The role of psychological factors in disease
In the practice of psycho-Somatic, the diagnosis of emotional illnesses is mainly made on the basis of symptoms, but without excluding organic causes. Some somatic symptoms highlight, but do not always exclusively indicate, the existence of an emotional origin. These include: crying, trembling, impotence, frigidity, palpitations, sighing, shortness of breath, feeling of pressure in the head and often fatigue and physical exhaustion.
For the effective management of the conditions of people with psycho-somatic it is important to know the weight of organic causes, personality problems and stress levels. It is necessary to investigate both the mental and physical state, as well as the whole history of the patient. A full clinical examination is necessary to rule out organic diseases. An organic disease can cause an emotional disorder, but organic diseases can also coexist with emotional diseases in the same patient.
Understanding the role of psychological influences in the onset and manifestation of disease, the important question is how these influences can be mitigated. Discovery of the feed-back indicates that a wide variety of physical processes can be influenced by the positive mental efforts of the patient. Part of health education is that patients are made to discover and understand that they have participated, either consciously or unconsciously, in the past in the onset and development of their illnesses, and therefore that they will also be able to participate consciously in the healing process.
The traditional Ayurvedic system emphasises the recognition of how the sick person participated in the onset of the disease. For this, the AYURVEDA system uses the term "PRAJNAPARADHA" which means "volitional transgression" (literal: "crimes against wisdom") or, in other words, "participation achieved by ignoring the basic rules of healthy living". Practically speaking, the idea is not to induce a state of guilt in the patient, but to-makes him correctly understand that certain choices (options) that he-has made in the past l-exposed to certain demands in certain ways that subsequently led to a certain imbalance. These choices may or may not have been deliberate, or may have been conditioned by personality, or by various external constraints, as well as social and cultural conditioning.
Bearing this essential truth in mind, the patient's participation in his or her own healing can be achieved by adopting the necessary beneficial changes in individual mental attitude and lifestyle.
A very important role is played by the healing power of positive mentalisation, carried out by the patient himself and supported by the interaction with the therapist. On the other hand, the negative attitude of the patient, doctor or family can produce a "reverse placebo effect", often with considerable negative effects. However, a constant positive mental attitude, combined with ways of reducing stress, can have a strong positive impact on the therapeutic process and facilitate rapid healing.
