Psychosomatic illness & Somatic Symptom Disorder (SDD)

Exploring Psychosomatic Illness

I’m John Glanvill, author of The Calmness in Mind Process for overcoming Anxiety, OCD and Depression.

In this video we are going to explore the many chronic conditions like OCD anxiety and depression plus – chronic fatigue, migraines headaches, joint pain, back pain, insomnia, sciatica, aches, sinus conditions, allergy hypersensitivity, skin conditions, tinnitus, fibromyalgia and the like.

I am opening a dialogue that I know is hugely contentious, but needs to be had, in light of the fact that – conventional medicine struggles to explain these conditions, has low rates of success treating them and they are hugely on the increase.

However, we do know that as life, work, money and relationships become easier – we do get a little respite and these conditions back off a little – and I would like to explore my (and others) hypothesis of what might be happening.

So, during my own transition from an anxious worrier and controller of life to a calm responder, acceptor and influencer of life – there were four rules I used, that shaped my recovery;

1. I researched everything I possibly could

2. I kept a very open mind

3. I didn’t take any advice from people who still had anxiety, OCD, depression or pain.

In fact, I found that online forums were dens of negativity and often contributed to a feeling that there was very little I could do to help myself

4. And most importantly, I tested every theory, in depth, on myself, before dismissing it.

That way, I knew for certain if it worked or not – and I didn’t use my own fear or let my fearful childlike OCD talk me out of trying everything

And I would encourage you to do the same.

Looking back over my own (pretty) full recovery (and my many years working as an anxiety therapist) I gained a diverse and experiential perspective on the incredible power of how the mind and body work together.

Remember too, that people only came to see me, as a therapist, after years of anxiety, after years of medication, and only after all conventional medical interventions had failed.

So, I want to explore the subject of “psychosomatic illness” which basically describes the concept that our own unconscious mind is actually making our body sick!

Understandably, many people dismiss this, because “it is not all in their mind” its real, the pain is real, the exhaustion is real and the upset stomach is real – and, yes, they are really happening, and I know it’s really happening!

However, as an engineer, who has a good grasp on how systems influence each other, checks and balances, control systems, emergency shutdowns etc.

What I saw happening in the mind body connection, made lots of sense to me.

Any system is only as good, as it was programmed to be and the skill of the operator in directing it.

So, I was at least open to exploring – if “psychosomatic illness” was true, and if so, how might it operate?

However, as I started working fulltime with OCD and depression, I found peoples resistance to the idea, that we are (at some level) doing this to ourselves (even if it was unconsciously) too hard for many people to accept.

So, they would look for defects within themselves, medication, new diets, supplements, crystals, energetic bodywork – anything, that would ease their symptoms, without them having to think or act differently.

And a great example of this is (IBS) irritable bowel syndrome, which is a classic

symptom of worry and stress. Like I said in my last video – rarely, to calm people get it; I haven’t had it for 15 years, I eat whatever I want.

What changed? I stopped consciously and unconsciously worrying – which reduced the stress on my autonomic nervous system – which modified the chemicals in my bloodstream, which diminished the stress on my organs.

Yet so many people who experience IBS, modify their diets to exclude gluten or spices, or add supplements – they plan how, and where, they travel, in-case they get caught short – yet, at best are only able to “manage” the condition.

Well, to me that makes complete sense, because they are looking to remove the symptoms, bloating, stomach cramps, diarrhoea – but they are not working on the causes of the agitation which often are worry, stress and unconscious intervention.

And, if you are experiencing chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, IBS, hypochondria, headaches, skin complaints, insomnia, back pain, sciatic pain, shoulder and neck stiffness, shooting pains in your legs, pins and needles, feelings of disassociation, nausea, shaking, sweating, flushing or many of the other long-term symptoms of these conditions.

Unless, you get on board and explore the concept that (at least at some unconscious level) you are unknowingly doing this to yourself – you may be saddled with these conditions forever.

