Yes, our mental health can affect our physical health
This might be something that a lot of people don’t realize
And no, it isn’t just stress that affects
Our entire mental and psychological state affects our physical health in ways which… most people don’t realize
Of course, nowadays people (and doctors) realize that some emotions such as stress and anxiety can cause physical health issues
But that is just touching the surface
We also know, and warn people, that prolonged anger can potentially cause heart issues, high blood pressure, even stroke
So yes, our mental health and emotional state can manifest illness into our lives
But how does it work?
Why does it work like that?
I will share a bit today and hopefully you understand better on why our mental health is as important (some might say more so) as our physical health
The Mind Body Connection
I’ve shared several articles on this already so you can read here or here for more details
The brief introduction is that we have a conscious mind and an unconscious mind
And they are connected, they are not separated
Rather, each of them will do different things
The conscious mind is like a logical gatekeeper, and if you imagine it is like the top 10% of an iceberg appearing above the water
Essentially, the conscious mind focuses on certain bits of information, like to look here, to listen to this, pay attention there etc
The unconscious mind is more like an emotional sponge, and the 90% of the iceberg below the water
Since you were born until now, the unconscious mind has absorb everything
Yes, everything
All these form memories, patterns, belief systems, etc and all of this is running in the background
Well, memories exist in the background until you consciously want to recall something for example
It’s like a computer, conscious mind is like the screen, what you see is what you get
Whereas the unconscious mind is all the programming and code, all the background processes running that you do not see
This also means that your unconscious mind is assisting with the bodily functions
Breathing, beating your heart, digesting your food
You can choose to eat or not, but you can’t choose or tell your stomach to digest something or not
You can however, reach a state of hyperfocused attention, such that your unconscious mind will assist to not activate hunger so as not to distract you!
Some of you might have already experienced this
Like focused on completing your assignments until you forget to eat
Or gaming so hard until 10 hours has flown by!
Psychosomatic Symptoms
Have you ever had this fear or anxiety of presentations until you get sick like diarrhea?
Or maybe just want to avoid meeting someone and getting a stomach cramp
These are what we call a psychosomatic symptom
Essentially, it is an issue existing with the psychology of the person which manifested into a physical illness or sensation
This doesn’t mean there is something wrong with the person ah!
In the above example, the fear or anxiety of presentations is the issue in the mind, which manifested into a physical illness like diarrhea in order to protect the individual from going through a presentation (if possible)
Because sometimes you diarrhea already but you still have to do the presentation ahahha
In the other example, wanting to avoid someone (whether it be fear, pain, stress etc) can manifest into a physical pain, again as an excuse to run away
And this is pretty common!
You experienced something similar before
As do your friends, your parents, your children, etc
We can look at psychosomatic symptoms as of the milder version, like a common cold just to avoid going to work on a day or two, to severe conditions like developing chronic illnesses
And it is not random either!
Most of the time its to avoid something or someone, other times its to rest, and others might want love and attention
Yes, some people do fall sick to get love and attention from friends and family, this is sometimes because they feel lonely
This particular version usually affects elderly more, but some children and adults might develop this too
Case Study 1
My cousin once texted me about her son, weirdly falling sick only on Fridays, causing her to take urgent half day leave to return home and bring him to see a doctor
But after getting the MC, the son “miraculously cured” and can play and run like nothing!
She wondered if there was something wrong, or he is just acting, or what?
I told her, “it is possible it is a psychosomatic symptom, and rather, he is avoiding school on Friday by falling sick, since he just started Primary 1, likely the Art teacher or the Music teacher scolded him on a Friday lesson and thus, he is avoiding that particular teacher”
She said, “Yes! The Art teacher scolded him on Friday during class! So do I need to bring him to you for hypnosis?”
I said, “No need, you just have a chat with him about how a one-time event doesn’t mean everything is bad, and one teacher doesn’t mean the entire school is bad, but of course, if he doesn’t ‘cure’ then yes, can bring him to me for hypnosis”
After that chat, he returned to school normally
Before you think whether I am psychic because I knew it was either the Art or Music teacher, it is just logic really hahaha
You usually only get one music and art class a week, other subjects have two or more classes (although to be fair, maybe now change a lot cause this was like… maybe 10 years ago?!)
And since he already fell sick and recovered on consecutive Fridays, it suggest a pattern too
Hence, it was rather easy for me to diagnose what is actually happening and give the right analysis
Case Study 2
A mother and her 15 year old daughter had a chat with me
The daughter first experienced a seizure when she was 12 years old, and had a long MC for the rest of the year
Upon returning to school, she developed seizures again and in the end, the parents took her out and home schooled
The problem is that she is having multiple seizures a day and medicine isn’t doing anything
I asked if there was any teacher that scolded her in primary school or even in kindergarten?
She shared that there was a teacher in kindergarten that scolded the class frequently
I shared my idea in that she might have developed a fear of that teacher due to the scolding, and this fear grew to include other teachers
Since we usually see teachers in school, the fear of teachers might expand into the fear of school
How do we avoid school and thus teachers? Either we fall sick or there is a holiday
So perhaps her unconscious learnt to fall sick for a couple of days, but if you want more days you need a greater sickness
Thus seizure and got a long term MC for the rest of the year
If so, it will mean she will have no seizures until she returned to school the following year, and if my hypothesis is right, I will guess that she get her next seizure just a week upon starting school, and it might reoccur on a weekly basis
The mom was shocked and agreed, she only got a seizure again within a week of starting school and it reoccured weekly
This is because there was no long-term MC given so the unconscious mind assumes need to have more seizures to get the MC, hence it worsens exponentially
Case Study 3
*this case has mention of sexual assault
A 18 year old girl came to me with eczema and shared that her mom said she was born a beautiful baby girl and no idea why at 6 years old, she contracted eczema from somewhere
Which doesn’t make sense cause it isn’t a virus or anything like that
When we did the hypnosis, the eczema on her arms was linked to anger and when we released the anger, it healed on the spot
Honestly, even I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and since she wanted her friend to be there in the hypnosis, I asked her friend if she was seeing what I was seeing
The raw pink skin was healing up, the dry flaky skin was healing up
The interesting thing was, her face still had eczema, it didn’t heal
So I brought her out of hypnosis once her arms were healed (in 20 minutes) and then did a regression for the one on her face
She went back to when she was 4 or 5 years old and she was raped by her father
Now everything makes sense!
It is quite possible that her unconscious mind didn’t want to be raped by her father again, and link this to the idea of beauty, thus, becoming ugly to avoid being raped
Since one cannot turn ugly suddenly, the unconscious manifested eczema to look ugly
However, in order to properly heal from her eczema now, she need to forgive her father and she wasn’t able to do so at that time
Which is understandable
Thankfully, three years later, she texted me she was ready to forgive and after we did the forgiveness, her eczema on her face totally cleared up!
(In case you were wondering, the anger was towards the father)
Conclusion
It is quite possible a number of our illnesses is really psychosomatic in the first place, and rather than just popping medicines, it will be vital to look at the original root issue on what is happening that is causing the illness
This will allow for a more holistic healing approach, and better in the long run with no “relapses”
And the issue can come from anywhere, parents abuse, trauma, neglect, stress etc
So the next time you fall sick, reflect and see if it has been ongoing for a long time, or if there are patterns to it
Perhaps it is really psychosomatic in nature
