Somatization in times of crisis.

The association between stress, crisis, and certain physical ailments is extremely close. We are used to mentioning somatization as something frequent.

However, we have to be able to recognize it and distinguish it from other aspects that may be at stake.

The body manifests symptoms in many cases in which we are unable to stop or say something with words. Stress has a direct way of manifesting in the body and usually does so with frequent and characteristic symptoms. Sometimes we can clearly see when we enter certain cycles of recurring ailments and health problems. Especially when it comes to symptoms that persist, or that do not have a clear explanation from the medical discourse.

The word Somatization implies its root, Soma. The soma is the body. It is very common to observe the Psyche-Soma dualism, especially in contexts associated with Psychology and Psychoanalysis. Although this separation can help us study and understand them separately, we know that both aspects are interrelated and cannot exist without their counterpart. 

Thus, the body is crossed by the psyche and many psychopathological symptoms settle in the body, even though they do not imply an organic commitment. This is what Freud at the time discovered through hysterical symptoms. The body was compromised but not in its organic aspect: how could this be possible? Thus, the existence of the Unconscious is discovered, and the complexity of the human psyche.

When we talk about somatizing then, what do we refer to? To somatize is a verb that is telling us that something happens to the body, that we are transforming something from one field to another, passing it from the Psychic field to the Soma field. 

To make the pertinent distinctions, we can think that we somatize whenever the body is affected as a result of a psychic-emotional aspect.

In crisis situations when much of what happens to us cannot yet be elaborated or metabolized or put into words, symptoms can begin to manifest in the body. Low defenses, headaches or stomachaches, muscle contractures are frequent. They are usually recurrent and varied discomforts and ailments that follow one another.

Unlike these, there are diseases with a strong psychological component that are called Psychosomatic. These are diseases in which both aspects are significantly united and in which the affected organic body appears.

The body, in times of crisis, even more, speaks for us. And it manifests through symptoms or ailments the stress that we are going through and that, in one way or another, cannot remain in the psychic field, manifesting itself directly in the body.

Listening to these symptoms, reading them from a comprehensive perspective, can help us make important health care decisions. Consult professionals, stop the rhythms of demands that we may sustain without registering, and make 180-degree changes as many times as necessary to help us face difficult times.

The body speaks. It expresses and processes, in its own way, what happens to us. Making room for it and observing what manifests in an integral way -and not just as a simple symptom or disease- allows us to have a more complete vision of how we are.

 

 

Thank You