If told you have a condition that manifests in the mind, why do some people take this to mean “you’re making it up/putting it on” or “it doesn’t exist”? And why do they then extend this to mean “you’re malingering deliberately”, “stop pretending” and “there is no pill, you’ll have to just get over it.”
I’ve just watched a video of a lady “fighting for answers” to a syndrome causing a range of distressing symptoms from limb weakness to a change in her speech. She has had numerous tests, scans etc and many doctors have concluded that the origin is psychological. But she’s dissatisfied with this answer, determined there’s something “physical going on”.  She said she just wants to get on with her life so I’m wondering why she is spending so much time going from specialist to specialist? They are all giving her the same answer, yet in not accepting the psychological origin, she’s denying herself access to the treatment that could enable her to manage her condition? Why is she (and so many other people) adamant a diagnosis of a psychological condition is dismissing her (their) symptoms in some way?
I find it astonishing that people do not seem aware the brain is the most powerful organ in the body but we know least about it. It is not surprising that it can produce the most bizarre symptoms but we do not yet have the ability to pin point how the brain is producing these symptoms.
If the brain controls our breathing, it follows that things can go wrong with our breathing that are not detectable on x-ray. If our brain controls our digestion and how our intestines moves, it follows that things go wrong with our gut that is not detectable by scans or scopes. I’m left pondering the conscious and unconscious control we have over various aspects of our body. Perhaps when our brain just does something on it’s own, without our say so, this can leave us feeling helpless.
It probably doesn’t help that many psychosomatic conditions (psychological origin for physical symptoms) are a diagnosis of exclusion – i.e. “if we rule everything else out, it’s probably that.”. Are people left feeling the end condition is less valid? If we cannot measure a chemical or see something on a scan, does that mean the legitimacy of the condition is brought into question? This should not be the case. Just because it cannot be detected and the doctors say this, they are not saying it’s not real! Perhaps some people hear the doctor saying “we cannot prove that you are ill”. But, I say, if it is experienced, it is real!
Psychological therapies are not a way of pretending everything is ok, ignoring symptoms or proving the symptoms don’t really exist. We can explore ourselves, our mind and body and find ways of coping, managing and possibly recovering from any range of issues/symptoms/disorders.
Are people afraid of the stigma that comes with psychological conditions? I fear the denial (such as that of the lady I saw in the video) perpetuates that stigma.
I speculate that if we had more compassion and understanding for psychological conditions, a diagnosis of this type would be a hopeful one and people would instead think “my mind is unwell, I need to get help to take care of it and I will be able to control or manage my condition better“. Is our reluctance to take care of our minds because it (managing our thoughts, emotions and behaviours) is harder than popping a pill? Perhaps it would be more helpful if we treated the mind and the body as one, no matter what the condition? Therefore psychological and physical treatments could always go hand in hand (not considering one as more or less important than the other).
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