What to do if psychological stress becomes severe somatization

When encountering serious somatization of psychological stress, the first step is to go to a regular hospital for organic screening of corresponding symptoms. After excluding physiological lesions, the priority is to start with "emotional tracing + instant physical relaxation" to make adjustments. Don't take it hard or blindly take symptomatic pain relief, dizziness, and stomach-protecting drugs. This is the most practical treatment path that I have summarized after six years of psychological intervention and contact with hundreds of somatization cases.

The Internet operation girl who came to me last month is a typical example. She suffered from stomach pain and vomiting from Monday to Monday for two consecutive months. She had gastroscopy twice and found no problems such as ulcers or inflammation. At first, she thought it was because she ate too much on weekends, so she took stomach medicine every time she felt pain. After taking the medicine, her stomach didn't heal, and she started to have premature beats. She suddenly felt bad while sitting there. Her heart was pounding and she couldn't breathe. A 24-hour electrocardiogram was found to be normal. Finally, the stress hormone cortisol was measured, and the value was 2.7 times the normal value. When I asked her, I found out that she had not met the KPI target for three consecutive months. She was flipping through job postings every day before going to bed, for fear that she would be the next one to leave. All her emotions were blocked in her body and could not be released, and all of them turned into physical symptoms.

There are indeed two completely opposite voices regarding the treatment of somatization. One thinks that this is "pretending to be ill" and "overthinking". To put it bluntly, it means that the ability to withstand stress is poor and it will be fine if you hold it in for two days. The other is that as long as somatization occurs, you must take psychotropic drug intervention, otherwise it will definitely develop into more serious anxiety and depression. , among the cases I have come across, the former type endured it for more than half a year, and finally developed to the point where their legs became weak and fainted as soon as they entered the company building, and they could not even go to work normally. The latter type took anti-anxiety medicine for half a year, and the symptoms were suppressed, but they were groggy all day long, and their memory was so bad that they couldn't find the keys they just put away when they turned around, and their work efficiency dropped by half.

In fact, to put it bluntly, somatization is like a high-priority alarm text message sent by your body to you. You can't turn off your phone as soon as the alarm pops up on your phone and pretend you didn't see it, nor can you panic and change your phone immediately after seeing the alarm, right? To get down to business, first find out what the alarm is about.

When I accompany clients to adjust, I don't arrange long-term psychoanalysis or the like. I first teach them two small emergency actions. When the pain or discomfort is unbearable, don't lie down and wonder, "Is something going to happen to me?" First, reach out and grab anything you can touch. It can be anything, such as a water cup, clothes corner, or tabletop. Spend 10 seconds to slowly feel its temperature and texture, whether it is cool or hot, smooth or rough, and then inhale slowly for 4 seconds and exhale slowly for 7 seconds. Repeat three times. Most people can relieve less than half of their discomfort at that time. When you feel better, take another 30 seconds to think back. What were you struggling with half an hour to an hour before this symptom appeared? Did you just take on a difficult job, or did you just have a quarrel with your family? Even if you just say silently in your heart, "Oh, so I was worried about this just now," the pain in your body will become lighter. It is equivalent to giving your emotions an outlet, and they no longer have to rely on tossing your body to gain a sense of presence.

Of course, if you have tried all these methods to no avail, and your symptoms have become so severe that you have been suffering from insomnia for a week, unable to eat, or even have frequent feelings of near-death, then you should go to a psychiatrist for evaluation, and you should cooperate with short-term medication.