Author Question: What does psychosomatic mean? Give some examples of psychosomatic ... (Read 93 times)

segrsyd · **on:** Jul 11, 2018

What does psychosomatic mean? Give some examples of psychosomatic illness.

Question 2

Explain why an upset stomach and difficulty sleeping are among the commonly occurring symptoms of medium-term chronic stress.

quynhmickitran · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 11, 2018

Answer to Question 1

The term psychosomatic originates from the core words psyche, meaning the mind, and soma, meaning the body. Conditions that have a mind and body component are often called psychosomatic (or, more currently, psychophysiological). Examples might include chest pain, shortness of breath, or nausea, which could be due to a heart attack or other illness or due to stress or emotional trauma. Other examples might include weight loss, dizziness, back pain, etc.

Answer to Question 2

Upset Stomach. In fight-or-flight situations, we do not need the digestive system, so it ceases to efficiently coordinate all of the processes necessary to break down food. When the stress response is activated continually, the digestive system won't transport food from the digestive system to the bloodstream as effectively. An upset stomach is one of the results.

Difficulty Sleeping. If we are having a hard time falling asleep, it may be because our minds are thinking too much about things not associated with sleeping. Troublesome thoughts of today's activities or worrisome thoughts about tomorrow send messages to the mind that resemble threats. Consequently, the body remains aroused and alert. One physiological response of the fight-or-flight syndrome is altered brainwave activity. Sleep-inducing brainwave activity can happen only when we are able to turn off the stress response. Stress can hurt you doubly because it affects the ability to sleep, which in turn affects the ability to cope with stress and anxiety.