How Worrying Can Actually Make You Sick
time.com
time.com
It's mind boggling (no pun intended) how far psychosomatic illness can go, even as far as resulting in blindness, seizures, and paralysis. I was never familiar with the idea of repressed memories and psychological trauma causing physical illness before and initially dismissed it as arm-wavey pseudoscience, but the amount of evidence is striking even if our level of understanding is poor. This also explains why so many people with undiagnosable pain disorders seem to get referred to psychiatrists here in the UK - people misinterpret this as doctors thinking their illness is all imaginary, it's not, but the cause of it often well can be.
While I don't have physical symptoms as severe as those you listed, that's pretty much how my health anxiety manifests. I don't just have obsessive thoughts over being sick. I actually feel things. And my anxiety is not thoughts -> symptoms, it's the other way around. I start having a bunch of symptoms, give it some time hoping they will go away, but they don't. So I can't help but think something is seriously wrong. There are instances where I've dealt with a set of symptoms for a whole year.
A few examples:
- When I'm anxious over a brain aneurysm or brain tumor, it's because I started having visual distortions, tingling, my mouth won't widen on one side when I smile, etc.
- I was once worried about carotid artery dissection, because I could hear my pulse in one ear and it would stop when I pressed against my carotid on the same side (a telltale sign of CAD). MRIs in the ER revealed nothing.
- My heart acts up with PVCs every now and then, and they are so unpleasant that it's nearly impossible not to think I have a serious heart condition. PVCs can be common when people are really anxious or stressed out, but in my case they just come about in my most serene moments it seems.
- I start worrying about colon cancer whenever I get alternate bouts of diarrhea and constipation, coupled with frequent abdominal cramps. This particular anxiety gets to the point where I see blood when inspecting my output in the toilet, only for it to disappear when I blink. Mind you, it's not "hm I think that tiny spec might be blood". I actually see streaks of blood when I first look at it.
- At some point last year I started having sudden weakness in my right arm. I couldn't hold parts of it flexed, and things just seemed heavier. I was sure I had a degenerative disorder of some sort. But then it just went away after several weeks.
I could go on and on and on. It's horrible. Friends and family don't understand me, no matter how much I try to explain to them that I'm not just thinking about being sick (I'm actually trying hard NOT to think about it), but I'm really feeling a whole bunch of stuff. They always revert to "stop thinking about it and it will go away". So frustrating.
One thing that personally helped me recover mentally was weightlifting. Part of what helped was that I could relatively easily attribute any random (and benign) ache/pain that I might otherwise worry about to "oh, well, I just lifted recently, so my body's repairing/sore/etc" as opposed to some serious condition I found on Google. Sticking with caffeine even though I was worried about palpitations also helped me through some form of "exposure therapy," where I eventually (re)learned that caffeine is safe to consume.
Talking with my therapist helped. As did consciously reminding myself that, for a lot of rare or potentially deadly conditions, the symptoms would be much more severe than I'm experiencing, and that some symptoms (fast heartrate is a big one) can be attributed to anxiety alone.
For example, last night while lying in bed, I felt a sudden twitching on the left side of my chest at about twice my resting heart rate. I instantly jumped to the conclusion that it was my heart having rapid contractions, which triggered a burst of anxiety, but when I stopped and thought about it (the twitching seemed to be intermittent and didn't feel internal like a heart problem might, it felt external), I successfully convinced myself that it was my muscle twitching -- a totally benign occurrence. Maybe I was dehydrated.
Basically, I was able to help myself by using logic and trying to match the severity of my personal diagnosis with the severity of the symptom I was experiencing. I imagine this wouldn't be possible if I suddenly had symptoms as severe as GP, but it can help me stem these threads of anxiety before the anxiety itself causes more issues than the original problem.
However, it is a well-known fact that caffeine and anxiety don't blend very well. Be careful.
One thing that helped me deal better with it was getting married, and specifically getting married to a woman who had a child. This suddenly took a lot of my focus out of myself, since now I have to care for others. It also puts me in a "I can't fail" mental mode which has me worrying somewhat less than in years past. But it's still pretty bad, I just don't panic as much anymore.
Another thing that made a significant difference was starting an exercise routine. It makes me feel healthier and therefore less worried about coming down with a terrible disease.
