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Show Yew Dsstor S&ys ... The following is one of a series of articles written by members of the Utah State Medical Association and publisheu in cooperation with your local newspaper. These articles are scheduled to appear every other week throughout the year in an effort to better acquaint you with problems of heal.h, and designed to improve the well-being of the people of Utah. "NERVOUS" AND EMOTIONAL ILLNESS Despite how mucL we may differ in other ways, all of us as human beings have one thing in common. Scarcely a day goes by that does not bring some situation which requires re-quires emotional control. Usually, when we are adult we can handle most of these without undue difficulty. dif-ficulty. Occasionally, however an exceptionally troublesome problem arises, or several smaller ones hit us at once and we show symptoms of emotional distress. We handle these problems in the best way available to us in view of our personality per-sonality and irevious experience. Nature has given us the response of fear for the good purpose of alerting us to danger so that we can be prepared to meet it and defend de-fend ourselves from it. In civilized society, however, many of the things we worry about are so intangible in-tangible that it is difficult to put our finger on them, handle them and stop the fear response. We may worry about our jobs, our ability to make friends, our ability to be good parents or marriage partners, our relationships with people who are important to us, or our ability to handle the strong emotions which are seething inside of us. Under emotional stress, some people experience pure fear accompanied accom-panied by a pounding heart, perspiring per-spiring hands and a feeling of impending im-pending catastrophe. Some people develop phobic or unrealistic, fears In an attempt to jontrol their anxiety, anx-iety, or become a prey to recurrent recur-rent disturbing thoughts which extend ex-tend themselves to such a degree that they dominate much of the waking hours. Some people attempt at-tempt to pull away into a world of their own which is free from disturbing dis-turbing factors. Many people develop de-velop physical symptoms. Sometimes Some-times thtse e. mptoms involve the intcrreaction of emotions and an organ of the body which results in structural damage to the organ, as is the case in peptic ulcers. Such a disease is best handled by a two pronged treatment involving both general medical aid and an attempt at-tempt to lessen emotional pressure by the general physician or by psychiatric treatment. There are many people who convert con-vert or turn an emotion into a physical symptom in a way which involves no organic changes at all. When a person blushes, for instance, in-stance, he converts an emotion of embarrassment or pleasure into a physical flushing of the skin. Yet, no matter how many times a day he may blush no organic changes take place in his skin or circulatory circula-tory system. Probably no group of people is so bewildered over their symptoms as the group that expresses ex-presses emotional tension by developing devel-oping physicai manifestations which do not resuli in structural damage to the organ. They experience ex-perience acute or persistent pain in some are? of the body. After a thorough examination, their physician phy-sician tells them that they are in good phy . ical health and that there is no organic reason for the symptoms. He may add that the illness is functional; that is, that the trouble is ii the way the organ is working, not in the organ itself. This may be perplexing to the patient. pa-tient. It is hart for him to believe that what is felt as physical pain may co -ie from emotional causes and he feel- he is being told that it is "all in hi: head" or that his pain is imaginary. Any time pain is felt it Is real and pain induced by emotional tension can be just as severe as that brought about by organic illness. ill-ness. However, since the cause Is different, the treatment is also different. dif-ferent. With persistence of symptoms symp-toms of this type then psychiatric treatment may be the medical treatment of choice. This is the process of reorganizing the emotional emo-tional life so that better ways can be found to meet the stresses and strains of living. |