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2023-05-30 04:51:41
Very often we say that we feel strong pain, sometimes immense, even unbearable, but is that pain physical, emotional, both or maybe just one?
The model that we usually call Cartesian, by René Descartes, is actually that of the body separated from the mind. As knowledge in medicine advances, as well as our common sense regarding health, something that always was is becoming more evident: the mind is not a “control room” that handles a mechanical body, which responds passively to its orders, but that people have an integrated organism in which everything is body or all brain at the same time. In reality all is one.
When we incorporate this concept we can understand why what we perceive in our thoughts and emotions is not “the head”, but our whole being and reciprocally what we perceive in the body, is not “only” of the body but is our whole integrated and unique being. .
This is not an alternative fuzzy ideology, but something concrete and it has to do with integrating current knowledge of how we are really composed into the clinic.
The connection between emotions and physical health has been the subject of study for centuries. The area of medicine that deals with this is psychosomatics, which is essentially interdisciplinaryan area of knowledge in which aspects of the body are interconnected, with behavioural, social and even environmental aspects.
Currently, all this is integrated in turn in the so-called Behavioral Medicine (Behavioral Medicine), a more current and broad criterion, in which the synthesis between the knowledge in relation to what biological combines with all social Sciences.
Thus, epidemiology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, physiology, pharmacology, nutrition, neurosciences, etc., are part of the same corpus conceptual that reintegrates being into one and not multiplicities alien to each other. Among all these conceptual networks, the mind-body paradigm is being diluted.
Psychosomatic medicine is not new, in fact it was the form of all the approaches to discomfort by traditional and ancient medicines. Thus, the Greeks are examples, Galen in particular, with its “passion sickness” or the medicine of the Arab countries, with Avicenna; or Chinese or Hindu Ayurvedic.
Closer in time and in the West, the works of Franz Alexander o Georg Groddeckand in general the entire orbit of the schools, not only the German but also the classical French and English, address this conceptual construct, of an integrated being even with different explanations.
With the rise of pharmacology and drugs for specific situations, this was diluted, sometimes leaving this perspective in areas on the periphery of formal science, not always well valued or developed.
The sadness It is a natural and common human emotion that we all experience at some point in our lives. It can arise as a response to stress, a loss, or even, and that worries us more, without finding a reason or apparent cause.
However, what can sometimes be disturbing and a source of anguish is when sadness can manifest itself physically, even more so when in principle we have suffered for long periods of pain that is rebellious to any somatic treatment, until we begin to look for those other more possibilities. tied to the emotional
Part of the answer, at least, is not so cryptic, however when we feel or are threatened by some kind of emotional factor, such as an actual or potential loss that generates sadness, it is common for our body to react in a very similar way to a physical threat.
A part of our nervous system, the autonomic nervous system (SNA), or neurovegetative, especially the sympathetic branch, is activated, which can increase muscle tension, heart rate and blood pressure. This stress response it can have a direct effect on our musculoskeletal and nervous systems, exacerbating or triggering physical pain: typical back or neck pain, so related to other less physical and more emotional burdens.
To understand the importance of the ANS, one can only highlight the neuronal population in the digestive zones (the mesenteric plexus, for example), which has given it the name of the “second brain” due to its importance.
On the other hand, the same brain structure, even when it has different nuclei, the thalamusregulates the perception of pain and thus, based on its connections with the exterior and also with the cortex and various areas of the brain, it increases or decreases the sensitivity (threshold) to both external and internal, physical, or emotional pain.
Thus we know, for example, that prolonged sadness can increase the pain sensitivity. This sensitivity can affect different areas of the body, such as muscles, joints, or cause rebellious headaches or generalized pain symptoms. This, to the extent that it is maintained, causes asthenia, exhaustion and conditions similar to chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, which are frequently related to or confused with this pathophysiology.
The problem is that, since all alterations to basic variables, such as pain, sleep, eating, for example, are two-way paths and the affectation of one part of that system affects the whole: digestive problems can be related to disorders of sleep, or immune and thus increase the perception of pain and vice versa.
Sleep disorders, weight changes (more or less), diffuse pain sometimes very localized in one area, and none of these variables seem to respond, is what we see expressed in practice with the overconsumption of analgesics, anxiolytics and antidepressants, for example, or as we have already mentioned in Infobae, looking for regenerative proposals, enhancing, revitalizing compounds, etc.
It is essential to recognize the importance of address all aspects of being, emotional, physical and their vital circumstances, when it comes to chronic or recurring pain. Sadness can play a fundamental role that should not be left unexplored.
The autonomic nervous system plays a vital role in our health, and the relationship between mind and body is evident in psychosomatic illnesses. By integrating medical and psychological approaches, we can work toward optimal health and a better quality of life. The connection between emotions and physical health is undeniable, and addressing both is essential to promote holistic well-being.
Integrated approaches offer therapeutic approaches that seek to treat the emotional origin of physical symptoms. Cognitive-behavioral therapy, relaxation therapy, and meditation are some of the options that can be successfully associated with pharmacotherapy, or different forms of physical therapy and life changes such as sleep hygiene.
Perhaps the only warning is not to resort to a self-administered “pill”, which will only deepen the ills of the body or of the soul or vice versa.
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