Psychosomatic Illness: Dream or Reality?

‘Stress’ is one of the most frequently used words of the modern times which describes negative emotions caused by challenging or unpleasant situations in daily life (Lindberg, 2019). Stress is a relatively new term that came into our world with the advances in technology. As the modern world developed, we have had to face increasing competition with other people every day. The reason being due to a greater number of jobs becoming available which demand more expertise, talented and skilful individuals, thus increasing the competitiveness within particular industries and higher education. In addition, the extensive use of social media such as Facebook and Instagram have resulted in people feeling the need to compare themselves, their looks, weight and their life to others who seem to “have it all”. This comparative behaviour has led to a significant increase in mental health issues amongst Millennials and Gen Zs throughout society (Pantic, 2014; O’Reilly et al., 2018). These are a couple of examples of how modern-day stress can amass in our daily lives.

However, before technology existed - for example, in ancient times - did people ever feel stressed, and why?

The fact that we have a mechanism in our body that regulates bodily processes in stressful situations means that we, as humans, are designed to cope with stress. In ancient times, stressful situations were mostly encountered during hunting where one had to think and move fast in order to survive dangerous situations such as avoiding, defending against, or killing wild animals. In order to do this, the human body had to initiate something called the ‘fight or flight’ response – a survival mechanism which causes the release of a hormone called ‘cortisol’ in situations that are perceived as physically or psychologically threatening (Goldstein, 2019). The release of cortisol results in various changes in the body such as increasing the heartbeat and breathing rate, slowing down the metabolism and increasing blood flow to muscles (Goldstein, 2019). This way, ancient man could fight, defend, or run away from dangerous situations in order to survive. But how about now? In modern-day, we don’t have to run away from predators, we don’t hunt, or have to do the things that ancient man did. Therefore, our stress mechanism doesn’t serve us how it used to and can even have a negative impact (Robinson, 2017). It can even become a danger by manifesting itself as psychosomatic illness.

Psychosomatic illness is an embodiment of stress. Psychological distress causes physical symptoms in the body as any other emotion does (Bendelow, 2009). Symptoms of psychosomatic illness can amass in many ways such as migraines, digestive issues, clinically unexplainable aches and pains - even diabetes or heart disease (Schimelpfening, 2019).

Many people misinterpret psychosomatic illnesses as imaginary or unreal, which can consequently garner a lot of stigma. However, our emotions and mood actually have real observable physical effects on the body (Schimelpfening, 2019). For example, we feel “butterflies” in our stomach when we fall in love, or our muscles may become tense before an important presentation.  Emotions and thoughts are formed by the complex activities of the brain, an organ that can be healthy or unhealthy like any other organ (LeDoux, 2000), so it should not come as a surprise that other parts of the body can also become affected by our mood.

Whenever we become stressed, a hormone called ‘cortisol’ is secreted. (Dedovic et al., 2009). This hormone provokes the fight or flight response by increasing our heart rate, slowing down our digestion and dilating our blood vessels so that more blood can be pumped to our body in order to react or defend. However, because we don’t typically use this bodily response as we may have during ancient times, consequently chronic stress or unwanted side effects can occur such as weight gain, cardiovascular problems and additional psychological issues such as anxiety.

Cortisol secretion is in line with a system in our body called the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis (Goldstein, 2019). This is a series of locations in our body that promote the release of stress hormones from the adrenal glands. The HPA axis is susceptible to change by traumatic events and chronic stress (Uys, 2006). Long periods of stress may cause elevated activity in the HPA axis. Through the excessive release of cortisol, we can incur long-term illnesses such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, gastrointestinal problems, and asthma (Bartley, 2017). Elevated stress underlies most mental disorders such as depression, anxiety and panic attacks (Schneiderman et al., 2005). Stress also weakens the immune system, making us more susceptible to other diseases and colds (Salleh, 2008). Stress can actually make changes to our DNA and can cause some genes to become activated or deactivated (Eastman, 2017). Although this area still needs research, it is predicted that prolonged exposure to stress might be responsible for epigenetic changes related to schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder, interrupting the normal functioning of the brain and impacting mental health (Prata et al., 2017).

So, how can we deal with the devastating effects of stress on our health? The first step is to understand what stress does to our bodies, for which I hope this article was helpful. The next step is to find ways to reduce stress in our lives. This involves making some time for self-care throughout the week, spending more time with loved ones and reminding yourself that you are a human and you don’t have to reach up to the unrealistic standards that society can sometimes set. Even when life becomes stressful, there are always things that you can do to escape from those emotions - for at least a little while. Meditation and mindfulness, a healthy diet and regular exercise have proven to be effective in reducing stress and the associated unwanted effects (Mcewen, 2008).  It is important to recognise when you are no longer able to cope with stress and when pressures have become too overwhelming to handle. If you find yourself feeling this way, it would be advisable to seek out some support or professional help.