I know for some people this is really hard to accept, especially those with OCD, hypochondria and fibromyalgia.

But know this, these three conditions only evolve in nice people, who care a lot, empaths, sensitive individuals, people who worry about what people think of them.

Intelligent thinkers, individuals who don’t like conflict – who don’t want to let people down, people with complex personalities and who are uncomfortable being judged or criticised.

Tell me it’s not true?

From childhood they would have deferred to others, not spoken up, may have been susceptible to bullying, afraid of taking charge of situations.

Often, people would put upon them, because they were compliant and they probably felt it hard to say no to others.

These behavioural traits all point towards the repression of angry thoughts, sweeping feelings under the carpet, berating themselves for not saying something –

Or silently internalising fears about their parents, God, society and the “fairness” of life.

These repressed traumas, (gesture) held down emotions, these states of unconscious denial – may have come from any source; let me list a few:

Mental, physical, emotional or sexual abuse: Being bullied:

Experiencing the death of a loved one: The death of a pet:
Spending time in hospital:
Hating school or boarding at a school: Revision and exam pressure:

Being robbed:
Falling off your bike:
A near death experience from an accident or illness: Embarrassing yourself in some way:
Rejection in a relationship:
Wetting the bed:
Being made redundant:
Being exposed to a horrific film at a young age

You get the picture.

And people say “oh, I let that go years back” – Well, what if your conscious mind did let it go – but your unconscious mind didn’t?

Remember, they are on two separate systems!

And a quick note here about OCD, and this is something I know a lot about because I used to have it – and now (mostly) I don’t – I truly believe the reason I was able to reprogram myself was…

Because, I was open to the concept, that it wasn’t a disease or an error in my brain or inherited from my family – it was the biological and neurological result of too many years in mental fearful worry – and of biological and physical overwhelm.

Remember too, that OCD causes you to doubt everything, so you need constant reassurance.

And I say be careful where you get that reassurance from, stay away from online forums, because if these people had the answers – they would no longer have OCD, chronic pain and fatigue.

Sadly, there seems to be many individuals abdicating responsibility for their own recovery – with the argument that OCD can only be managed through pharmaceutical intervention – that it can’t be cured, because it is a problem within the wiring and the chemistry of the brain.

I know this sounds harsh – but I am trying to be honest and pragmatic.

Stay with me here, because when I say a symptom is psychosomatic – the implication is, that you are doing this to yourself – when that’s not what I mean.

What I am directing you towards, is the realisation, of the natural ways that our unconscious brain operates, and the errors in conscious thinking, that actually make things worse, not better.

So, let’s bring in some new information and some new perspectives.

I would like to introduce you to Dr John Sarno, who was Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at the New York University School of Medicine – who’s work I would absolutely encourage you to explore in great depth.

When I was introduced to his work, I was so excited, because he had already, back in the 1990’s come to all the same conclusions that I had uncovered and experienced.

Put simply, he found that unprocessed anger, rage, fear, rejection and unconsciously repressed emotional issues from childhood –

– are held within the body and hidden from the conscious mind – much like my metaphor about potential energy being trapped within our atoms.

To keep these hidden fears out of conscious awareness, the unconscious, via the autonomic nervous system – decreases blood flow to muscles, nerves and tendons –

– resulting in oxygen deprivation, which is experienced as pain in the affected tissues.

The unconscious mind is creating ailments in the body, pain in the body – to distract the conscious mind from dwelling and ruminating on past emotional pain and trauma.

He calls this process (TMS) Tension Myoneural Syndrome, myo meaning muscle and neuro meaning your neurology.

And in my experience, nearly all individuals experiencing anxiety, depression or OCD – also have some form of reduced mobility, through inflammation, allergies, headaches, stomach issues or pain in their body, which may be static or transient.