Send me an email and I will walk you through this. You may feel that you have to think it over first, but that will only exhaust you in a wash-cycle of rumination. Send the email as soon as you reach the end of this sentence.
Not sure if that works for everything but I'd figure the uncertainty is often why we worry. Realising that even in the worst case people will be able to muddle along can be a weight off one's mind.
Isn't it more likely that people had anxiety about their health conditions because they were in poor health, and that is why they developed heart disease? This seems like a very poorly constructed study.
>Even when the researchers controlled for established cardiovascular disease risk factors, they found about a 70% increased risk of ischemic heart disease in the years of followup.
Your point isn't invalid, but the authors do seem to have made efforts to address it. Though admittedly it is difficult to evaluate the validity of their controls without reference to the actual study.
Generalized anxiety has been shown to be a reliable predictor of coronary heart disease[1], so it doesn't seem like a stretch that the subset of health-related anxieties would as well.
[1] See, e.g., https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22075746
for established cardiovascular disease risk factors
So I would not dismiss the argument at this point.
Generalized anxiety has been shown to be a
reliable predictor of coronary heart disease
What would need to be shown is a mechanism. How is the brain doing all those things that it is being blamed for? or is it really just sensing something and reacting, instead of causing it as is claimed? Why are so many people in those discussion satisfied as soon as the brain (or something much more fuzzy!) has been "identified" as the actor causing the problem? How is that an explanation for anything? I'm not in the medical field, but I've taken many medical courses, including neuroscience courses (plural, because I found it so interesting). I find those "explanations" baffling to say the least. All I see is that they are just shifting the problem somewhere else and calling it a day, sort of like Douglas Adam's "Somebody Else's Problem (SEP) field" that makes things invisible. [1]
Also, that soooo many people take a statistical "prediction" as a real prediction, meaning an established causation, without question, always in similar discussions when people start citing stuff found on PubMed. Statistics is more like blood test measurements: It's a tool, to get a diagnosis you use it - but you don't base your result on it (just because a value is inside or outside some "standard range" doesn't mean much by itself). Not unless it's extreme, in which case you probably don't need statistics to begin with.
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[0] Just for the fun and the memories: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_known_knowns and 35 seconds of video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaxqUDd4fiw
[1] http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Somebody_Else's_Problem_fi... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somebody_else's_problem for the more serious description
- Irritated patient
1. http://discovermagazine.com/2010/mar/07-dr-drank-broth-gave-...
After all, this is why a competent mental health professional will do medical testing and MRI's and other such things so that they can rule out a physical reason for a psychological problem. Depression and anxiety can be caused by hormones, after all, and psychosis of different sorts can be a tumor.
Many people dismiss mental health issues as less serious or outright illusory, hence "It's all in your head".
Instead of blaming psychosomatic dysfunctions for existing, we should question why mental health issues are seen with shame and called "insulting"
I sometimes have the feeling that if doctors can in some plausible way blame any non-simple affliction on stress, that's their ticket to victim blame, recommend yoga, and call it a day.
They have a point though, mental state can disrupt organ coordinations (heart rate, artery dilatation, liver hormones). Read about the sympathetic nervous system.[1] They put me under antidepressant and I felt a very subtle improvement in my case. I guess in yours it's extremely far fetched.
Most of them only do simple tests (blood sample, cholesterol) and tell you to go home if you're in range. For anything a bit twisted you're on your own.
[1] in my case I was so frail, I could feel the difference when trying to meditate to calm anxiety. 3 minutes would show tangible signs (warm blood rushing to my finger and toe tips, instead of blue and cold limbs).
My N=1:
I have chronic back issues. At best it's general tightness and fatigue, but can also be sore and painful. In particular I had two incidents in 2011 (in a matter of seconds) and 2012 (over a couple days) where my back spasmed and left me crippled, unable to move without knife-stabbing pains and unable walk down hallways without holding onto a wall. Both lasted almost a month, and were followed by months of heightened soreness.
