Tuesday I watched Oprah and she had Dr. Phil McGraw on, talking about the connection of a stressful relationship/marriage with a higher risk of physical illness. They were talking with one couple who had high stress; the woman said part of the problem for her was that they never spent any time together. She wanted to have a date with her husband (they’d had like 3 in the last 2 years) but she felt too guilty to hire a babysitter.
Both Opie and Phil told her that it was not unreasonable to hire the occassional babysitter, and in fact her marriage and her health may depend on it. She didn’t ever really agree or see the validity of their point.
This woman also mentioned that she suffers with joint and muscle pain and sometimes doesn’t get out of bed. I was struck by this, and thought: what do your joints and muscles do? They offer you flexibility and motion, allowing you to bend and move. Exactly the things this woman seemed to lack. I couldn’t help but wonder, if she relaxed her mental attitude toward her roles as wife/mother, would her physical body also be able to relax?
I’ve personally found the mind/body connection fascinating. Several months ago I saw someone I’ve long known – I mean really saw them – for the first time. I used to think “you’re a pretty right on guy who gets f*'ed up once in a while” but suddenly realized “you’re a f*ck up who gets straight once in a while”.
The next morning I woke up with a hard, painful lump in my eyelid so that my vision was partially blocked. No sooner did it clear up than I had the same thing in the other eye, then yet again in the first eye. When I explored the mind/body connection, I did some serious soul-searching on my thoughts of this person and reached a comfortable state of mind about how I felt. The eyes both cleared within a day.
Did I literally SEE things that I had not wanted to, so that my physical body then took over the task of looking at this person with blinders on, so to speak? Anyone else have instances of the mind/body connection in sickness or healing?
I’m finished having kids. The next diaper I want in my life is to be my own!
I apologize for not having a site for this but my mother was telling me about a study she had read about while in England that explained back pain. It essentially said that if you have back pain and you have not been involved in any kind of accident with trauma to the area, the pain was a physical manifestation of mental stress. Apparently they took several (hundred?) individuals with back pain and asked them many psychologically probing questions about things they might be feeling stress about. The results were that almost all the people reported no more back pain after resolving their stress issues. Maybe I should look for this study before continuing…
“You don’t have insurance? Well, just have a seat and someone will be with you after you die.” --Yes, another quality sig custom created by Wally!
A Jesusfied sig: Next time I covet thine opinion, I’ll ask for it!
IMO, it is possible. From personal experience as a kid, and maybe later on in life too ;), when pretending to be ill to avoid some unspeakably horrific event eg parents evening, the 2 or 3 hours beforehand spent getting ‘worse’ would invariably leave me feeling dreadful. But wouldn’t fool my mother.
Anyone who works in the medical field will tell you that psychosomatic symptoms are a common occurrence, complete with matching signs of physical illness.
For those of you who don’t know, the difference between a sign and a symptom is this:
A sign is a physical manifestation of an illness or injury that can be measured by another person, eg bleeding, vomting, pallor.
A symptom is a sensation that is reported by the patient, eg pain, nausea, dizziness.
I would have thought that stress related illness was a prime example of where the mind can make your body ill. Severe stress can cause a lack of appetite which can lead to nasuea, headache, palpatations, pallor, tachycardia and hypertension.
All of these can be directly linked to stimulation of the sympathetic (flight or flight response) division of the autonomic nervous system, in which powerful chemicals such as adrenalin, noradrenalin, dopamine, angiotensin and aldosterone are released. These collectively act to increase cardiac output, boost blood pressure, divert blood to vital organs and slow down gut motility.
Sympathetic response can be triggered by stress, and when prolonged, the effects on the body are detrimental.
Knock softly but firmly, 'cause I like soft firm knockers…
I feel very ill when under stress. When the Mr. discovered a strange lump and made an appointment to have it looked at in a couple days, I was nauseous and unable to eat and lost 5 lbs., the only good thing during the whole ordeal. I felt like I had the flu. Such a sense of dread would overwhelm me! And I slept, I would fall into a dazed stupor every time I sat down during the day. When things turned out OK (there we go, dodging life’s bullets again), life became sweet.
Brett Butler, from the defunct “Grace Under Fire” show, wrote a book about her life. She had many many problems, was involved in a sickening abusive marriage, ended her career via drug and alcohol use. All through her book, I was struck by the numerous examples of psychosomatic illnesses she suffered through, even as a child.