The body shouts what the heart keeps silent about

Behind some health disorders with physical symptoms, there may be emotional problems.

Have you ever wondered if your painful silences mask some physical disorder? When you have had a bad time, or have had an upset, have you then developed a cold or had a relapse of your weakest point? In these cases, your emotions may be taking their toll.

But do we know how to detect these intimate clamors and their relation with our emotions? Or, on the contrary, we do not think and we flee forward, denying the pain, and making the suffering appear?

The relationship between the physical and the psychological

Think for a moment about the following example:

Alex was a boy who liked fishing and often went out with his best friend to the nearest river they had. One day, on his way home, Alex stuck a thorn in his foot. From that moment on, Alex walked trying not to put his foot on the ground, since the thorn caused him immense and continuous pain that prevented him from walking well... And so the days went by and, while his friends were having a great time in the park going up and down the slide, Alex lamented not being able to do it as they had done until then. But Alex was afraid to take out his thorn because of the pain it would cause him. His friends, seeing Alex's suffering, plotted to catch him between their feet and arms, and despite Alex's attempts against it, they finally managed to remove the thorn from his foot. At that moment there was silence and a great relief came over Alex. (J. Barrios).

This is a clear example of how many times, trying to avoid pain, we incur in a constant suffering that prevents us from living happily. that prevents us from living happily. It is almost always preferable to face pain, no matter how intense and heartbreaking it may be, in order to remove the thorn that suffering sticks in our existence.

Let us remember that almost always (at least in 90% of the cases, as Stephen Covey would tell us) we are responsible for the suffering we allow in our lives. The results of my years of experience as a psychologist coach have led me to several conclusions about this.

Physical problems following emotional problems

Our nature is wise and declares to us what our Heart does not confess.either because we do not know how to express it or because we do not want to face the circumstance. This is how we somatize and often end up getting sick. In that sense, the flow of words, as Daniel Goleman would say in his book Emotional Intelligence, will soothe the troubled heart.

Our internal dialogue is defined by the flow of thought of our conscious. The thought generates an emotion, therefore before the emotion there has been a thought, many times derived from thought patterns automated by learning and lived experiences.

Emotions and the amygdala connect our thought to our body, so any thought generates a type of emotion and, consequently, a behavior and the functioning of our organs: parts of the body contract, the secretion of stomach acid increases, the heart rate, breathing, we produce spasms in the intestine, we sweat, we blush, we cry, ....

If thoughts and emotions are continuously "negative" (they become maladaptive if they persist in time) our organs, our muscles, our viscera will work in a forced way, adapting to a stressful situation.adapting themselves to a situation of permanent stress that ends up making them sick.

For example, if I think that I am being controlled or I feel persecuted and I feel fear, my heart races, I breathe faster (hyperventilate), my palms sweat, my mouth dries up, I feel stomach pain, or my body muscles contract. If, on the other hand, I think that life is going well for me in general, that it is smiling at me, my muscles relax, I feel wellbeing, my tension decreases, my body is oxygenated and my breathing becomes deeper.

In order to improve our physical and mental health our objective should be to determine the relationship between the symptom that our body manifests and our hidden emotion and give it expression.. Let's think that once we identify our problem, 50% of it can be solved. When we identify it, we are in conditions to control it.

In short, it is the language of the symptom, it is about the language of the symptom and, favoring the environment that Psicoconsulting Empresarial offers you, with cognitive-behavioral therapy as well as brief strategic therapy, we help you to identify and express it. When we do not do it, we run the risk of getting sick. So beware of repressed feelings that we feel we have not been given permission to express! We will symptomize to release the emotion.

What is done in therapy?

From the cognitive-behavioral current we try to describe the symptoms we suffer from; for example, palpitations, lump in the throat, shortness of breath, dizziness, stomach pain, sleep problems, knee pain... especially symptoms that affect us or disable us in some way in our daily life. We could draw up a list with the patient in order of intensity, and previously identify the thought that has taken place immediately before the symptom.

In this sense it is advisable to keep a record of each of the symptoms, from the moment they have arisen, and to be able toIt is advisable to keep a record of each symptom, from the moment they have arisen, and to be able to arrive at a positive reformulation of the same thought. It should be noted that the same thought can originate different symptoms with different intensities depending on the person. To evaluate the intensity of the symptoms we will use Beck's tests and we will elaborate a scale of symptoms, personalized, in order of intensity, that during the inter-sessions will be quantified.

In many cases they will be thoughts that originate fear, anxiety, fear of fear, and it will be there when in addition to working with cognitive-behavioral techniques, we will work with those of the brief strategic therapy, strategies that will have to do with "adding fuel to the fire" (G.Nardone).

Incidentally, we also know from the bibliography of Dethlefsen and Dahlke (2003), in their book Illness as a pathThe author, as well as Adriana Schnake's work, shows that the parts of our body that get sick, often do so because we do not accept some of their characteristics, and they have a symbolism and a correlation with the organs of the body. Healing will take place when both parts are reconciled, and our mind accepts the characteristics of the diseased organ. In spite of this, to the general meaning of each symptom, we must conjugate several rules for its interpretation.

Observing the symptoms of the body

Through cognitive-behavioral therapy, it is very important to consider the moment when the symptom occurs. Because emotional recall is short term, an exhaustive recording of both the symptom and the thought at the very moment of occurrence is recommended:

• Date? time?
• What thoughts did I have at the time?
• What did I feel?
• With what intensity?... (For example, from 1 to 10).
• Reformulation of thought
• Reappraisal of the emotion felt.

On the other hand, all symptoms force us to change our behavior, which also provides us with information, especially when they incapacitate us in our daily life.This also provides us with information, especially when they incapacitate us in our daily life. For example, continuous headaches will prevent me from carrying out my work properly, or my energy will decrease if I do not eat well, or if I do not sleep well... Faced with this we can also ask ourselves: What is this symptom preventing me? What is this symptom forcing me to do?

This is how we, mental health professionals, help the client/patient to become aware of what is limiting and hindering him/her in his/her growth and offer coping techniques for the solution of the conflict and suffering. In short, the objective will be to go learning to be happy.