Mental Health Promotion - Somatoform Disorders

 MENTAL HEALTH PROMOTION 

A common theme in somatoform disorders is their occurrence in people who do not express conflicts, stress, and emotions verbally. They express themselves through physical symptoms; the resulting attention and focus on their physical ailments somewhat meet their needs. As these clients are better able to express their emotions and needs directly, physical symptoms subside. Thus, assisting them to deal with emotional issues directly is a strategy for mental health promotion.

 

Somatoform disorders have declined over the past few decades, in part due to increased knowledge of the public, increasing self-awareness or self-knowledge, and scientific evidence of mind–body interaction. Some would credit the Internet with putting unlimited resources at people’s finger-tips, and knowledge often precedes understanding and behavior change. Interestingly, there are others that credit the Internet accessibility with feeding some peoples’ fears about their health—called cyberchondria (Harding, Skrits-kaya, Doherty, & Fallon, 2008).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anorexia Nervosa

Image
  ANOREXIA NERVOSA   Onset and Clinical Course   Anorexia nervosa typically begins between 14 and 18 years of age. In the early stages, clients often deny they have a neg-ative body image or anxiety regarding their appearance. They are very pleased with their ability to control their weight and may express this. When they initially come for treatment, they may be unable to identify or to explain their emotions about life events such as school or relationships with family or friends. A profound sense of emptiness is common.   As the illness progresses, depression and lability in mood become more apparent. As dieting and compulsive behaviors increase, clients isolate themselves. This social isolation can lead to a basic mistrust of others and even paranoia. Clients may believe their peers are jealous of their weight loss and may believe that family and health care professionals are trying to make them “fat and ugly.”   In long-term studies of clients with anorexia...
Read more

Bulimia - Eating Disorders

Image
  Onset and Clinical Course   Bulimia nervosa usually begins in late adolescence or early adulthood; 18 or 19 years is the typical age of onset. Binge eating frequently begins during or after dieting. Between binging and purging episodes, clients may eat restrictively, choosing salads and other low-calorie foods. This restric-tive eating effectively sets them up for the next episode of binging and purging, and the cycle continues.   Clients with bulimia are aware that their eating behav-ior is pathologic and go to great lengths to hide it from others. They may store food in their cars, desks, or secret locations around the house. They may drive from one fast-food restaurant to another, ordering a normal amount of food at each but stopping at six places in 1 or 2 hours. Such patterns may exist for years until family or friends discover the client’s behavior or until medical complica-tions develop for which the client seeks treatment.   Follow-up studies with clients w...
Read more

Tasks of Grieving

  Tasks of Grieving   Grieving tasks , or mourning, that the bereaved person   faces involve active rather passive participation. It is some-times called “grief work” because it is difficult and requires tremendous effort and energy to accomplish.   Rando (1984) describes tasks inherent to grieving that she calls the “six R’s”:   ·      Recognize:  Experiencing the loss, and understanding   that it is real, it has happened.   ·      React:  Emotional response to loss, feeling the feelings.   ·      Recollect and re-experience:  Memories are reviewed and   relived.   ·      Relinquish:  Accepting that the world has changed (as a   result of the loss), and there is no turning back.   ·      Readjust:  Beginning to return to daily life; loss feels less   acute and overwhelming.   ·   ...
Read more