Psychosomatic and Stress Related Disorders

Psychosomatic disorders are those where emotional and psychological disturbances cause significant physical symptoms, without many physical changes in the body. Since the current Western biomedical treatment approach depends on diagnosing and treating these physical bodily changes, there are hardly any treatment options on offer. Most patients who have troubling symptoms are told there is ‘nothing wrong with them’ and that they need to stop worrying and ‘try to relax’. In some cases they are even accused of imagining or pretending to have these symptoms. This scenario leads to a helpless and frustrating situation for the patient who really suffers in every way.

The holistic treatment approach considers almost all health problems to have a psychosomatic component. Even a purely physical condition like injury causes a disturbance in the normal ‘feeling’ of a person. Similarly, every feeling causes a change in the physical function. We are all sensitive and dynamic ‘feeling’ machines and each emotion has a physical ripple effect on our bodies.

For the sake of classification, we would look at some of the predominantly psychosomatic disorders in this section.