[deleted] t1_j5wy3oz wrote
Reply to comment by herbw in TIL about medically unexplained symptoms, almost 1/4 of all people who visit a GP in the UK have phsyical conditions that cannot be explained by gorge_orwoll
You've never heard that anxiety causes physical symptoms? Just type that into google and endless topics and references come up. It's not any kind of new-age BS. It's literally how anxiety works. To claim that is 'off the cuff' is actually hugely insulting to people with anxiety and very much feeds into why people feel defeated about something that is actually going on with them and they need help for. The symptoms aren't made up in your head- having symptoms caused by anxiety and panic attacks mean that something very real is going on inside your brain, activating stressors and fight or flight and causing physical effects. It's not a conscious act of simply making up problems.
even more about anxiety symptoms
even more about how it's not in your head because anxiety is real and causes real things
how anxiety and shock affect human cognition and perception
I could literally sit here all night pasting information.
Take a trip to your local ER and watch how many heart diagnostics they do every day over problems that turn out not related directly to the heart at all- but the patient was having very real symptoms that they physically present with and it shows up in their vitals and even on EKGs. It means you're having an anxiety or panic attack that feels just like a heart attack. Your brain actually gets confused and your body starts to react like you are having a physical heart problem. Doesn't mean you made it up, but it could mean you have a mind problem causing a heart problem, not a heart problem causing a heart problem. But that's not often how it's described to people, and they're left being made to feel like they just made up having a heart attack and went to the ER cause they got "too worried".
herbw t1_j5zsn32 wrote
Look, was a practicing MD for 40 yrs., psych and clinical Neuroscience, American Bd. of Psych/Neuro accredited. Yer preachin to the choir. Mental illnesses do that which is why they are illnesses. Bad outcomes.
Sure they don't eat right, fatty foods, get overweight and get heart disease? All the time. Smoking the same. People make lifestyle mistakes all the time which have bad health consequences. Nothin new there.
But Schumaker was clear about those. Delusions are the commonest human mental illnesses. and knowin that we can get rid of much of what you've written.
Sad thing is most people know they have problems but can't break out of them very easily.
That's why Whitehead's Breakout methods are so good." Almost anything, he averred, which breaks us out of our current ways of doing things, is a good thing.
https://jochesh00.wordpress.com/2019/06/06/the-break-outs-roots-of-growth-unlimited-creativities/
[deleted] t1_j608n4e wrote
Anxiety and depression are the most common (commonest is not a word, MD) mental illnesses in the world, not delusion disorder. Delusions can be a symptom of anxiety and depression, but this does not mean that delusion didn't cause a physical symptom. Again, in the very common case of anxiety and panic bringing people to the ER with heart problems, it's a mind problem causing a heart issue. If the mind problem is not treated, it can continue to physically affect the heart. This does not mean the heart problem was never real, but the mind was plagued with so much anxiety or panic that it causes a physical effect. Your mind is tricked, but that trick results in actual physical results that can be seen on EKGs and in your vitals. To claim that because a delusion must mean the patient is making up everything in their head and therefore even the physical symptoms are not real, is unhelpful and dangerous. It's especially unhelpful when it is not even properly explained to the patient how anxiety can cause these symptoms.
I'm sure, random redditor with questionable grammar who quotes a wordpress blog as evidence, I'm sure you used to be a doctor. However, doctor who insist they must be right because they are MDs, they are accredited, and therefore they are Smart and should be believed can really do more harm to their patients than good. In current practice, evidence based practice is used and built on, and we acknowledge that what we know about things like anxiety have greatly evolved in the last 10 years, let alone 40. Psychology is an ever-evolving field, and to effectively understand and treat patients, you must evolve with it.
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