased heart rate and increased sweating along with discomfort in the heart area.
Intrapersonal conflict
When a person is at odds with himself, or rather, when his needs are in a conflict zone due to the impossibility of satisfying them at the same time, various symptoms begin to bother him. Either the head will hurt, then the stomach will start to twist, the pressure jumps, the condition of the teeth deteriorates sharply.
His relations with the people around him are deteriorating, because the focus of attention is not directed to creation, but to withstand the tension that has formed inside.
Two equal needs, being in opposition, simply deplete all the resources of the body. As such, there may not be any disruption in the work of some organs, but the restrained anxiety, dissatisfaction, irritation will bring discord into their functioning.
Diagnostics
When making a diagnosis, it is important to remember that psychogenic pain has a so-called “secondary benefit” — these are dividends that a person consciously or unconsciously receives as a result of the occurrence of some kind of disease.
Let’s say it can be the care that relatives surround, privileges at work in the form of reducing the load, increasing wages, and so on.
With the help of psychotherapy, it becomes possible to discover your favorite ways of manipulating and adjusting the ways to achieve your goals.
Specialists mainly use such methods as:
- Beck Depression Scale;
- Questionnaire Kotenev;
- McGill Questionnaire;
- Comprehensive pain questionnaire;
- Hamilton Anxiety and Depression Scale;
- Methods for assessing satisfaction with the quality of life.
Treatment
It is quite natural that a person seeks to avoid pain of absolutely any nature. Rarely is anyone happy to see her. We usually want to experience happiness, joy, and peace. But not exhausting, and even acute discomfort.
Although it performs a very important function, it signals that something is going wrong in the body, and indicates what exactly is worth paying attention to.
For example, this happens when a relationship is broken, until it happened, a person may not even guess how important the other was to him, who was next to him for a certain period of time
Usually in such cases they say that they appreciate only after the loss. Sometimes that is exactly what happens. Facing the pain face to face, comes the realization of the significance of the partner and the bitterness of loss arises.
Before starting treatment, it is important to conduct a thorough examination of the body and only in the absence of pathologies, organic lesions of the central nervous system, brain, and so on, proceed directly to getting rid of psychogenic ailments.
Although psychotherapy will be relevant in any situation where a person is healthy or not. Taking care of the hygiene of the soul is just as important as taking care of the body.
Also, in some cases, drug treatment will not interfere. Basically, specialists prescribe antidepressants, sedatives, and in rare cases, anticonvulsants.
Without a prescription, it is strictly forbidden to take any drugs, wanting to get rid of psychogenic pain syndrome. Otherwise, you risk causing even more harm to your body, which will only complicate the process of recovery and delay its onset.
Completion
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And finally, we want to recommend an article on where to start leading a healthy lifestyle. After all, our thoughts and habits have the greatest impact on well-being.
If you have been adhering to the basic rules of a healthy lifestyle for a long time, then follow this link and you will learn how to properly achieve what you want with the help of positive affirmations.
Take care of yourself, loved ones, and, of course, be happy!
The material was prepared by a psychologist, Gestalt therapist, Zhuravina Alina