I get a fair amount of people asking me if stress can cause or contribute to autoimmune conditions. The short answer is yes. This study completed in 2018 found ‘that exposure to a stress-related disorder was significantly associated with increased risk of subsequent autoimmune disease, compared with matched unexposed individuals and with full siblings.’ Each […]
Somatization is defined as the production of medical symptoms with no discernable organic cause. Another way to describe it is the tendency to experience psychological distress in the form of somatic symptoms and to seek medical help for these symptoms, which may be initiated and/or perpetuated by emotional responses such as anxiety and depression. You […]
Hwabyung is probably not a diagnosis you have ever heard of. In Korea though, it is diagnosable and seen as a valid medical and mental health condition. According to this research paper “the term Hwabyung originated from folklore, wherein a patient suffered from a physical or mental unhealthy condition caused by accumulated and unresolved anger.” […]
Wanted to share a 2020 research paper that studied the effect of attachment style in relation to emotional processing skills and subsequently somatic symptoms. Attachment style/theory was put forth by Dr. John Bowlby in the 1950’s and has been studied fairly extensively since then. Attachment style is related to the bond between the child and […]
One of the things I teach in my 1-1 coaching and group work is shifting ourselves into the facing state, which is not the same as fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. These 4 I just mentioned are trauma or stress or protective states typically born out of childhood patterns we have learned and carried forward […]
We have more and more research indicating there being changes in the brain with chronic pain. In particular, an area of the brain called the orbitofrontal cortex has been implicated with somatic symptom disorder. Somatic symptom disorder (SSD) can be many different symptoms in the body without a structural cause. It’s primarily what I diagnose […]
One of the things I thing is very important from a mind-body perspective to healing is parlaying hope into want and desire for change then moving to will to make it happen. Will is an important mind-body construct. There is research to show it impacts health. Here is a study showing how the will to […]
We’ve come a long way in understanding chronic pain and how the brain shapes pain in ways we never knew before. The amygdala, which is the emotional generating and processing part of the brain, is now understood to be implicated as a driving force in pain conditions that become persistent. I see this in my […]
I want to share a large study (over 50,000 people) that highlights the link between anxiety and depression and somatic symptoms in the body. I treat a lot of unexplained physical symptoms that are purely the physical manifestation of anxiety and depression showing up in the body. Here’s a recap of some of the information […]
In my work of treating chronic health issues, I focus on areas that most traditional medical professionals fail to look at. These are the psycho-social areas, which relate to the brain and nervous system and how they contribute to somatic symptoms. We know as the researchers state in this paper : “Among the psychosocial factors, […]
