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Most people seem to assume that no one wants to be
sick,
although
many people obtain conscious and unconscious benefits
(Freud called them
primary and secondary gains) from diseases and illnesses.
Psychosomatic Disease
. Autoimmune Disease
. Pain Control
Pain is Inevitable; Suffering is Optional
Disease symptoms, pain and suffering often appear to have
benefits. Some are conscious (e.g. staying home from work) and some unconscious
(e.g. expressing stress through headaches). When we explore the benefits of a
disease in a person's life, we often find that the disease symptoms make sense.
Often enough, people with medical symptoms disagree - protesting
that I am implying that they are exaggerating their suffering.
However ... often enough, if we resolve the apparent underlying emotional / relationship
issues ... the disease symptoms diminish or even vanish.
As Sigmund Freud developed his psychoanalytic theories, he
introduced the useful concepts of primary and secondary gains. Let's add tertiary gains
and somatization to Freud's insights ...
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Primary gains - expressing or relieving emotions using
physical symptoms (i.e. being sick relieves anxiety, distress or conflict)
Secondary gains refer to social, occupational, or family
benefits received from other people (e.g. a sick person may stay home instead of working)
Tertiary gains include relationship benefits (e.g. a
controlling person enjoys the docility and compliance of sick people and sick
people enjoy the extra attention).
Somatization - unconsciously expresses unpleasant
emotions through physical symptoms (see
psychosomatic symptoms)
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Primary Gains - Emotional Benefits
Primary gains refer to internal motivations. For
example, a person may use a medical condition to justify an inability to
perform a task, to have a ready excuse or to avoid feeling guilt. Primary gains
may be dramatically demonstrated
conversion disorders (physical symptoms without organic causes, such as a
person who appears to be blind after witnessing a gruesome murder). Primary gains may
not be evident to outside observers. (Wikipedia)
Secondary Gains - Conscious Benefits
Short-term diseases such as colds, 'flu, stomach pains,
menstrual cramps and headaches can provide useful
justifications or excuses for gaining a benefit such as money, sympathy
or a vacation.
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I hurt my back at work and my doctor
said to take a week off work. After a few days I felt fine, and I started
catching up with
some home renovations. Unfortunately
my boss visited me ... and I was fired. |
Some people lie about having a disease, or exaggerate
their symptoms to obtain benefits.
Tertiary Gains - Relationship Benefits
As chronic illnesses can disable people and exhaust caregivers,
their benefits tend to be unconscious. Few people consider the issues
and make informed decisions to have some debilitating disease ... although many
medical symptoms seem to fit the people suffering them.
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I was diagnosed with cancer, so I went
for surgery. The cancer vanished ... but I was shortly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis ... It seems like I need a serious
disease to get any attention from my husband and family. Chicago |
Many diseases and their symptoms seem to give benefits or offer
advantages - both conscious and
unconscious. Some are:
| Common
Benefits of Diseases & Illnesses |
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Communicate Emotions |
Conscious Advantages |
Relationship Benefits |
- punish self (guilt)
- punish family (anger, shame)
- mourn missing person (sadness, guilt)
- leave family (despair)
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- feel special
- disability leave
- complete a project
- avoid responsibilities
- financial compensation
- get special treatment
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- gain more love
- gain acceptance
- win an argument
- manipulate people
- understand ancestor
- follow a family pattern
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Does your body say what you won't say?
We often help people recognize the benefits that they gain through
or from disease symptoms and help people gain those benefits in healthier ways!
People's unconscious minds (body-minds) are not stupid. It is not a
question of healing ... some symptoms just seem to evaporate when they no
longer provide benefits, providing that essential tissues have not been
damaged beyond recovery.
I assume that emotional
health is a key to physical wellness ... and that relationship
habits are the golden keys to emotional health? People who avoid
self-exploration and cling to their
obsessions and fixations seem more likely to stay in their medical situations,
sometimes for many years.
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Psychosomatic Symptoms: Somatoform & Conversion Disorders |
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Somatoform disorders are mental
disturbances characterized by physical complaints that appear to be
medical in origin but that cannot be explained in terms of a physical
disease, substance abuse, or by a mental disorder.
Somatoform physical symptoms interfere with a patient's employment or
relationships, and are not under a patient's voluntary control.
Conversion disorders are conditions in which the patient's
senses or ability to walk or move are impaired without a recognized
disease or cause and in which emotional factors (such as stress or
trauma) may be related to onset or exacerbation. An example of a
conversion reaction would be a patient who loses his or her voice in a
situation in which he or she is afraid to speak.
[Both paragraphs excerpted from
Farlex
Free Dictionary]
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Many people want their symptoms to be labeled by an authority ...
labeled symptoms may seem somehow safer or more controlled. For example,
claiming to suffer from Gulf War syndrome
may feel better than describing a list of strange symptoms.
When I meet people with unusual symptoms, I have learned
to ask, "Is your father or partner a medical doctor?".
A fairly common answer, especially in North America, is, "How
on earth did you know that?" It seems that some partners and children of
medical doctors have wild symptoms that may confuse or gain
attention from a (perhaps pompous) medically trained relative.
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Differences between Somatic and Psychosomatic Pain* |
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Somatic
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Psychosomatic
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- Somatic pain is unrelated to emotions and relationships.
- Somatic pain has an anatomical correlation and distribution.
- Somatic pain reflects tissue damage.
- Somatic pain
may come and go, and be worsened or relieved by specific measures.
- Somatic pain is described with words like burning,
stabbing etc
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- Psychosomatic pain may follow an emotional or relationship disturbance.
- Psychosomatic pain may not follow anatomical distribution.
- Psychosomatic pain may not be accompanied by tissue damage.
- Psychosomatic pain tends to be constant.
- Psychosomatic pain may be harder to describe.
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I'm Sick of This
It appears that some body symptoms reflect or express emotions ... and I find
that many (most?) emotions seem to reflect relationship issues. Hence it may be
possible to improve your health by improving your relationships. We help people
resolve emotional blocks and relationship issues. Please consult a medical doctor about diseases, medical
symptoms or medical conditions.
Do you want to dissolve emotional blocks and
relationship issues?
Do you want to build success and quality relationships?
Online
Coaching & Mentorship
*References
Rafael
Fernández Martínez and Fernández Concepción Rodríguez (Spanish)
Casey PR; Tyrer PJ. (1986). Personality, functioning and symptomatology. J
Psychiatr Res. 20:363-374.
Trethowan WH.
Psychiatry and the seven ages of man. Journal of the Royal Society of
Medicine. 1988 Apr;81(4):189-93.
Plagiarism is theft. Copyright © Martyn Carruthers
2008-2011 All rights reserved
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