PSYCHOSOMATIC PAIN: Is It Real?
How frustrating is it that you suffer from a disturbing pain but nobody seems to think that it is real?
For people living with psychosomatic pain, frustration and pain are extremely real. Not being understood by others also creates added annoyance.
The journey starts with a doctor visit following a persistent pain. When the doctor exhausts all the possible medical reasons for the pain, and cannot find any physical cause, the patient is usually transferred to the psychiatric department. If there is no physical reason, does the pain really exist?
Mind and body are connected
Yes, it does exist and it feels just as frustrating and disturbing as a broken bone.
Centuries ago, the famous philosopher Descartes suggested that the mind and the body are separate entities. His theory was well-received until Western science couldn’t bring a resolution to some inexplicable cases such as psychosomatic diseases. Today, science agrees that the mind and body are connected and whatever the mind is going through, it reflects directly to the physical body.
Although psychosomatic pain seems to be only physical, it is triggered by an emotion that has been stuck or suppressed in the subconscious mind. Have you ever heard statements like “This pain is killing me”, “This situation is a headache” or “I can’t stomach what he did to me”? Powerful emotions such as resentment, fear, anger, or grief are actually stored in different parts of the body. Eventually, with the addition of other life situations, the body will be on the edge and start to react. Gastrointestinal tract problems, shingles, alopecia, migraines are a few examples of possible psychosomatic health problems. In other words, suppressed emotions may very well create physical pain or they can exacerbate the pain that is experienced.
The mind and the body are connected.
Emotional trauma is associated with chronic pain
According to the Southern Medical Journal, at least 40 to 60 percent of women with chronic pain disorders report a history of childhood or adulthood trauma. This statistic gets worse for patients with a history of childhood abuse or sexual abuse. Results show that patients with past emotional trauma, develop specific syndromes, or a combination of syndromes such as fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis (MS), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or psychosomatic disorders.
The article also goes on to tell that psychosomatic disorders may emerge as these patients subconsciously seek attention or validation for their suffering, while paradoxically suppressing painful memories of the trauma.
Hypnotherapy can help psychosomatic pain sufferers by assisting with emotional release as well as rewiring the subconscious mind through imagery journeys and hypnotic suggestions.
Effectiveness of traditional therapy varies
As the journey continues after the doctor visit and the transfer to the psychotherapist the trauma healing work starts. During psychotherapy, it can take years for someone to start seeing benefits, if they are lucky! This is due to the fact that we are conditioned to suppress powerful emotions to the subconscious mind. Therefore, any progress based on talk therapy or medications usually don’t go any further than numbing the pain or processing current emotions only.
You may think that you’ve already dealt with the emotional trauma and its effects. However, especially for childhood trauma sufferers, not being triggered by the memories, is not enough for putting the trauma behind.
According to a 1998 ACE study children who are exposed to abuse or emotional trauma are more likely to suffer from serious physiological diseases as adults. When a child is exposed to abuse or trauma, the body activates the stress response which is the fight and flight response. The fight/flight mechanism is crucial for our survival during life-threatening situations. However, when the fight or flight response is activated for extended periods of time, the mind wires around the need for survival. Therefore, the body and the organs will be operating for survival and therefore will be under stress.
How can hypnotherapy help with psychosomatic pain?
Take the Iceberg Metaphor. The tip of the iceberg is the conscious mind. It is where we have will power, desires, and goals. The rest of the iceberg -which is the majority of the iceberg- is the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind holds the traumas, emotions, and memories.
Hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis have been helpful with psychosomatic pain because the hypnotic state allows the subconscious mind to release, unlike the other forms of therapy. Under the hypnotic state, many chronic pain sufferers report that the pain isn’t felt during hypnosis. When the frustration of the pain is not there, the subconscious focus shifts to the repressed emotions, and release takes place.
Hypnosis is naturally a calm and relaxed state. When someone realizes the fact that when they are calm, they don’t feel the pain, they acknowledge their mind’s power. In other words, hypnotherapy can help psychosomatic pain sufferers by assisting with emotional release as well as rewiring the subconscious mind through imagery journeys and hypnotic suggestions.