Medically Unexplained Symptoms: Is it an Emotional Problem?

Medically Unexplained Symptoms: Is it an Emotional Problem?

Many patients find themselves seeing different doctors for common symptoms. These can include heart palpitations, gastrointestinal discomfort, migraine headaches and various random aches, pains and fatigue. The patient then may leave the consultation without getting any type of answers or relief.

Medically unexplained symptoms are highly common with research reporting 3 out of 4 patients reporting chest pain in the ER leaving with no physical finding and only 1 out of 6 patients leaving the ER with a clear medical diagnosis (Abbass et al, 2010).

Being curious and getting clear about the timeline of symptom onset can be extremely helpful in determining if these symptoms may be better treated with psychotherapy.

Common Medically Unexplained Symptoms

• Headaches
• Fibromyalgia
• Shortness of Breath
• Chronic Pain Syndrome
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Nausea
• Bladder Spasm
• Abdominal Pain
• …and more

The Emotional Link

When certain feelings are frightening, considered unacceptable and conflicting, they generate anxiety and internal mechanisms or defenses that act to conceal the anxiety.

In certain early family and interpersonal dynamics, it can actually be lifesaving to push down conflictual, anxiety provoking feelings. We then unconsciously turn them into symptoms, such as stomach pain or headaches as an act of self-sacrifice.

This can act as a way to preserve the relationships, but ends up backfiring when the individual suffers. When these same conflictual feelings are activated later in life, these same mechanisms are deployed to preserve or protect the relationship. Instead of allowing for the physical experience of emotion, the emotion is avoided and channeled into anxiety and symptomatology.

Is this me? The Importance of a Timeline

While Chinese medicine has been treating various symptomatology for 2,500 years and values the connection between mind and body, there still exists a disconnect within Western medicine. Most GPs do not typically ask about emotional factors surrounding the genesis of symptoms.

An extremely useful task for anyone experiencing medically unexplained symptoms is to create a timeline of when the symptoms originated with genuine curiosity, particularly with these questions in mind:

Key Questions to Explore:

• When was the first time I experienced the symptom?
• What was happening for me emotionally at that time?
• Was there any type of emotional conflict in my life at the time? With whom or what?
• Did I have the space and time to experience the feelings around what happened?

→ Again, with the same curiosity, create a timeline around when the symptoms appear in your current life, as well. Do you get headaches each time you have a certain type of interaction with a certain type of person? Try to determine if there is any emotionally significant pattern in which the symptoms get exacerbated.

The First Step Towards Relief

A variety of physical ailments can have a deep emotional root at their core that may not be able to be identified in a standard medical assessment. The current research has shown that focused psychotherapeutic work with patients experiencing medically unexplained symptoms can bring about symptom relief in a short period of time.

Staying curious and exploring the origins and triggers of symptoms can be the first step in getting back a life of comfort and freedom.

Note: This article discusses the mind-body connection in symptom presentation. Always consult with healthcare providers for proper medical evaluation and diagnosis.