 We are all part of a world where we are expected to do and be a lot of things, and this can put a lot of pressure on us. Our thoughts and emotions are always somehow reflected in our health and well-being - we become what we feel - therefore we need to take care of both our mental and physical well-being. The challenges we face in daily life can be significant, so the next time you are being a bit hard on yourself, remember that your health is to be treasured and that you can protect it by planting seeds of positivity with only small actions.

By featured writer, Ilgin Cebioglu. See ‘Team’ for more information and contact details.

References

Bartley, M., 2017. Chapter 5: Explanatory Models II: Psycho-social factors. In:  Health Inequality: an introduction to concepts, theories and methods. 2nd Edition. Cambridge: Polity, 90-102.

Bendelow, G., 2009. Beyond Biomedicalisation: Integrated Models of Health and Illness [online]. In: Health, Emotion and the Body. Cambridge: Polity. 3-14. [Accessed 24 November 2019]. Available from: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=tr&lr=&id=8NrjaEo62ywC&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=bendelow+g+2009&ots=6UZ7vqaurp&sig=T9B5jbJSPsgZuHtJkBF3lJPUaI#v=onepage&q=bendelow%20g%202009&f=false.

Dedovic, K., Duchesne, A., Andrews, J., Engert, V., Pruessner, J.C., 2009. The brain and the stress axis: The neural correlates of cortisol regulation in response to stress. NeuroImage [online]. 47(3), 864-871. [Accessed 15 November 2019]. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/ neuroimage/vol/47/issue/3.

Goldstein, D., 2019. Walter Cannon: Homeostasis, the Fight-or-Flight Response, the Sympathoadrenal System, and the Wisdom of the Body. Brain Immune [online]. [Accessed 15 November 2019]. Available from: http://www.brainimmune.com/walter-cannon-homeostasis-the-fight-or-flight-response-the-sympathoadrenal-system-and-the-wisdom-of-the-body/.

Ledoux, J. E., 2000. Emotion Circuits in the Brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience [online]. 23(1), 155–184. [Accessed 15 November 2019]. Available from: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.neuro.23.1.155.

Lindberg, S., 2019. Psychological Stress, Physical Stress, and Emotional Stress. Healthline [online]. [Accessed 15 November 2019]. Available from: https://www.healthline.com/health/psychological-stress#self-care.

Mcewen, B.S., 2008. Central effects of stress hormones in health and disease: Understanding the protective and damaging effects of stress and stress mediators. European Journal of Pharmacology [online]. 583(2-3), 174–185. [Accessed 15 November 2019]. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014299908000277?via%3Dihub.

O’Reilly, M., Dogra, N., Whiteman, N., Hughes, J., Eruyar, S., Reilly, P., 2018. Is social media bad for mental health and wellbeing? Exploring the perspectives of adolescents. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry [online]. 23(4), 601-613.  [Accessed 15 November 2019]. Available from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/ 1359104518775154.

Pantic, I., 2014. Online Social Networking and Mental Health. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking [online]. 17(10). [Accessed 21 November 2019]. Available from: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2014.0070.

Prata, J., Santos, S.G., Almeida, M.I., Coelho, R., & Barbosa, M.A., 2017. Bridging Autism Spectrum Disorders and Schizophrenia through inflammation and biomarkers - pre-clinical and clinical investigations. Journal of Neuroinflammation. 14(1).

Robinson, J., 2017. The Effects of Stress on Your Body. WebMD. [online]. [Accessed 15 November 2019]. Available from: https://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/effects-of-stress-on-your-body.

Salleh, M.R., 2008. Life Event, Stress and Illness. Malays J Med Sci. [online]. 15(4), 9–18. [Accessed 24 November 2019]. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm. nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3341916/.

Schneiderman, N., Ironson, G., Siegel, S.D., 2005. Stress and Health: Psychological, Behavioral, and Biological Determinants. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology. 1(1), 607–628.

Schimelpfening, N., 2019.  Stress, Depression and Psychosomatic Illness. VeryWellMind. [online]. [Accessed 15 November 2019]. Available from: https://www.verywellmind.com/depression-can-be-a-real-pain-1065455.

Uys, J.D., 2006.  Developmental Trauma is Associated with Behavioral Hyperarousal, Altered HPA Axis Activity, and Decreased Hippocampal Neurotrophin Expression in the Adult Rat. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1071(1), 542–546.

Yao, B., Cheng, Y., Wang, Z., Li, Y., Chen, L., Huang, L., Jin, P., 2017. DNA N6-methyladenine is dynamically regulated in the mouse brain following environmental stress. Nature Communications [online]. 8(1). [Accessed 20 November 2019]. Available from: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01195-y.