Medicine has solved this problem for the majority of mystery illnesses that are psychosomatic. But it’s a difficult cure because it requires the sick person’s cooperation. And people don’t often talk about this because of the misconception that considering psychosomatic illness is insulting to the sick person.
There is probably a niche for a prominent person or doctor to explain psychosomatic illness and work on getting people to consider that possibility and accept treatment. But that is a task suited more to influencers and those with a lot of tact than for nerds.
I wasted the first couple years of my illness thinking my condition was psychosomatic or DP/DR, doing things like therapy, anxiety techniques, introspection/journaling, gradual exposure, and so forth. I still sometimes try some psychosomatic treatments anyway (most recently, I was trying out John Sarno/Howard Schubiner-style mind body syndrome stuff, after reading Steve Byrnes’s post and having it recommended to me). None of it really helped. I now think a lot of what people think of as psychosomatic conditions are instead somatopsychic conditions (i.e. a physical condition that results in mental symptoms). In my case, it helps that some of my symptoms clearly cannot be produced by anxiety/a psychosomatic condition (e.g. peeling and burning lips and rapid heart rate that returns to normal by lying down).
Medicine has solved this problem for the majority of mystery illnesses that are psychosomatic. But it’s a difficult cure because it requires the sick person’s cooperation. And people don’t often talk about this because of the misconception that considering psychosomatic illness is insulting to the sick person.
There is probably a niche for a prominent person or doctor to explain psychosomatic illness and work on getting people to consider that possibility and accept treatment. But that is a task suited more to influencers and those with a lot of tact than for nerds.
I wasted the first couple years of my illness thinking my condition was psychosomatic or DP/DR, doing things like therapy, anxiety techniques, introspection/journaling, gradual exposure, and so forth. I still sometimes try some psychosomatic treatments anyway (most recently, I was trying out John Sarno/Howard Schubiner-style mind body syndrome stuff, after reading Steve Byrnes’s post and having it recommended to me). None of it really helped. I now think a lot of what people think of as psychosomatic conditions are instead somatopsychic conditions (i.e. a physical condition that results in mental symptoms). In my case, it helps that some of my symptoms clearly cannot be produced by anxiety/a psychosomatic condition (e.g. peeling and burning lips and rapid heart rate that returns to normal by lying down).