He goes on to say; that when people can see that the pain is a distraction –

– and if they start working on releasing their unconscious repressed memories from their past –

-the TMS backs off and the pain begins to retreat. Let me give you an example:

When my own anxiety was at its worst, my back, hip and joint pain was almost unbearable, sometimes I could hardly walk or felt nauseous from the pain.

Everybody in my family suffered from it (so the implication was, poor me, it just runs in the family.)

My Father had rheumatoid-arthritis, as has my Brother and my Mother, osteo- arthritis.

However, as I learned to worry less, let go of control, accept things in new ways – and importantly, as I liberated (vented, discharged) trapped emotions from my body, from my atomic battery – these aches and pains reduced by about 90%.

And what I (and my Doctor) thought was arthritis in my hands, vanished completely – and all I am left with is discomfort from mild spinal scoliosis and lower back, joint fusion – which I was born with – and on which, I had been blaming all my pain!

The irony being, that even if I had undertaken spinal operations – I still would have had the pain, because it was psychosomatic.

And it would have just morphed to another part of my body or another allergy or perhaps to a migraine – or whatever ailment – would have distracted my conscious mind from my unconscious emotional distress.

When I was 50 I managed to vent, a trapped energy from my atomic battery – from a childhood trauma (that consciously I thought I had dealt with) – and during this emotional discharge, a sinus condition that had continuously plagued me since I was 13 – popped and almost completely vanished in one day.

And in later videos I will be going into much more detail about this and many of my, and other people’s experiences.

As I said before, most people with chronic psychosomatic illness are nice people; they try to be good, hate to let others down, don’t like conflict, care about what people think of them, they want to be perfect – and I was like that.

Therefore, as we learn to release the stuck energy from our past trauma – we also need to be exploring new tactics that allow us to understand more fully

• –  Who we really are
  
• –  What we really want
  
• –  Who we would like to become
  
• –  How to say no to people
  
• –  And how to have empathy, but without compromising our own health
  
• And I will be teaching you many strategies for this…
  
• Let’s jump back to pain for a moment – to one of the most horrible of all conditions – a migraine attack.
  
• Very few people, who experience them, receive either;
  
  • A good explanation of what is actually causing it
  • Or a medical intervention or recovery program that is fully effective.
    Now, I am not saying that migraines are totally psychosomatic, not at all, however, what I can point to, are the patterns behind them – who gets them?
    
  • Nice, kind, compliant individuals, those who care, worriers, thinkers, helpers, peoples rights campaigners and these types of people usually have (over-time) deeply repressed – their own anger and rage – from their childhood, because that’s what really nice people do.

And when life becomes more stressful than usual – and the unfairness “stories” from their past consciously bubble up – the unconscious mind steps in, with TMS, via your autonomic nervous system to starve various nerves, tendons and muscles from oxygen = which generates pain.

Hoping to distract the conscious mind, with pain, from exploring ugly emotions from their past.

And yes, certain foods may aggravate the headache, yes, certain types of lighting may trigger it – but underneath it all – what really wants to come out – is the suppressed anger and rage from rejection, abuse and fear.

And, as we proceed, I want to teach you ways of letting this out – venting the atomic battery (like we discussed in video 9)

Releasing / discharging, that trapped potential energy – and getting your atomic energy battery to become lighter, vibrate faster – returning your atoms back into the natural state of ease, that we might call wellness.

But the first step – is to see what you are dealing with, from a whole new perspective – and sadly, it’s not the perspective that conventional medicine has been taught to use.

Perhaps that’s why conventional medicine, recovery rates, for helping people with migraines, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and OCD are so low?

They can medicate it, dampen it, but rarely cure it.

And one last point here; if we are pharmaceutically damping emotions like anxiety, fear, pain – we are also damping other emotions too; like love, joy, happiness, fun, optimism – emotional well-being – and I think that’s wretched.

I don’t have all the answers, I can’t medically explain it all to you, but I can (I hope) guide you, nudge you, into exploring new ways to ease your own emotional journey through life.

