Do you know what psychosomatic illness is? (check out the most common ones)

Somatization is a psychiatric disorder in which the person has multiple physical complaints, located in various organs of the body, such as pain, diarrhea, tremors and shortness of breath, but which are not explained by any disease or organic change. Generally, a person with psychosomatic illness is often in medical appointments or emergency rooms due to these symptoms, and the doctor often finds it difficult to find the cause.

This situation is also called somatization disorder, and it is common in anxious and depressed people, so for the proper treatment it is essential to perform psychotherapy, in addition to monitoring with the psychiatrist, who may recommend medications such as antidepressants and anxiolytics to help to alleviate the problem.

Chest pain can be caused by anxiety

Most common psychosomatic illnesses

Each person can physically manifest their emotional tensions in different organs, and can simulate or worsen many diseases. The main examples are:

Stomach: pain and burning in the stomach, feeling sick, worsening gastritis and gastric ulcers; Intestine: diarrhea, constipation; Throat: feeling of a lump in the throat, constant easier irritations in the throat and tonsils; Lungs: sensations of shortness of breath and suffocation, which can simulate lung or heart disease; Muscles and joints: tension, contractures and muscle pain; Heart and circulation: sensation of pain in the chest, which can even be confused with a heart attack, in addition to palpitations, appearance or worsening of high blood pressure; Kidneys and bladder: feeling of pain or difficulty urinating, which can mimic urological diseases; Skin: itching, burning or tingling; Intimate region: worsening impotence and decreased sexual desire, difficulty getting pregnant and changes in the menstrual cycle; Nervous system: headache, migraine, changes in vision, balance, sensitivity (numbness, tingling) and motor skills, which can simulate neurological diseases.

The person with somatization disorder can suffer for many months or years with these symptoms until the cause is discovered. Check out more symptoms that may arise in psychosomatic illnesses.

In addition, there are diseases that can be triggered or worsened by stressful situations, especially inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, or diseases such as fibromyalgia or irritable bowel syndrome, for example.

How to confirm

The diagnosis of a psychosomatic illness must be made by a psychiatrist, but a general practitioner or other specialist can point out this possibility, because they exclude the presence of other illnesses through physical and laboratory examination.

The presence of the main symptoms help to identify the problem, and are fast heart, tremors, dry mouth, feeling of shortness of breath and a lump in the throat, and can be more or less intense according to the worsening or improvement of the emotional state of each person. To confirm this disorder, the doctor will identify in his evaluation the existence of at least 4 symptoms, the most common being gastrointestinal, those that mimic neurological diseases or that affect the intimate region.

What causes psychosomatic illness

There are several situations that facilitate the development of somatization, such as depression, anxiety and stress. The most affected people are those who suffer situations such as:

Professional exhaustion and exaggerated workload mainly affect people who work with the public as teachers, salespeople and health professionals, but students and unemployed people can also suffer from these complications; Trauma in childhood or after significant events, in addition to family conflicts are some situations that can make the person afraid and unmotivated to move on; Situations of psychological violence and demotivation, as in cases of domestic violence and bullying; Too much anxiety and sadness in people who do not share or talk about their problems.

Not seeking treatment for these situations, due to difficulty in seeking help or because it is a normal situation, can aggravate symptoms or cause physical illness.

How the treatment is done

Treatment for these diseases may involve the use of medications such as painkillers, anti-inflammatories and antihistamines to relieve your symptoms, however, it is important to follow up with a psychologist or psychiatrist, to learn how to control emotions, and treat the real cause of the problem.

Antidepressants, such as sertraline or fluoxetine, and anxiolytics, such as clonazepam, for example, prescribed by the psychiatrist, help to calm and decrease anxiety, and psychotherapy sessions are important to help resolve internal conflicts.

Some simple and natural measures can also help to deal with emotional problems, such as taking calming chamomile and valerian teas, taking a vacation to rest your mind and trying to solve one problem at a time. Doing some form of physical exercise like walking, running, yoga or pilates can also help promote well-being.

Learn more tips to control anxiety.