|
Psychotherapy is often one of the last resorts of a person with psoriasis. If all the external remedies have failed us, we tend to turn to our inner self, to the inner problems and conflicts.
There is a saying that "all illnesses come from stress". As a consequence we may decide to turn for help to a psychologist or a psychotherapist.
Let's see how a psychotherapist can help us - the people with psoriasis.
Psychotherapy is the process of trying to "fix" our mind, and through our mind - to "fix" our body as well.
Psychotherapists often say: "A person with a healthy mind is not the one who does not have psychological problems, but the one who knows how to overcome them."
The main way how psychotherapists can help us - is to find and to fix our inner conflicts.
So how are our inner problems connected with our psoriasis?
Psychotherapists often call psoriasis the "psychosomatic disease", so let's discuss this mysterious term in more detail.
Mysterious PsychoSomatics
Psychosomatics is a science about the interrelation of the mind and the body.
So what exactly is a psychosomatic disease?
Psychosomatic disease is a disorder, which developed due to an emotional stress.
Famous psychoanalytic Franz Alexander, M.D. (1891-1964) very clearly explained the origin of psychosomatic diseases.
He compared the life of a body with the life of a nation, in which there are two main states: War and Peace.
War is such a state, when the body is dealing with a negative situation, and the peace - such state, when the body is relaxing.
When "at war" the body is ready for the fight or the flight. The heart is beating faster, the pupils become enlarged, digestion is inhibited etc. This all is accompanied by the excretion of the adrenaline hormone from the suprarenal glands.
When "at peace" the body rests - for example, after a meal, after sexual intercourse, and after sleep - there occur reverse reactions: the heart is beating slower, the pupils become narrow, digestion activity is uninhibited, the skin acquires a bloom etc.
A human has to pay for the acquired differences from animals. Our "little brothers" live in the eternal present, and us, people, we can experience fear and distress both from the past events and from possible future events.
In addition in contrast to animals, extreme situations for a human are not only the life or health threatening situations, but also the situations which may pose a threat upon such socially significant concepts as pride, self-respect etc.
When encountering a threat, a human enters an extreme state. However, the socially expected standard reaction in this case is the suppression of our negative emotions, instead of expressing them trough the fight or the flight reaction.
When a human is constantly angered or frightened by yesterdays events, or the possible tomorrows events, then what should have been a short extreme reaction, becomes a prolonged chronic reaction.
This is the base of psychosomatic disorders.
According to this theory, acquired illnesses are not the "misfortunes" occurring to an "innocent" person. They occur because a person "generates" them himself/herself. The person is the active provoking agent of those diseases.
Psychological Consulting may become a helping hand to take us out from this vicious circle.
Psychotherapist is someone who should help us:
- to learn to relax;
- to learn to take responsibility;
- to understand our inner conflicts;
- to stop running in a vicious circle "event-emotion-action" or "event-emotion-withdrawal".
Personal disorders have a strong bond with psoriasis. The study of 400 people with psoriasis has revealed the following occurrences of mental disorders among the people with psoriasis:
Disorders:
- personality disorders- 46.4 %
- anxiety disorders - 40.1 %
- light cognitive disorders - 20.2 %
- depressive disorders - 10.7 %
- sexual disorders - 1 %
Will psoriasis go away, if we correct these problems? The more successful the psychotherapy, the less psoriasis and other illnesses have a chance to stay.
Despite the genetic predisposition, despite everyday stresses - we can change our reactions to the outside world - and this will help to get rid of psoriasis and many other diseases.
Let's take a look at the Psychological Consulting Process.
 |