I am saying that I tried these things and they worked – nobody was more surprised than me when they did!

My conscious mind was saying really! – You expect me to believe this? You expect me to try that? What do you mean “stuck energy?” – my conscious mind was saying “I know what happened back then, I have dealt with it!” – but I hadn’t.

Once again, as we proceed through the course I will be showing you ways to go about doing this – you have been very patient, as I have taken you through the explanation phase of “what you are actually dealing with” – just a few more videos, then we enter the “here’s what you do about it” phase.

So, like I mentioned in the last video – nearly all symptoms of anxiety are actually natural bodily responses to external events, our thoughts our amygdala (rightly or wrongly) firing off to warn us of something, even though our brain sits in darkness and is guessing what is right for us.

If you are focusing on stopping or treating your symptoms – you need to redirect your attention towards the cause, especially if you have OCD as the “story” of your fear, is in fact a symptom.

And finally, if you are experiencing long term chronic pain, allergies, sinus complaints, skin conditions, chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia – I would ask you to explore TMS Tension Myoneural Syndrome.

Where our own unconscious mind uses pain and our autonomic nervous system against us

(you might say with the logic of an 8 year old trying to make us stay at home) to divert our conscious attention from our emotional wounds.

Remember too, we are trying to recharge our emotional battery through less catastrophising, more acceptance, letting go of control etc.

And we are looking to find ways of discharging, trauma, fear, pain, anger and hurt from our atomic battery – through exposure therapy detailed in (Video 8) and by empowering ourselves to grieve, shake and cry, by revisiting past traumas.

We use the story of the event, to stir up the emotions, however, we try not get stuck in the story.

We are not looking for answers, just to pull up the trauma, release the potential energy as kinetic energy via our chemical reactions, bodily movements, crying and shaking.

Why these things happened (although sad, unfair or horrific) is not the point – venting stuck energy is.

As we proceed, I will be teaching you how to do this, until then, just consider what I am saying, only ever explore these things in the company of a person you trust, or your therapist.

If you are on medication discuss this with your Doctor or mental health practitioner to ensure they are aware of your intentions to try new procedures – so they can advise you appropriately.

I think we live in the most fantastic of times with medical advances that intrigue and delight me. The knowledge and technology that is available to us for treating disease, physical trauma and conventional ailments is breath-taking, amazing.

But there is this (mostly unexplored) void – that’s hard to treat, hard to explain – chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, OCD

There is so much we don’t know, so I say try everything, however, so few people try to be a different person.

Or to think and behave differently or consider how we might discharge trapped emotional trauma from our bodies by ourselves.

And know this, the conventional medical world (although slowly waking up to these concepts) are only taught what they are taught – and they have to work within tightly controlled guidelines – where their primary tools are medication, surgery and CBT.

These are great when they work – but if they fail – I say don’t give up, try everything – nobody has all the answers – there is still so much we don’t know about the mind and the body.

And finally, your homework.

I would like you to download the audiobook called The Divided Mind by Dr John Sarno and listen to it – maybe even a few times.

Some individuals with hypochondria or health anxiety may fear reading a book like this – or if your mind struggles to learn because you are so exhausted, I challenge you to get a friend, somebody open-minded that you trust to read it for you.

I think it’s best as an audiobook, because you can listen as you wake up in the morning, or drift off to sleep at night or as you lay in the bath, it takes no effort to be read to, it’s wonderful.

And if I am honest, up until now, I didn’t really mind if you did the homework I suggested, it’s up to you really!

I’m not responsible for what you do, I’m only responsible for the effort I put in.

However, this time, I am going to really urge you to listen to the book, challenge you to do it.

Because it was only through the recognition, that my own unconscious mind was causing my OCD and the discovery that trapped trauma was responsible for my chronic pain, that I recovered.

It took me twenty years of research – and I would love for you to manage it, in a more timely fashion.