I was 23/24 at the time, with no preexisting health issues. I'm a regular runner and in great health otherwise. I tried to fix this with deep tissue massage and core/strengthening regimens, and largely those helped keep the pain levels down but really only halved the symptoms at best. A friend had been recommending Sarno's 'A Divided Mind' which is all about the psychosomatic diagnosis since the first incident, but I had dismissed it. Finally in 2013, as I felt a new round of the spasms coming, I gave it a shot. Lo and behold, it became the single most effective tool I've found to manage my back issues. I identified that each spasm came with a major emotionally loaded event. In 2011 it was unrealistic pressure to compete at a big running race I had been training for. In 2012 it was participating in the search and rescue for a dear friend who was lost (and died) in the wilderness. In 2013 it was a nasty falling out with my best friend (and brother) at the time.
I don't believe the mechanisms are fully understood, and I think Sarno in particular does too much hand waving. But using his approach was the first time in years that I had no discernible back issues. I liken it to getting butterflies in your stomach. Your mind and emotions can trigger physiological changes to blood vessels, nerves, muscles, etc. that in turn can cause real issues. I also don't believe it's the only factor. I started an office job in 2015, and back issues have come back that I attribute 100% to the office lifestyle. I've found no relief with the psychosomatic approach, but do better with a sit/stand desk, breaks, and daily exercise.
Overall, I think a ton of people could benefit from approaching health issues from a psychosomatic perspective as one of many possible diagnoses. I also agree there are so many other possibilities that assuming it is always in your head is ignorant, neglectful, and downright dangerous.
15 years later, no fusion, no wheelchair.
This is what I did and do:
1. Educate myself a. search: stuart mcgill waterloo university. b. Understand spinal stability and core excercises c. Walk! not stroll! (i do 6 miles at least 3 times a week. Sitting is the new Smoking! 2. Listen to your body! I have learned to recognise that my back is close to a traumatic event. 3. When my back goes out, a short rest, but keep moving. 4. Fully understand that excercising will cause irritation, but it is tolerable versus when my back goes out. 5. Medications: Soma, flexeril, and tramadol (NSAIDs such as ibuprohen trash my GI) After an event, I take the Soma and tramadol to help me keep moving. Daytime, they both will keep me awake. At night, flexeril. It works best on muscle spasms which exhausts the muscles which leads to pain. And it puts me to sleep. I will use these meds for a short period of time every 5-6 months! 6. Streching and doing it correctly is very important. 7. Getting out of a chair, use your legs! DO NOT lean forward to pull yourself upright! 8. You may want to wear a simple lifting belt. Not for support but to remind yourself not to put your lower back in a stressfull position. 9. Understand that "correct" posture sitting may not be a good idea for long periods of time. 10. If the problem is the lower back, educate yourself on the function and stretching of the Psoas muscle. It is a fast twitch muscle, and sitting contracts the muscle. Quick and sudden contraction puts tremendous pressure on the discs. 11. Try to keep your spine in its natural position, maintaining symmetry is critical. Yeah, it is uncomfortable, but the lack of symmetry will impede recovery. 12. If you have imaging done, demand copies on a CD. This will help you to seek additional opinions.
Edit: "/comments"
Of course, it could all be a coincidence. The brain is good at finding patterns that aren't there.
Sure it's all in my head, but the thermometer says it's in my bloodstream too!
In fact, having a partner is the single best thing that has happened to my stomach and my insomnia. She reduces my stress levels and alleviates the symptoms very noticeably just by being by my side. Sorry if it sounds corny, but for me this is an observable reality.
The problem with all this is that, of course, stress is often something outside our control. Knowing what I know I try to keep it at bay as much as possible and take things easier than when I thought it was a food problem, but if there's lots of work and deadlines it's not like you can just wave stress away like you can avoid a given food...
Most of the comments here, people seem only capable of introjecting stuff as if the sole reason for stuff has gotta be personal issues(not saying this in a derrogatory manner) or a square diagnosis, this is absurd to me. Maybe it's cause I already came to the conclusion that I'm an ok mostly healthy animal plus gave up trying to fit the artificial into the natural(i.e.: I think our society is rotten. Also, how convenient it is that all problems must be seen as purely individual, huh?). History, classical thought -> good for the brain and body, maybe.
During that period I was ok, probably surviving on fight and flight, but since I've had episodes as you describe, although one case with a super high temperature that left me unable to work for 3 days.