Man is, by his very nature, a bio-psycho-spiritual unit. Integral unit of body, mind and spirit in which what happens with each of the dimensions affects the others. Man is a bodily being, this is a reality that is immediately apparent. Our body has physical requirements and needs related to this dimension that cannot be neglected: breathing, food, drink, shelter and other needs related to well-being. It is clear that the biological does not explain everything we are. If we continue to advance in our own experience as people, we notice that our relationship with the world transcends this level, thus we come to discover that we have a psychological dimension. This dimension also has its own requirements or needs. In this Psychology-Online article we will explain the relationship between diseases and emotions and their causes.
Most of us have at some point heard our doctor, a co-worker, or a friend ask and then advise the following: “Have you been stressed out a lot lately? You should relax a little more, you should drink this tea that will be very good for your health, I recommend these pills that will surely relax your nervous system ”. We are given an arsenal of options to restore our health and, in a way, this saves a degree of true but at the same time a very important part of its true cause and its preferential intervention are avoided psychological.
To achieve a better discernment of all these options that are offered to us on a daily basis, it is necessary to have a prior definition of "emotion" and what corresponds to experience it.
Some definitions of "emotion" are shared below by authors involved in the topic:
According Daniel goleman (1995) emotions are impulses for action. Indeed, according to Sigmund Freud (1901), emotion contains two different elements: on the one hand, the discharges of physical energy; on the other hand, feelings (perceptions of the motor actions that are produced and feelings of pleasure or displeasure that give emotions their essential characteristics). When the instinctive energy that resides in the subconscious is high, there is a need to discharge it to bring it to a normal level. If the discharge does not occur through the appropriate channels (sexual behavior), then the safety valves are used, that is, the emotions.
The one-sided concentration of energy hinders the free flow of ideas until a discharge of excitement occurs through motor actions. But if the discharge of the excitement is not carried, then abnormal reactions occur, one of which is conversion.
Explained in a simpler way, Goleman opens the way for us to represent the physical or motor implications of emotions (carrying out a certain action). Alluding to Freud opens up to us the situation of how by not carrying out this determined action of the emotions the body is affected with physical diseases (the conversion). For example, some of the symptoms of conversion may be the following:
- Blindness.
- Deafness.
- Inability to speak
- Localized paralysis.
- Emiparesis.
- Allergies
- Rashes
- Tremors
- Paresthesia.
- Localized pains.
It's amazing how an emotion that could not be downloaded naturally and at the right time it can transform into an emotional illness (for For example, a mental disorder such as depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, or a disorder due to stress).
After the emotional illness, it ends up having a serious impact on the body, as explained by the psychologist Robert Ader (1990) in his research on psychoneuro-worldology (PNI) referring to the fact that there is an over-activation of the immune, neuroendocrine and nervous systems by the chronicity of an emotion. For example, stress is related to the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HHS) axis that, although the activation of this axis represents a normal bodily stress response, aimed at maintaining stability known as homeostasis; long-term sustained activation can have dangerous effects, increasing the risk of some physical illnesses, especially those caused by an imbalance of cortisol and thyroid.
Here are some of the diseases that can be influenced by an emotional cause According to Joan Marc Vilanova i Pujó, who compiled in the Bio-emotional Dictionary (2016) proposals on biodecoding and bioneuroemotion:
- Deafness. They are caused by a separation conflict or by feeling attacked. What they tell me or hear, attacks what I think or feel. I want to separate myself from these insulting words that disturb me in understanding my life. Deafness also represents for Marc a negative that can come from a long time ago when listening to someone.
- Inability to speak (aphonia). This problem occurs after an affective shock that shakes the sensitivity of the person, who then forces himself too much to speak, even when he does not express everything that his heart wishes tell. This overexertion creates anguish and leaves a void. Eventually the sounds are extinguished.
- Paralysis. Often related to flight because a fear paralyzes me. Paralysis occurs in people who live in a situation that is too difficult for them and from which they want to escape, that is, they want to avoid that situation or a specific person. It is the ideal way to get help and have someone else take care of everything. In this way, they will not have to face the situation or the undesirable person alone.
- Allergies Often related to anger or frustration in front of a person or an event associated with the allergen product. The biological meaning of allergy is to save yourself from the "aggressor."
- Pains in general. Pain, according to this author and the theories that he follows, is related to the feeling of guilt. In the following article you will find strategies to stop feeling guilty about everything.
The manifestation of emotions in the body is something more heard and debated, but knowing how to identify with what emotions are related, each one of them clears many of our doubts at the time of its exploration clinic.
Body parts and emotions
Below are some manifestations of physical pain and its corresponding emotional relationship:
- Pain in shoulders and back they are related to emotional burdens such as guilt and shame. In these cases there may be a comorbidity with a skin condition such as Addison's syndrome or vitiligo.
- Pain in the chest it is related to emotions of sadness, anguish, fear and grief.
- The odors in the hands and wrists are related to isolation where emotions of sadness, fear, resentment, uncertainty and caution predominate.
- Pain in the neck They are related to the lack of forgiveness that frequently occurs in a recurrent way to some type of allergy. They are also associated with problems in emotional expression.
- Headaches are related to a chronic stress or elevated that may arise as an adaptive response to distress, despair, or fear.
Faced with great economic problems, divorces, social or daily stressors such as family overload, we can feel anguish, anxiety and / or sadness. Our body reacts and the stress response that in the long run can cause alterations in our and bad habits such as altering sleep schedules or consuming some type of substance that also harms our health. However, it is not the stressful events themselves that cause us problems, but the assessment and coping that we make of them. Not all people perceive what happens to them the same.
Understanding our own emotions and their psychological and physiological implications allows us to be able to listen and express ourselves without amplifying or devaluing everything we feel. Self-knowledge and giving us the space to attend to our emotions they would serve as a preventive method for many diseases.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
