How Can the Body Be Mentally Ill?

You've probably heard of strange ailments that can't be explained. And maybe you've been sick of going to the doctor and being told that there's nothing wrong with you physically.

And that's because sometimes organic diseases are just manifestations of our negative emotions. These are called psychosomatic disorders and are caused by psychological factors.

Psychosomatic disorders are not subject to any rules. They can manifest in a variety of ways, from headaches or upset stomachs to more severe symptoms such as seizures or paralysis.

These are physical symptoms that hide an emotional problem and can affect any part of the body. Somatic symptoms are an expression of mental distress, they are reactions of the body, alarm signals that go off when psychological conflicts cannot be resolved or when the stress caused by them cannot be endured.

A true story

But to better understand what it's all about, let's start with a story. A true story published in the book "It's All in Your Head" by Dr. Suzanne O'Sullivan, a neurologist who has dedicated her life to treating people with psychosomatic disorders. The story begins like this: "Camilla was a fulfilled woman, she had worked hard and built a beautiful career in law, she was married to her colleague from college.

After a 6-year break from caring for the two children, he returned to work as a family lawyer. On a business trip, he began to feel unwell, nauseous and fainted. Then he began to tremble extremely loudly, and his heart seemed to leap from his chest. She was taken to the hospital where she had several more seizures.

Doctors suspected he had a brain tumor, but tests showed he had nothing. She was suspected of having epilepsy and underwent treatment, but the seizures continued to occur. Becoming worried, his neurologist recommended some special tests which revealed that epilepsy was not the cause of his seizures, but his emotional problems. Camilla's seizures were psychosomatic. Camilla had a hard time accepting her neurologist's diagnosis, so she went to Dr. O'Sullivan for a second opinion, and the verdict was the same.

Camilla could not explain why, because she felt grateful and happy with her life: she had two children, a husband with whom she got along well, and a beautiful career. After two years of thinking she had epilepsy, it was hard for Camilla to accept. Finally, after several discussions with the doctor, Camilla's husband remembered that his wife's first epileptic seizure had not been on a business trip, but at the hospital, after the stroller in which their child was had slipped out into the street, and the little one he had been hit by a car and died.

Camilla had a shock that she refused to accept and that she had locked in a drawer in her mind. The seizures protected that drawer. But after two months of psychological therapy, Camilla has fully recovered. "

How can the body be mentally ill? How do we recognize mental illness?

The seizures were real, but they were not the manifestation of a disease but were born of a problem hidden in the subconscious. A rupture had occurred in her mind, and her consciousness could not access that problem.

Therefore, how such a condition can be treated is by discovering the traumatic event or the subconscious problem that triggered it. The problem is that patients often refuse to accept the true cause of their illness and seek the help of doctors, who, in many cases, are overwhelmed by the problem.

When there are disturbing physical symptoms that, as a result of medical investigations, no cause or treatment is found, there is a high probability that they are psychosomatic diseases. Digestive disorders, for example, are often caused by a psychological cause, and stress is usually the one that alters the functions of the digestive organs. Therefore, for the correct treatment of mental illnesses, the help of a psychiatrist or psychologist is often needed.