What is psychosomatic pain?

Psychosomatic pain is physical pain that is caused or exacerbated by mental and emotional factors. It can be caused by a state of chronic stress (professional or family conflicts, financial difficulties, etc.) or by a strong, sometimes buried and undigested emotion (breakup, emotional shock, abandonment, mourning, etc.).

In general, we speak of psychosomatic pain when we have ruled out other causes and there is no physical cause for the pain. The diagnosis is confirmed by the existence of a difficult psychosocial, personal or professional situation, especially if a psychological trauma or distress preceded the onset of the pain.

Psychosomatic pain is physical. It can be found anywhere in the body, it is real pain that is felt even if there are no physical causes. Like any other pain, it requires specific treatment.

​

​

What is the connection between emotions and psychosomatic illnesses?

In many cases, people who are psychologically overwhelmed express their feelings through their bodies. This is especially true when the feelings are not expressed through words, or are even repressed.

Indeed, when a psychological state cannot be expressed through words, this results in physical and functional manifestations that are alarm signals.

And the pressure?

When the mind is unbalanced and in cases of stress, the body undergoes hormonal and neurological changes that disrupt the entire organism. These changes lead, especially during chronic stress, to stiffness and inflammation of the musculoskeletal system. This phenomenon is associated with the appearance of tension, pain and rheumatism in people who experience constant stress.

If the emotional stimulus is short-lived, the body returns to a state of balance after things calm down.

Unless it is a strong emotion, one that is repeated or lasts for a long time, the body has difficulty returning to balance, and it establishes adaptive and compensatory phenomena that are a warning of signals:

Sleep problems-

Functional disorders-

Fatigue-

Pain and stress-

Posture (leading to muscle pain and others)-

Food compensation, addictions-

Each person reacts differently, depending on their ability to manage stress and emotions.

How massage, reflexology and emotional osteopathy can help?

In most cases, the doctor will refer the patient to multidisciplinary treatment for psychosomatic pain.

Here, massage will provide an initial physical response to the pain. It will soften the painful tissues to make the attacks more bearable, and it will also reduce tension.

Reflexology will allow you to perform manual work on the reflex area of the painful areas, giving you the opportunity to treat the hormonal system or lack of energy. Reflexology allows for deep work, and will also affect stress.

As for emotional osteopathy, it will uncover buried pain and break repetitive patterns. This method leads the patient to awareness and verbal expression of their feelings, and will already lead to initial psycho-emotional release.

These three methods used together allow the body to find within itself the necessary forces to rebalance itself.